Field methods and methodologies in lowland Maya archaeolog

This study reviews and critiques the development of archaeological field methods and methodologies in the Maya Lowlands of Mesoamerica, especially that related to major excavations. Six phases in the history of Maya archaeology are defined, of which those spanning the last 100 years are emphasized. Throughout this century, North American institutions and archaeologists have dominated and defined the field of Maya archaeology. Professional archaeology began with the Peabody Museum's work at Copan in the 1890s in an individualistic and exploratory era. The pioneering "big digs" conducted by the archaeologists of the Carnegie Institution of Washington (1924-1958) are seen as instrumental in the development of systematic field methods (and a culture history consensus) in Maya archaeology. The shortcomings of the CIW Maya program (especially the failure to examine non-hierarchal aspects of Maya civilization) became the strengths of the "settlement pattern" research in the 1950s and '60s. In recent decades, the culture history concensus has given way to multiple concerns with culture process. Among the field methodologies that have been developed to deal with processual problems in the Maya area, two sophisticated approaches stand out, the Single Phase Architectural Stripping strategy used at Copan and the Cuello Field System. The Copan methodology is to expose synchronic horizontal patterning to an unprecedented degree. The Cuello Field System is an adaptation of the modern British approach to stratigraphic excavation, an approach that is particularly effective in unraveling the complexities of the deeply stratified and highly complicated site deposits typical of lowland Maya sites.