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Chapter 11: Cluster Concentrations, Boundary Markers, and Ritual Pathways: A GIS Analysis of Artifact Cluster Patterns at Actun Tunichil Mukna., Belize
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CHAPTER 11 Cluster Concentrations, Boundary Markers, and Ritual Pathways: A GIS Analysis of Artifact Cluster Patterns at Actun Tunichil Muknal, Belize holley moyes This chapter analyzes the spatial patterning of artifact deposition in the Main Chamber of Actun Tunichil Muknal, an ancient Maya ritual cave located in western Belize. The aim of my research is to demonstrate that by taking a cognitive -processual approach, an intensive study of a single site can increase our knowledge of cave ritual and aid in our understanding of ancient Maya spatial cognition within caves. This new approach (Renfrew and Bahn 1991:431–434; Renfrew and Zubrow 1994:xiii) draws on cognitive, mathematical, and computer sciences in an attempt to develop techniques that can be used with archaeological data. Underlying the method is the premise that the archaeological record was produced by the human mind and was therefore patterned by mental processes. The artifact record clearly demonstrates that caves have been intensely utilized throughout Mesoamerica from the Preclassic Period to the ethnographic present. All available archaeological, ethnographic, and ethnohistorical evidence suggests that in the Maya Lowlands, caves were used exclusively for ritual purposes (Brady 1989). Cross-culturally, dark zones of caves are useless even for temporary habitation except in extreme circumstances (Farrand 1985:23) and are used almost exclusively as ritual spaces (Faulkner 1988; Hole and Heizer 1965:47). According to Chard (1975:171), most ‘‘caves’’ used for refuge were actually rockshelters. Particularly in tropical areas, caves are dank and often infested with bats and insects, which carry a number of deadly diseases, including histoplasmosis, rabies, and Chagas. In his surveyof caves in the Maya Lowlands, Brady (1989:5–6) concludes that ‘‘habitation within the dark zone is practically inconceivable.’’ The ritual context is advantageous to the archaeologist, since it provides an interpretive paradigm to be used in cave studies. Another advantage is that the formal and repetitive characteristics of ritual behavior facilitate its study in the 270 The Maya Region artifact record. As Rappaport (1979:176) observes, ritual is repetitive and must be performed in prescribed ways. Although Turner (1982:81) argues for an organic and improvisational aspect of ritual behavior, he proposes that the looser elements operate only within the framework of the formal structure. Vogt (1965) provides ethnographic evidence for the existence of such a framework in the Maya area. He describes a phenomenon in the Tzotzil Maya village of Zinacantan that he terms ‘‘replication’’: patterned aspects of ritual behavior observed in a variety of contexts, settings, and scales. Therefore, we may expect that artifact deposition in ritual contexts will not be haphazard and that some spatial patterns will reflect repetitive behaviors. In his article on the structure of archaeological data, Aldenderfer (1987:95) describes archaeological ‘‘signatures’’ and defines them as ‘‘unambiguous indicators of a behavioral process.’’ Ball (1993:180) adds that signatures are behavioral units created by humans whose patterns correlate with group activities that are represented archaeologically as patterned associations between artifacts and their contexts. Ritual behavior is likely to leave signatures due to these formal and repetitive characteristics and should produce identifiable spatial patterns. As Marcus and Flannery (1994:56) have observed, ‘‘artefacts used in ritual should exhibit a pattern of use and discard which is non-random and yields insights into the nature of the ritual itself.’’ Stone (1997; Chapter 10 here) has suggested that cave ritual may be studied by examining the spatial patterning of artifacts within caves and comparing them with spatial models reported by ethnographers and ethnohistorians. Analogical arguments that link the ethnographic present to the archaeological past may be established using the Direct Historical Approach (Marcus and Flannery 1994; Wedel 1938). Despite objections to this method from Kubler (1973), in Mesoamerica cultural continuity allows for particularly strong analogical arguments . In this case, the success of the argument is largely dependent on (1) the degree to which it relates to a specific question; (2) the pervasiveness of the ethnographic analog over time and space; and (3) the rate of the analog’s known occurrence. A commonly occurring referential analog is more likely to be correct partially because of probability. Additionally, if distinct recognizable patterns or specific elements of the referential analog can be sufficiently isolated, a strong inference may be made when those patterns or traits are identified in the archaeological record. This study employs a Geographical information system (GIS) to help identify spatial patterns of artifact deposition in the Main Chamber of Actun Tunichil Muknal. Patterns are interpreted using strong ethnographic and ethnohistorical...