@article{ff0746b30909400e9617a1c06feaca2f,
title = "BUILDING HIGH-PRECISION AMS 14C BAYESIAN MODELS for the FORMATION of PERI-ABANDONMENT DEPOSITS at BAKING POT, BELIZE",
abstract = "Deposits linked to abandonment have been widely recorded across the Maya lowlands, associated with the final activities occurring in ceremonial areas of Classic Maya centers. Various models have been applied to explain the activities that lie behind the formation of these contexts, including those linked to rapid abandonment (e.g., warfare) and others focused on more protracted events (termination rituals, and/or pilgrimages). Here, we assess Bayesian models for three chronological scenarios of varying tempo to explain the formation of peri-abandonment deposits at Baking Pot, Belize. Using stratigraphic information from these deposits, hieroglyphic dates recovered on artifacts, and direct dates on human skeletal remains and faunal remains from distinct layers in three deposits in Group B at Baking Pot, we identify multiple depositional events that spanned the eighth to ninth centuries AD. These results suggest that the processes associated with the breakdown of institutionalized rulership and its command of labor to construct and maintain ceremonial spaces were protracted at Baking Pot, with evidence for the final depositional activity dated to the mid-to-late ninth century. This interval of deposition was temporally distinct from the earlier deposition(s) in the eighth century. Together, these data offer a detailed view of the end of the Classic period at Baking Pot, in which the ceremonial spaces of the site slowly fell into disuse over a period of more than a century.",
keywords = "Bayesian modeling, Classic Maya collapse, Maya archaeology, radiocarbon dating",
author = "Hoggarth, {Julie A.} and Culleton, {Brendan J.} and Awe, {Jaime J.} and Christophe Helmke and Sydney Lonaker and Davis, {J. Britt} and Kennett, {Douglas J.}",
note = "Funding Information: Archaeological excavations at Baking Pot were conducted under the auspices of the Belize Valley Archaeological Reconnaissance (BVAR) Project, directed by Jaime Awe, Julie Hoggarth, and Claire Ebert. Funding for archaeological research came from the Tilden Family Foundation, the BVAR field school and the National Science Foundation (BCS-1460369 to Kennett, Culleton, Hoggarth) and laboratory support at the Human Paleoecology and Isotope Geochemistry lab at Penn State was also supported by the National Science Foundation (BCS-1460367, to Kennett and Culleton). Epigraphic analyses at Baking Pot were conducted in part with internal funding from the Department of Cross-cultural and Regional Studies of the University of Copenhagen (to Helmke). We thank Christina Zweig, Sarah Bednar, and Amber Lopez Johnson, who all served as supervisors for the Baking Pot excavations, as well as Antonio Itza (excavation foreman), Manuel Itza, Edgar Penados, and Orvin Martinez (excavation assistants), and the BVAR field school students who took part in excavations. We also thank Dr. John Morris and the Belize Institute of Archaeology for the permitting of BVAR Project research, as well as their continued support of the project. Funding Information: Archaeological excavations at Baking Pot were conducted under the auspices of the Belize Valley Archaeological Reconnaissance (BVAR) Project, directed by Jaime Awe, Julie Hoggarth, and Claire Ebert. Funding for archaeological research came from the Tilden Family Foundation, the BVAR field school and the National Science Foundation (BCS-1460369 to Kennett, Culleton, Hoggarth) and laboratory support at the Human Paleoecology and Isotope Geochemistry lab at Penn State was also supported by the National Science Foundation (BCS-1460367, to Kennett and Culleton). Epigraphic analyses at Baking Pot were conducted in part with internal funding from the Department of Cross-cultural and Regional Studies of the University of Copenhagen (to Helmke). We thank Christina Zweig, Sarah Bednar, and Amber Lopez Johnson, who all served as supervisors for the Baking Pot excavations, as well as Antonio Itza (excavation foreman), Manuel Itza, Edgar Penados, and Orvin Martinez (excavation assistants), and the BVAR field school students who took part in excavations. We also thank Dr. John Morris and the Belize Institute of Archaeology for the permitting of BVAR Project research, as well as their continued support of the project. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2021 Cambridge University Press. All rights reserved.",
year = "2021",
month = jun,
doi = "10.1017/RDC.2021.30",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "63",
pages = "977--1002",
journal = "Radiocarbon",
issn = "0033-8222",
publisher = "University of Arizona",
number = "3",
}