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v Number 16                                  October, 1972

STUDIES IN THE ARCHAEOLOGY
Of MYEXICO AND GUATEMALA

Edited by John A. Graham

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CONTRIBUTIONS OF THE

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA

ARCHAEOLOGICAL RESEARCH FACILITY

October, 1972

STUDIES IN THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF MEXICO AND GUATEMALA

Edited by John A. Graham

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA ARCHAEOLOGICAL RESEARCH FACILITY

Department of Anthropology

Berkeley

Number 16

CONTENTS

PREFACE   .   .   .   .   .   .  .  . .  .  .  .  .  . a   .  . a   a   a   .  .  .  .

I.    MAYA HIGHLAND PREHISTORY; NEW DATA AND IMPLICATIONS

by Richard E. W. Adams.

II.    ARCHAEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS IN THE NORTHERN MAYA HIGHLANDS:

NEW DATA ON THE MAYA PRECLASSIC

by David W. Sedat and Robert J. Sharer.23

III. RADIOCARBON DATES FROM COPAN, HONDURAS

by John A. Graham and Rainer Berger .37

IV.    THE RECORDING OF MAYA SCULPTURE

by John A. Graham and Steven R. Fitch...

V.     THE NINE LORDS OF THE NIGHT

by David H. Kelley .53

VI.    PRELIMINARY REPORT ON EXCAVATIONS IN THE ARCHEOLOGICAL ZONE

OF RIOVERDE, SAN LUIS POTOSI, MEXICO

by Rudolph C. Troike, Nancy P. Troike and John A. Graham . . 69

VII. NOTES ON THE RUINS OF IXTUTZ, SOUTHEASTERN PETEN

by Merle Greene Robertson (with an Appendix by

John A. Graham) .89

VIII. TRACE ELEMENT ANALYSIS OF OBSIDIAN FROM THE SITE OF CHOLULA,

MEXICO

by Thomas R. Hester, Robert N. Jack and Robert F. Heizer . . 105

IX.    SOURCES FOR THE OBSIDIAN AT THE RUINS OF SEIBAL, PETEN,

GUATEMALA

by John A. Graham, Thomas R. Hester and Robert N. Jack . . . 111

X.     GEOLOGIC SOURCES OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL OBSIDIAN FROM SITES IN

NORTHERN AND CENTRAL VERACRUZ, MEXICO

by Robert N. Jack, Thomas R. Hester and Robert F. Heizer . . 117

PREFACE

With the present volume, a total of 16 numbers of the Contributions
of the University of California Archaeological Research Facility have

appeared during the eight years since the series was inaugurated in 1965.
The first volume was Sources of Stone Used in Prehistoric Mesoamerican

Sites, but subsequent volumes have alternated somewhat irregularly between
Mexican and Central American archaeology on the one hand, California and
Great Basin archaeology on the other, an aim set forth in the editorial
announcement of the series's founding. Originally, Contributions were

distributed upon a gratis basis. But severe budgetary reductions imposed
upon the Facility required that a modest charge be made for subsequent

numbers, and it has been the proceeds from these sales that have been a

major factor enabling the Facility to maintain publication in these dif-

ficult times. Most past numbers of the Contributions have become out-of-
print shortly after appearance, perhaps an indication of their success.

The first volume of the Contributions contained two papers exploring
the feasibility and potentials of x-ray fluorescence analysis in the iden-
tification of obsidian types and their sources, one line of investigation

that has continued to be pursued and refined through subsequent numbers of
the series into the present volume. Two symposia have seen the light of
publication in the Contributions: "The Emergence of Civilization in

Mesoamerica," organized by R. F. Heizer and J. A. Graham and held at Burg

Wartenstein, Austria, in July of 1970 under sponsorship of the Wenner-Gren
Foundation for Anthropological Research (Contribution 11), and "The

Application of the Physical Sciences to Archaeology" (Contribution 12), a

symposium held on June 23, 1970 under the auspices of the Pacific Division
of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the California
Section of the American Chemical Society, and the San Francisco Society of
the Archaeological Institute of America. Although most of the papers

appearing in the Contributions series have been authored by associates and
students working in the Archaeological Research Facility, it has been pos-
sible at times to include important papers prepared by colleagues at other
institutions, as in the case of the present volume.

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With the exception of the two papers on trace-element analyses of
obsidian samples from Cholula and Veracruz, the present volume of studies
is devoted entirely to Maya archaeology. The collection represents a

geographical range extending from the Huaxtec Maya zone in San Luis Potosi
to the Guatemalan highlands and Honduras and embraces a temporal range fron
earliest levels to the ethnohistoric period as well as including a review
of methods of recording Maya sculpture in the modern epoch of study and
research.

John A. Graham
Berkeley