Compostura In Context Prehispanic Agrarian Ritual In The Naco Valley
As much as the contemporary Lenca are historically constructed, the case of the compostura and its possible historical antecedents suggest that world-view and economy have been closely intertwined since at least the sixteenth century. In this section, we consider the possibility that environmental worldview was expressed in agrarian ritual in prehispanic times and that this practice had potentially significant consequences for human/landscape dynamics. To do so, we examine archaeological data from the Naco Valley in northwestern Honduras (see Fig. 1), which is believed to have been occupied by Lenca-speaking peoples in prehispanic times (Healy, 1984; Henderson, 1977; Stone, 1948). The valley has been investigated by a full-coverage pedestrian survey and intermittent archaeological excavation since 1936. Most of this work was carried out in the 1980s and 1990s by Edward M. Schortman and Patricia A. Urban. Work in the valley continues today by the Palmarejo Community Archaeological Project, directed by the authors and Jose; E. Moreno-Cortes. This project focuses on a side branch of the Naco Valley, hereafter referred to as the Palmarejo archaeological zone.
The Naco Valley is a 96 km2 flat to gently rolling terrain, bisected by the middle portion of the Chamelecon River and bounded by the steep slopes of the Sierra de Omoa. Valley soils are relatively fertile (Anderson, 1994), and annual precipitation is around 1,300 mm (Andrade, 1990). The valley contains many streams and quebradas that drain into the Chamelecon, but only the Manchaguala and Naco rivers that run through the northern and central portions, respectively, of the valley carry additional year-round supplies of water. Archaeological investigations in the valley have recorded
Fig. 1. Northwest Honduras, Showing the Locations of La Sierra, Palmarejo, and Other Contemporary Late Classic Centers. The Inset Shows the Area's Relation to
Mesoamerica.
Fig. 1. Northwest Honduras, Showing the Locations of La Sierra, Palmarejo, and Other Contemporary Late Classic Centers. The Inset Shows the Area's Relation to
Mesoamerica.
369 settlements containing 2,100 surface-visible constructions, which indicate a long occupation sequence stretching from about 1,000 BC through to Spanish conquest during the sixteenth century AD.
Here we focus on the Late Classic period, roughly AD 600-900, for which more archaeological information exists compared to other periods. The presence of at least 135 sites (containing 1,850 buildings) in the valley during this period documents a dramatic increase in population size and density from the Early Classic, which is represented by only 14 settlements clustered in the central part of the valley along the banks of the Chamelecon River (Urban, 1986, pp. 284-286). At this time, the site of La Sierra, first occupied in the Early Classic, dominates a five-tier settlement hierarchy based on the sizes of sites. In addition, more than 15 sites in the valley contain monumental, nonresidential architecture (i.e., stone-faced platforms rising 1.5 m or higher). These sites may represent subsidiary ceremonial or administrative centers (Urban, 1986, p. 294). La Sierra itself contains 468 surface-visible constructions, 37 of which are monumental platforms with dressed-stone architecture that make up the site core, crowded within an area of 0.7 km2 (see Fig. 2). Possible evidence for ritual elaboration includes the construction of a ball court and five ''pyramidal buildings,'' recognized as generally square edifices with steep flanks and very restricted summits, clustered in the site core. The monumentality of the center, 10 times the size of the next largest site in the valley, along with evidence for settlement
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Fig. 2. Plan View of La Sierra, Showing the Location of the Site Core.
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Fig. 2. Plan View of La Sierra, Showing the Location of the Site Core.
hierarchy and population nucleation within the valley, suggests that La Sierra's rulers successfully integrated the population through a complex administrative system linked to ritual activities conducted in the core of the community.
In the neighboring Palmarejo archaeological zone, our survey encountered 96 sites of varying size and shape arranged into five spatially discrete communities (see Fig. 3), all of which appear to have been occupied primarily during the Late Classic based on surface-visible ceramic assemblages (Wells, Davis-Salazar, & Moreno-Cortes, 2004). Most of these sites represent households and farmsteads. Based on the distribution of field houses (single, low-lying buildings located at least 100 m away from residential settlement) and the arrangement of modern agricultural fields and quebradas, all of the communities appear to have been variously engaged in agricultural pursuits (Hawken, 2007).
With 93 buildings, Palmarejo is the largest settlement in the zone by a factor of five (see Fig. 4). Twenty-eight of the buildings represent monumental platforms with dressed-stone architecture that may have had administrative or religious functions (Davis-Salazar, Wells, & Moreno-Cortes, 2005). The community is situated on rich agricultural soils created by the merger of colluvial fans from flanking mountain ranges (Kuehn,
- Modern valley farmers prize Palmarejo's soils for their fertility, a feature that most likely results from their great depth (over 2 m thick in some areas), generally good drainage, and formation from limestone parent materials that provide high concentrations of available phosphorus, nitrogen, and potassium, among other plant macronutrients (Verdaasdonk,
- These soils may have provided the conditions necessary for intensively cultivating the landscape in prehispanic times, allowing Palmarejo's residents to produce large quantities of surplus foodstuffs.
The layout of Palmarejo is similar to that of La Sierra (Novotny, 2007). Both are composed of a central core of five pyramidal buildings surrounded by a series of "range buildings'' (elevated, rectangular platforms with gradually sloping sides and broader summit areas compared to pyramidal buildings). An elite residential zone, containing a ball court, is appended to this group. At each site, the northern area of settlement is dominated by small buildings informally arranged around patio spaces. Excavations of these buildings at La Sierra have revealed a large number of workshops that processed a diverse array of goods from both locally available (e.g., clay) and imported (e.g., obsidian) raw materials. Ceramic censers, kiln-fired pottery and figurines, and prismatic obsidian blades in particular, were fashioned in large quantities, and there is evidence that textiles and ground
- 3. Locations of Prehispanic Settlement in the Palmarejo Archaeological Zone. Class 1 Represents the Site of Palmarejo, with 93 Buildings, Three Formal Plazas, and a Ball Court. Class 2 Sites Consist of 25 or More Structures with Monumental Residential, Administrative, and Ceremonial Buildings that Flank One or More Formally Defined Plaza Spaces. Class 3 Sites Consist of Residential Groups with Structures Greater than 2 m in Preserved Height that Group Together to Form Patio Spaces. Class 4 Sites are Residential Groups with Small Buildings, Measuring Less than 2 m in Height, Surrounding Informal or Irregularly Shaped Patios or without Patio Spaces. Class 5 Sites Represent Field Houses, that is, Single, Low-Lying Buildings that were Presumably Used for Agricultural Purposes.
- 3. Locations of Prehispanic Settlement in the Palmarejo Archaeological Zone. Class 1 Represents the Site of Palmarejo, with 93 Buildings, Three Formal Plazas, and a Ball Court. Class 2 Sites Consist of 25 or More Structures with Monumental Residential, Administrative, and Ceremonial Buildings that Flank One or More Formally Defined Plaza Spaces. Class 3 Sites Consist of Residential Groups with Structures Greater than 2 m in Preserved Height that Group Together to Form Patio Spaces. Class 4 Sites are Residential Groups with Small Buildings, Measuring Less than 2 m in Height, Surrounding Informal or Irregularly Shaped Patios or without Patio Spaces. Class 5 Sites Represent Field Houses, that is, Single, Low-Lying Buildings that were Presumably Used for Agricultural Purposes.
- Fig. 4. Plan View of Palmarejo, Showing the Location of the Site Core.
stone implements also were produced. Although evidence for manufacturing of these items was limited to La Sierra, the finished products were widely distributed throughout the valley (Schortman & Urban, 1994a, 1994b; Schortman, Urban, & Ausec, 2001).
Although we have abundant information about patterns of production and consumption in the Naco Valley, information about worldview and how it materialized through ritual practice is much harder to come by. Ritual is often attested by deposits of rare and functionally specific materials. The material class most often associated with ritual practice in the Naco Valley is the censer, which appears to have been used for burning incense, such as copal (Urban & Smith, 1987; Willey, Leventhal, Demarest, & Fash, 1994). Censers in the Naco Valley are generally fashioned with coarse pastes that macroscopically resemble fabrics characteristic of Late Classic utilitarian wares (Urban, 1993). There are three primary varieties, including ladle censers (represented by flaring-walled bowls with tube or strap handles), complex censers (shallow plates with hollow, conical elements slanting up and out from the rim that end in a blunt point and are attached to a hollow cylindrical support that flares out toward the base), and modeled censers (large effigy containers usually representing tall cylinders with everted rims that have components of various anthropomorphic and zoomorphic figures).
The form, quantity, and distribution of censers reveal important clues to understanding the operation of prehispanic ritual practices in the Naco Valley. Compostura practices among the Lenca indicate two behavioral patterns concerning the contexts of censer use and discard that have archaeological significance. First, composturas are conducted at the spot where the work takes place. This suggests that the actual location of the ritual is often situated away from habitation areas, such as in agricultural fields or where raw materials, such as clay or water, can be obtained (e.g., Davis-Salazar, 2003). Thus, since we normally do not investigate the "empty spaces'' between settlement zones (Wells, Rice, & Ravesloot, 2004), we are ignoring data that are potentially relevant to ritual practices associated with environmental worldview (e.g., Wells & Davis-Salazar, 2003).
For example, field houses, because of their location, may have played an important role in the operation of composturas. This idea is supported by Herrera y Tordesillas' (1944, 2, p. 158) claim that, ''tenían en los Campos unas Casillas largas, i angostas, altas del suelo, adonde estaban sus Dioses de Piedra, Barro i Madera [they had in the Fields some long and narrow Houses, above the soil, where there were their Gods of Stone, Clay, and Wood].'' Chapman (1985, p. 171) believes that Herrera is referring to small temples located in agricultural fields, which may have been used for composturas. In the Naco Valley, John G. Douglass (2002, pp. 103-104) found that a field house (Site 112) he investigated, which is surrounded by the most productive agricultural soils in the valley, contained a high frequency of ladle and complex censer fragments (nearly one per every 100 pottery sherds). The site had four times more censer fragments than expected compared to nearby domestic groups. Similarly, during our survey of the Palmarejo zone (Wells, Moreno-Cortes, & Davis-Salazar, 2006), we noted the presence of ladle censers at certain field houses (see Fig. 5), suggesting that some form of ritual performance was conducted at these locales.
Fig. 5. Field Houses in the Palmarejo Community: (a) an Ancient Field House and
Fig. 5. Field Houses in the Palmarejo Community: (a) an Ancient Field House and
In addition to nonresidential spaces, the Lenca case indicates that composturas are sometimes practiced in the community. If, for example, the residents of La Sierra and Palmarejo commissioned resource extraction and farming throughout their respective settlement systems (Schortman & Urban, 1994b, pp. 405-410), then these groups may have been obligated to perform large-scale ritual performances to petition the ancestors. This perspective views the inhabitants of La Sierra and Palmarejo as principales and the occupants of the rural settlement system as gente comun. The largest concentration of censer fragments found in the valley was uncovered in La Sierra's site core. Excavations into a low platform connecting two pyramidal buildings (1A-16 and 1A-17) unearthed a portion of a massive ritual deposit (Schortman & Urban, 1994b, p. 410). A total of 97 m2 was cleared, revealing 4,504 complex and modeled censer fragments (accounting for roughly 25 percent of all Late Classic censer fragments recovered from valley excavations), a cache of Spondylus shells, sculpture fragments, and 7 small, clay cups. The deposit was partly covered by 1 m of ash and many of the items were burned. Comparable collections of materials are virtually unknown elsewhere in the valley and have never been found in concentrations matching the La Sierra deposit. Schortman and Urban (1994b, p. 410) suggest that, ''the locally unprecedented concentration of ritual items implies that the religious dramas enacted here were conducted on a large scale, possibly for the entire polity.'' Work in Palmarejo's site core has revealed similar caches of modeled censers, Spondylus shells, and ceramic vessels, although not in the quantities witnessed at La Sierra (Wells et al., 2004). Still, Schortman and Urban's suggestion of ritual primacy at La Sierra can be extended to Palmarejo in the context of its own settlement system.
Second, it is apparent from Chapman's study that, while everyone has the social right and moral obligation to host composturas as needed, not everyone participates (for another example, involving cargos, see Mon-aghan, this volume). This may occur because certain individuals do not always behave the way in which worldview directs, or they do not share that worldview (such as in the case of immigrants). This could also be the case in situations where the individual or family does not own land and must obtain raw materials and harvest crops from common-pool resource plots. Those that do host, however, are obligated to maintain the appropriate equipment, supplies, and resources to host composturas, which are often stored at or near their place of residence. Hosts sometimes draw on nonresident family members in the community for help in preparing meals. This means that materials associated with composturas, such as censers for burning incense and candles or candle holders, as well as the culinary tools to prepare chicha and other brew, may be stored in domestic spaces. These items may be set apart from everyday goods or else intermixed with them. Yet, the observation that not everyone hosts composturas suggests that the distribution of ritual activity and paraphernalia in any given community may be uneven.
In the Naco Valley, the ladle and complex censer forms are ubiquitous, having been recovered in most domestic and near-domestic contexts (Schortman & Urban, 1994a, p. 71). Excavation data reveal that the number of censers is nearly uniform among assemblages across all sites investigated, except for La Sierra. The density of censers at valley sites outside the La Sierra occupation zone ranges from 0.1 to 0.9 censer fragments/m2 of cleared area, compared to residential groups at La Sierra where the density ranges from 0.2 to 11.6 fragments/m2 (Schortman & Urban, 1994a, pp. 219-220). Based on survey and limited excavations at Palmarejo and the four second-largest settlements in the community (see Fig. 3), this pattern generally holds for the Palmarejo zone as well. This finding suggests that the rituals in which these items presumably functioned were practiced by a broad spectrum of La Sierra and Palmarejo polity residents regardless of sociopolitical standing. The principal contrary case is the modeled censer taxon, which is found nearly exclusively in central ceremonial areas at La Sierra and Palmarejo. In so far as different rituals required different censer forms, the rites employing modeled censers were far more restricted than those using members of the other categories. Schortman and Urban (1994a, p. 72) suggest that "modeled censers, in fact, may have played prominent roles in public ritual associated with monumental structures, the other forms serving in more private, domestic observances.''
Based on the differential distribution of censer forms across the valley during the Late Classic and the concentration of specific censer forms at La Sierra and Palmarejo, it can be argued that ladle and complex censers were used in domestic contexts, while modeled censers were linked with public rites carried out at the capitals by one social faction for the benefit of groups larger than any one household (Schortman & Urban, 1991, pp. 65-67). The general distribution of most censer forms connected, presumably, to rituals differing from those practiced in the La Sierra or Palmarejo site core implies that valley rulers did not establish exclusive control over the formal materialization of worldview. Devotions at La Sierra and Palmarejo using modeled censers may have served to join resident elite into a ''ritual community,'' reinforcing their solidarity and accentuating their separation from other valley inhabitants (see Halperin, this volume). Yet, the recovery of other censer forms at La Sierra and Palmarejo may point to efforts by valley rulers to co-opt the expression of worldview from valley farmers via rural ritual. Thus, in the case of the prehispanic Naco Valley, ritual economy reveals how variably knowledgeable individuals and groups, differently poised in social relations and processes of domination, use economic resources available to them to try to fix their interpretations of meanings - their worldview - and to prevent others' interpretations from being heard or expressed (McAnany & Wells, this volume; Wells & Davis-Salazar, 2007, pp. 13-14).
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