Archaeology Magazine - January/February 1994 - 125

posit, nearly 1,000 gallons of brackish water had to be have, until now, studied only those sites not submerged.
hand-bailed from the excavation and surrounding flats No one has looked for sites that may be in deeper water
each day just to begin work.
or buried by coastal or estuarine sediments.
mud at Tiger
Since the coastal Maya canoe trade is known historiProcessing of the artifact-bearing
Mound was accomplished by carrying bucket-loads of cally to have reached from the Bay Islands of Honduras
fill to the nearby shore and water-screening in the sea.
north around the tip of the Yucatán
Our trail, covering 150 feet from
Peninsula, there must have been a
the site to the sea, gradually
number of trading stops and exsank into the swamp through
Chert points found at
change points along the route.
constant use and the trip beMuch as trading vessels did in
Tiger Mound and
came a knee-wrenching orlater historic times, cargoes
deal carrying 100 pounds of
were supplemented with local
nearby Wild Cane
muck each time. Though
goods picked up along the way
Cay, shown here,
while high-quality, low-bulk
wet, and
mud-spattered,
from
imconstant
were
traded
commodities such as obsidian
, along
aching
mersion crouching
over
were the mainstay of trade
with fish , dried
screens submerged in the
along the entire route. Relaour
field
crew
was
eni
other
sea,
meat,
food
tionships of Tiger Mound
thusiastic. We kept from
with Wild Cane Cay, the
I
items, and salt .
four to six people busy
nearby mainland, and other
and
maI
Obsidian
offshore cays in southern Bescreening
sorting
from
terial all day. The final inlize remain to be explored.
I
inland sources
from
the
excavaventory
Significantly, armed with
tion was about 20,000 artiI
was /ie main
knowledge of the extensive
facts with a shipping weight
buried
deposits at Tiger
'
focus of the Maya
of nearly 1,000 pounds.
we
returned to nearby
Mound,
Some 2,000 years ago,
coastal trade .
Pelican One Pot Cay on the last
Tiger Mound was a sandy
day of the field season. Within
beach deposit, strewn with
an hour, deep shovel testing proeroded corals and shells, that
duced evidence of another buried
in
have
been
connected
to
the
site
also
to
the
Late Classic and Early Postclastact,
may,
adjacent
dating
mainland. As still happens today, a mat of vegetative
sic period. Without knowledge gained from Tiger
matter washed in by the sea accumulated in a tough Mound, there would have been no reason to investigate
fiber layer over the beach. It was this fiber layer that
this cay, since sea-level rise and associated environmenconstituted the living surface for the site's Late Clas- tal changes have resulted in a drastically different
sic period occupants.
coastal landscape than that experienced by the Late
Mound
is
a
site
for
two
reasons.
Classic Maya.
Tiger
significant
First, it corroborates the evidence of Wild Cane Cay
Tiger Mound is still something of a mystery. Why is
for an appreciable and continuous Late Classic-Postthis peculiar small mangrove cay, without apparent
classic period coastal occupation during the inland
strategic value - at the mouth of a small and inconseA
radiocarbon
date
of
a.d.
680
was
obMaya "collapse."
quential stream, and not close to a productive fishing lotained on charcoal associated with Late Classic pottery
cale - the site of a large Maya occupation? We can only
near the base of the cultural deposits. Second, Tiger
suggest that Tiger Mound is a connection point beMound indicates the presence of an extensive and hith- tween inland and coastal settlements, and between
erto unsuspected body of information in the form of coastal settlements and the canoe trade itself. Wild
Cane Cay, scarcely three miles away and less than a
submerged coastal sites.
have
surmised
that
obsidian
is
Archaeologists
always
half-day canoe trip across modest seas, is an obvious
the
most
visible
and
durable
trade center and nexus for the coastal trade. Perhaps
simply
archaeologically
trade item. Many perishables, such as fish, dried meat,
the function of Tiger Mound may lie in its relationship
root crops, maize, nut foods, and many luxury items,
to some other, yet unknown, inland center in the nearby
were undoubtedly part of Maya trade. Our recent work and, as yet, unexplored jungle. We have onlyjust begun
in nearby saltwater lagoons has shown the existence of to penetrate the mangrove swamps bordering the
coastal cays and mainland and hope that our searches
submerged salt-processing sites. Interestingly, these
sites are today submerged and provide evidence of a sea- there may prove as lucky as that at Tiger Mound.
level rise of three feet from the Late Classic through
Postclassic period. The implications of this rapidly
Lawrence J. Jackson directsNortheasternArchaeologi-^^
changing geography for a coastal canoe trade are enor- cal Associatesof Ontano, Canada. He is co-directorÉKtjj^^
mous - not to mention the fact that our views of the of the Wild Cane Cay ArchaeologicalProject with
coastal Maya are probably seriously skewed because we Heather McKillop ofLouisiana State University. I '
W
62 A RCHAEOLOGY

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Archaeology Magazine - January/February 1994

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