THE MEANING OF VOLCANIC ASH CHARACTERISTICS FOUND IN THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL POTTERY OF CHICHEN ITZA, YUCATAN, MEXICO

Abstract

The Yucatan peninsula is a limestone based karst region. However, most of the pottery fragments from the Mayan Postclassic period of Chichen Itza, Yucatan, Mexico, contain volcanic materials as temper. Petrographic thin section analysis of pottery from Chichen Itza and related Yucatan archaeological sites shows that volcanic materials in the paste composition have two distinguishing characteristics. The glass shards and pumice fragments found in the pottery are fresh in form, mineralogically homogeneous and their size consistent with the size of components generally found in airborne volcanic ash. And, lithic fragments in the clay matrix indicate a pyroclastic origin, though their degree of weathering is variable. Considering these facts we conclude that the volcanic materials in northern Yucatan pottery originated from different time lapse tephra, manifesting from strong volcanic eruptions during the Classic and Postclassic period of the Mayan civilization. The study of pottery composition suggests that the volcanic eruptions and the consequent influence upon ancient Mayan civilization.