ABSTRACT OF THESIS COMPOSITIONAL PERSPECTIVES ON THE EXCHANGE OF MUNA SLATE WARES IN THE LATE AND TERMINAL CLASSIC NORTHERN MAYA LOWLANDS

This thesis presents the results of petrographic point counting analyses of Muna Slate ware, the predominant slipped ceramic ware in the Northern Maya Lowlands during the Late and Terminal Classic Periods (600-1000 A.D.) of Maya prehistory. Recently, it was hypothesized that Muna Slate wares were centrally produced and distributed from the Puuc Hills site of Sayil (Smyth and Dore 1994; Smyth et al. 1995). Given that Muna Slate wares may be considered utilitarian subsistence items (sensu Brumfiel and Earle 1987), this suggestion runs counter to several arguments that ancient Maya utilitarian ceramics production is associated with outlying communities and that their distribution is localized. In the research presented here, the model of Muna Slate ware production presented for Sayil is evaluated in terms of ceramic ecology, economic theory and models of craft distribution, the culture-historical context of Muna Slate ware use, and previous studies of ceramic production and distribution in the Maya Lowlands. Muna Slate wares from three sites in the northern Lowlands- Kiuic, Labná, and Ek Balam – were then analyzed in order to test the whether or not Sayil was the sole producer of thes