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San Juan [Contains Image Plates]
- The University of Alabama Press
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22 buildings were, in effect, offices and markets, where they could undertake their business. And, of course, coastal trade could not be serviced without a place to harbor boats. Indeed, most of these sites are located where natural harbors exist. Although, at Chac Balam, the Maya had to dig a harbor over 100 meters long so that boats could be secured. San Juan San Juan juts into the water of the back side of Ambergris, just where boats could easily see it as they completed the trip through the Bacalar Chico canal. At San Juan, we found pottery from the Yucatan, the south coast of Belize, as well as the Peten region of Guatemala and Campeche. We also found several vessels of Tohil Plumbate pottery which was made only on the Pacific Coast of Guatemala. There was gray obsidian from highland Guatemala and a surprising amount of green obsidian from Pachuca in central Mexico. Green obsidian, like all green stone, was very much valued by the Maya and was traded by sea around the Yucatan. It was said that"...because its appearance is like a green Quetzal feather, it is precious, esteemed, valuable; it is worthy of being cherished ; it merits storing; it is desirable, worthy of envy; it merits esteem and is praiseworthy." In large ruins ofnorthern Belize, about one percent of the obsidian is from Pachuca. At San Juan, well over 15 percent was from Pachuca. The people of San Juan also had access to some jade objects and basalt grinding tools from the Guatemalan highlands and had ground stone artifacts from Belize's Maya Mountains. Much of these materials were found in garbage deposits; others were found in burials. The Maya tended to bury people under their homes, or ifthey were rulers, perhaps in a tomb inside a temple. One burial from San Juan was of an infant child about three years old. The child was buried with a Late Classic cylinder vase and the pedestal base of a vessel dated several hundred years later. The cylinder vase had probably been a family heirloom. A male about 40 years old was interred with a Tohil Plumbatejar (the San Juanjar) and two other ceramic vessels, a carved jade face, a tubular jade bead, two stone knives and a stone flake, a carved shell bead, four deer antlers, and an awl made from a deer bone, and a manatee bone. This man was clearly important and may have been an expert stone worker; the deer antlers were exactly what would be used to fabricate stone tools. One burial was not identified until we returned to our laboratories. We had excavated a burial with an offering inside two large dishes, one placed upsidedown on the other so that they were resting lip to lip. Inside, we found what we first believed to befish bones. It was only later that we found that this was the remains of a newborn or stillborn child. The reverence which the Maya showed for such a young life is indicative of their compassion. Especially exciting among the artifacts at San Juan was the very high percentage of green obsidian recovered. Green obsidian comes only from the Pachuca area ofcentral Mexico and would need to be traded all the way around the Yucatan Peninsula to reach San Juan. Often, a few pieces of green obsidian are recovered in important tombs at main23 [35.173.215.152] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 11:02 GMT) 24 land sites. However, we found that almost 14 percent of the obsidian from San Juan was green Pachuca material. X-Ray Fluorescence of the gray obsidians also revealed that other pieces came from Michoacan and another still unknown Mexican source. Given San Juan's setting at the west side of the Bacalar Chico Canal, it is entirely possible that the green obsidian bound for northern Belize first stopped at San Juan. The architecture of San Juan is also indicative of its role in the trade network. While no formal plaza exists at San Juan, buildings with mixed residential and administrative functions were found. Structure 3 is a building with a two-tiered round substructure and a small staircase leading to a round pole and thatch building on top. The entire arrangement sat on top of a rectangular platform. Round buildings like Structure 3 at San Juan are associated with influence and trade from northern Yucatan. Another building, Structure 4, was very small and may have been used for storage. Its prominent...