Jillian Jordan

JILLIAN MICHELLE JORDAN, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico, received funding in October 2018 to aid research on ‘Investigating the Effects of Societal Collapse on Information Exchange, Community Interaction,and Social Boundaries in the Maya Lowlands.’ The original project could not be completed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and restrictions on international travel. Focus was shifted to conduct additional analysis on the grantee’s dissertation ceramic sample (also funded by Wenner-Gren). Previous research revealed important regional patterns regarding pottery production and interaction. However, additional analyses (NAA, SEM-EDS) were required to fully evaluate the dataset and will be vital to completing the original project in the future. Research used petrography and NAA to document variability, determine provenance, and characterize the organization of production of pottery tempered with volcanic ash. The grantee argues that these vessels were produced at the site of Baking Pot in the Belize Valley by specialists for consumption across the eastern lowlands. Knowledge about the physical properties of clay, temper, and heat were likely shared between potters and the people responsible for the construction of architecture. The data indicate that information exchange among craftspeople in the Late Classic Period (AD 700-900) included both regional and site-level interaction networks. Both datasets will be used in future research to address the effects of societal collapse (AD 900+), regional depopulation, and migration on learn and exchange networks in the Belize Valley, Belize.