A Variety of Cerendipitous Discoveries

Research at the Ceren village archaeological site in 2013 and 2014 has made a variety of discoveries. The plant casts, made by pouring dental plaster into the voids, reveal much about agriculture in the middle of the rainy season some 1400 years ago. The maize plants were doubled over to dry the mature ears, but the Loma Caldera eruption occurred just before planting squash and beans. So what was that single mature squash plant doing in the milpa? What are the limits of preservation of weeds, and have we overestimated the degree of weeding? Why was there less care in microtopographic field management just outside the village, in contrast to within the village and farther south in the manioc fields? A sacbe runs through the fields, and we discovered the compaction of its central zone was extraordinary. But why were the sides so soft and the center so hard? And why were most of the footprints from people headed south? Our efforts in experimental archaeology to duplicate its hardness are presented, and we can only speculate as to what technology was employed to achieve it. Its surprising durability over a full year with no maintenance is described.

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