Archaeology of Ceren, El Salvador
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In ca. AD 600 a catastrophic eruption by the Laguna Cladera                     volcano in El Salvador completely buried a Mayan homestead and                  the fields which surrounded it.  Preliminary excavations at this                site of Ceren in  1978 indicated that the volcanic ash packed                   around and throughly preserved structures, wooden artifacts,                    trees, corn plants, a field with footprints, and human bodies.                  Subsequent geophysical prespection in 1979 confirmed the                        existence of intact houses which remain buried under five meters                of ash.  Dr. Sheets and his colleagues will return to this site                 and conduct extensive excavation.  Through judicious use of heavy               equipment a transect will be cut and overburden removed to allow                easy hand excavation of features.  Floral and faunal materials                  will be recovered and analyzed to reconstruct household                         subsistence and expected skeletal materials will provide insight                into family composition.  Field excavation will allow                           reconstruction of agricultural techniques.                                                                                                                      Ceren is unique, even in comparison to Old World sites such as                  Pompeii, because the volcanic ash matrix is so fine that it                     preserves organic materials down to the cellular level.  This                   virtually complete material culture record will allow for a                     detailed reconstruction of functioning households and important                 insights to human behavior, demography, nutrition, agriculture,                 and economics.  Anthropologists have come to realize that in many               societies the "household" . a group in individuals who live                     together in one place and closely cooperate on a daily basis .                  form a essential unit.  However, archaeologically households are                usually difficult to isolate and study.  At Ceren it appears that               just such a unit exists.                                                                                                                                        This research is important because it will shed a new and                       important light on the development of complex Mayan society and                 help us understand how complexity develops and is maintained.
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{'Code': '1391', 'Text': 'Archaeology'}
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