From Ichcanzihoo to Mérida: Documenting Cultural Transition through Contact Archaeology in Tíhoo, Mérida, Yucatán

This study is concerned with the role material culture played in transformation and/or retention of Maya authority, just prior to and after Spanish contact (A.D. 1100-1800s). Included in this project are a general examination of Maya studies in the Northwestern Yucatán Corridor and the results of a preliminary classification and discussion of materials represented in the YUC 2 assemblage from Tihoo. Results of the archaeological component of this study illustrate that there was little change in production of indigenous pottery after the fall of Mayapan (ca. A.D. 1441-1461), as inhabitants of precolumbian Tíhoo continued to use preexisting wares from their former capital, particularly those within the Mayapan Red Ware and Mayapan Unslipped Ware classifications, well into the Colonial period. In the Post-Colonial period, a significant change in wares occurred as native inhabitants incorporated foreign ceramic types into their society.