The Terminal Classic ceramic assemblage is the largest of any period in the Dolores region, as evident since the first analysis (Laporte et al. 1993), when the ceramic complexes of southeastern Peten were defined. In a later typological assessment (Laporte 1995), the Terminal Classic still incorporated more than 50 percent of the ceramic material recovered in the investigations of forty sites through 1998. These represent an extensive geographic expanse: the Dolores Plateau, the upper and middle Mopan Valley, the Salsipuedes Valley, the wet savannas related to the San Juan River, some caves, and other areas of the Poxte River and the Yaltutu sierra.
Terminal Classic material consists of 60,523 potsherds, part of a total sample of 135,383 sherds, which does not include the problematic Postclassic. The total is divided as follows:
This sample includes six ceramic wares and eighteen groups that represent the inventory of ceramic artifacts used at that time. Because we are dealing here with a typological sequence that begins in the Late Classic, the changes are more of a quantitative nature, with some diagnostic additions. Some characteristics are extracted when considering ceramic wares, groups, and types, and the level of variety is discussed when needed. Observations pertain to the ceramic sherd collection, and not to the distribution obtained from the movement of complete vessels of ritual and funerary contexts.
World History
