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Operation A The Operation A field at the end of the Calle Mora, on the uppermost terrace of the valley, was bounded by barbed wire except for the eastern side, at the terrace edge. This was close to where my family and I had stopped the car on our visit, though it did not seem to hold the significance that my wife had implied in her advice on where to dig. Most of the field was in short grass, cropped by grazing cattle. At the southern end of the field there was a grove of guava trees. Their thin, spindly trunks were irregularly spaced, and their leaves offered a modicum of shade. In the southwestern corner of both field and grove, cobbles laid in a circular ring protruded above the ground. Less complete stone circles also were visible elsewhere in the field (fig. 2.1). The cobble rings resembled those reported by Bob Drolet (1986) for the Murciélago site. These are the remains of house foundations or walkways and sitting areas. At Murciélago, most circles measured about 10 meters in interior diameter, with some significantly larger ones that may have been for high-ranking individuals or community activities. Some of the rings had expanded sections, which likely provided relatively dry places to sit outside in the rainy season. Before we even began excavations, surface indications suggested a similar situation at Rivas. It thus seemed that work in this area would be useful as a means to collect data for comparison with Murciélago, as part of our developing a record of late period chiefdoms in the Southern Zone. Although we could pinpoint any find to less than a millimeter on the grid system, we usually worked in excavation units measured in meters. To more efficiently identify any unit, we followed a convention of referring to it by its southwestern corner. Thus a 1 x 1 meter size unit that had coordinates at S1/E9, S0/E9, S0/E10, and S1/E10 would be known as S1/E9. A 2 x 2 meter unit would have a designation such as S0–1/E9–10, and so on. We always referenced the numbers in relation to movement away from the southwest corner of the pit, however. For example, pits larger than 1 x 1 meter that were north of the datum would be designated such as N4–5, but a pit the same distance south of the datum would be written S5–4. chapter two the 1992 field season The same system held for east and west coordinates (E4–5 and W5–4). In 1992 each operation had its own grid system, starting at a local 0/0 point. This was because we did not have the time to link the local grid into a master system. As already noted, theoretically, our 1992 grid, with its 0/0 point in Operation A, could have been extended over the entire site. Starting in 1993, however, we decided to shift the master datum point of the site, and so a new grid that did cover all of the site was established then. Since we could see cobbles rising out of the ground as part of what appeared to be a circular structure, we started work by clearing this feature. We began by using hand tools to remove a few centimeters of soil from above those stones still covered by earth. This allowed us to better determine the pattern of the architecture and to plan our excavations. Clearing the cobbles became a standard practice in the rest of our work when rings and lines of stones were present. This upper soil was often rich in artifacts. As we worked, it became apparent that the cobbles indeed formed a circle, and we named it Structure 1 (figs. 2.1, 2.2). Two lines of stones projected outward from the southwestern side of the structure and were buried much deeper than the circle. Excavations in this area revealed that the cobbles formed the outer edges of a quadrangle that may have served as a patio and perhaps also was the entry area. Since the ring of stones was unbroken, there was no clear indication of an entryway free of stones, however. Our work in the quadrangular patio area was conducted mostly using 1 x 1 meter excavation units. It became extremely difficult to work in this manner, however , because each unit required a separate designation in notes and on artifact...

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