Traditionally, the analysis of ceramics has played a major role in archaeological research the world over, and this is particularly true in the Maya area where until recently ceramic studies have been used for the sole purpose of chronological ordering. This dissertation discusses the historic development of ceramic research in Maya archaeology, as well as documenting the present role of ceramic analyses, as preface to the analysis of the ceramics from Cuello, a small site in northern Belize. Excavations at the site indicate that the area under study, Platform 34, was occupied from the Early Formative at about 2,000 b.c. until the Late Formative at about a.d. 250, when Platform 34 was apparently largely abandoned, although other areas of the site continue to be occupied. The analysis of the ceramics from Cuello proceeds utilizing the traditional type: variety classification system to order the ceramics chronologically. The Cuello typology, in accordance with the major period of occupation of Platform 34, spans a period of time beginning in the Early Formative with the Swasey Complex, and ending in the Late Formative with the Cocos Complex. While some typological comparisons of ceramics among sites in the Maya Lowlands are made to place Cuello securely within a chronological framework, the main thrust of the analysis is to understand intra-site ceramic variability. Unlike earlier maya ceramic analyses, the present one continues with a vessel form classification, since forms are considered sensitive indicators of functional variability within the site. It is shown, through this analysis, that ceramic analyses are useful for more than chronological ordering,and when ceramic variability is examined within the archaeological contexts in which the ceramics are found, has the potential of informing on functional and social patterns on an intra-site level.
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