Late Formative and Protoclassic (Chumpom
ceramic complex, 300 B.C. - A.D. 300)
The arrival of Sierra Red and other Late Formative and Protoclassic
ceramic types indicate that the first settlers at Muyil were joined along the
coast by settlers at Xelha and Tancah and that later during this period some of
them established a permanent settlement around the fresh-water lagoons at Coba.
Robles (1990:55) places the first Coba settlement between 100 B.C. and A.D.
100. Canché M. places the first settlement at Xelha at 100 B.C. At Muyil,
based on its ceramics, the settlement flourished in the vicinity of the Entrance
Plaza Group and the Great Platform, as well as the area where Temple 8 now
stands.
When we compare the Late Formative and Protoclassic materials found at
Muyil with those of Xelha and Coba, using the abundant (at all three sites)
Sierra Red type as our measure, we find that Muyil and Xelha have a much higher
proportion of Late Formative and Protoclassic sherds to Classic period sherds
than does Coba. The accompanying chart (
1
) uses the sherd counts for Sierra Red, Muna
Slate, and Ticul Thin-slate as one means to compare the Formative with the
Classic for the three sites. Postclassic ceramic groups, such as Kukula Cream
and Navula Unslipped are not included in the chart, because Coba has very small
quantities of these types and to include them would distort the comparison. One
would expect that if the interior developed concurrently with the coast or
earlier, then the proportion of Formative material at Coba would be the same as
on the coast or higher. As
1
shows, however, Coba has a lower proportion of
Formative to Classic material than does either Xelha or Muyil.
The distribution of ceramics indicates that communication in the Maya
lowlands was widespread in the Late Formative. Abundant Sierra group ceramics
are found to the south (Barton Ramie, Cerros), to the southwest (Becan, Seibal,
Altar de Sacrificios) to the west and northwest (Coba, Yaxuna, Mayapan, Komchen,
Chichen Itza, Mani) and to the north (Cancun, Koxolna). The domestic ceramic
Tancah Coarse is reported for sites to the north and west: Coba, Oxkintok,
Dzibilchaltun, Kantunil Kin, Cancun, Xcaret, and Xelha plus other interior sites
visited by Sanders. (See the site references in Appendix 4.) The early
settlements at Muyil and Coba might, on the basis of their Sierra Red:
Clear-slip Variety ceramics, have been associated most closely with the Maya
peoples of Belize, where this pottery forms a major part of the Cerros
collection (Robles 1990:256). However, these early peoples also had ties to the
northwest of the peninsula based upon the presence of Ucu Black, Nolo Red, and
Caucel Black-on-red types found at sites to the north and west. Although there
is no evidence to provide direct support for our claim, we believe that the sea
access route described in Chapter 7 must have been in active use during
this period, since the earliest settlement along the Quintana Roo coast appears
to have been from the sea.
|
Figure
1
Comparison of Protoclassic and Classic sherd proportions at four sites.
(Robles 1990, Connor 1983, Canché M. 1992)
|
The
ceramic evidence from the Middle Formative, Late Formative, and Protoclassic
(the increase in the number of sites with ceramics, the growing numbers of
sherds reported, the absence of Middle Formative sherds at Coba, and the
somewhat lower proportion of Sierra group ceramics at Coba than is found on the
coast) illustrates, I believe, several aspects of settlement in the Muyil area.
Settlers came by sea, they settled at Muyil slightly earlier than at other
coastal sites nearby, and they settled inland at Coba during the following two
to three centuries.
We may envision the early settlement at Muyil as relying on the
Mesoamerican staples corn, beans, squash, and chiles, produced in cleared areas
near the settlement, and upon the fresh water available both from the Muyil
lagoon and from nearby cenotes. Moreover, the first settlers undoubtedly
took advantage of game and fresh-water fish, salt-water fish, and birds of the
coast. The first early platforms, as yet undetected archaeologically, were
probably constructed at Muyil during this period.
