Pottery Type #4: Maya Mopan

There are two more ceramic types left to introduce before we submit a manuscript on our newly established typology (using the names that you voted for) for peer review. The Maya Mopan type is very distinctive in the Alabama ceramic assemblage. The pottery is composed almost completely of rounded quartz sand and the color of the vessels ranges from white to tan to pink. We have only recovered a few rim sherds, and these indicate that the vessels had a fairly standardized rim diameter and were likely squat bowls and/or jars. The composition is consistent with the white soil horizon that you can see when you are driving down the Southern Highway in the Stann Creek District. We are not sure who produced this pottery because the raw materials for its production can be found across a large area so it could have been produced by people living in multiple locations in East Central Belize.