The majority of the late ceramics from the main platform have been recovered from caches, burials, and surface deposits associated with Structures 1, 2, 3, 8, and 9 in the site center. The recovery of Terminal Classic through Late Postclassic ceramics from Structures 1 and 2, as well as from surface contexts in many surrounding residential groups (Cook and Pyburn 1995; Fry 1997), indicates that Chau Hiix continued to be occupied long after many neighboring Maya centers were abandoned early in the tenth century a. d. (e. g., Pendergast 1992: 71-72). Excavations of Stmctures 1 and 2 also indicate that Early Postclassic material is frequently mixed with Terminal Classic diagnostic pottery, or with Middle Postclassic wares with few breaks in the stratigraphy—a fact that suggests populations of the Late and Terminal Classic were the ancestors of at least some of the site’s Postclassic residents. Chau Hiix’s late ceramic assemblages furthermore point to significant contact between Lamanai and Chau Hiix extending through at least the Late Postclassic period.
While analysis of the Chau Hiix ceramic assemblage is ongoing, the site’s Postclassic ceramics closely resemble those described for Lamanai (Robert Fry and David Pendergast, personal communication). Here, we provide a preliminary description of the most distinctive Terminal through Late Postclassic vessels recovered at Chau Hiix, focusing on the inclusion of Postclassic redwares and censerwares in ceremonial deposits, the distribution of these vessels in the site center, and the extent to which the formal and decorative features of post-A. o. 900 Chau Hiix ceramics point to Lamanai as their probable point of origin.
World History
