CONCLUSIONS

Archaeological investigations in plaza spaces at sites in southeastern Mesoamerica have uncovered the remains of food serving vessels and cooking implements in high proportions relative to residential areas, suggesting that public feasting was a widespread practice in the region during prehispanic times. Yet, despite the occurrence of evidence for feasting at numerous sites in the region, very little is known about the organization of these events, the manner in which they articulated with other community activities, and the degree to which they were involved in the construction and maintenance of social hierarchies.

The results of my investigations at El Coyote and Petoa suggest that plazas were (and still are) divided into two primary activity areas, sacred and secular, although there may have been overlap in the use of space during certain times of the year. Although the “palimpsest” problem of overlapping activities continues to plague studies of plaza use, the soil chemistry analyses coupled with information on artifact distributions help to locate the physical contexts for these activities. In addition, as has been demonstrated elsewhere, direct observations of the human activities that impact soil chemistry hold great promise for understanding the use of space in archaeological situations. For my ARI Fellowship project, I compared artifact and soil chemical patterning in archaeological and ethnographic contexts to help me think about some of the spatial and social characteristics of ancient feasts at El Coyote.