Sarteneja Archaeological Maya Site

Sarteneja Archaeological Maya Site

       The modern fishing village of Sarteneja now extends over the northern portion of the classic period major ceremonial center. The earliest occupation dated to the Late Preclassic although the overlying Early Classic shreds were more prevalent. An Extremely heavy concentration of utilized obsidian prismatic blades (all apparently Postclassic) was found in this area, together with other imports such as green celt, lava, metamorphic manos and pounding stones, jade beads, carved Yucatecan slate ware, and a jaguar effigy bowl carved from ignious rock. All of these artifacts indicate significant Postclassic trade activity at the site. Also abundant were marine shell and fish skeletal remains—some of which had been converted into artifacts of problematical use—and ceramic “net-sinkers” that suggested a basic reliance on marine subsistence. Deer and peccary apparently augmented this diet. The abundant late Postclassic material culture overlay, or was intermixed with, a smallar proportion of the late classic-early Postclassic material.

The site has at least one major ceremonial plaza (Group A) with two pyramidal structures about 11m(36ft) and 8m(26ft) in height. This plaza was not mapped because of the dense bush. Another possible ceremonial plaza may exist in the vicinity of Group B since fallen uncarved stela was found there. The badly eroded monument has a maximum height of 1.74m, a maximum width of 1.22m, and ranges in thickness from 25-31cm. Prior to the first planting of the season, and again before the first harvest, several families in Sarteneja place religious figurines in wooden shrines on top of the stela. During the ritual the two large holes in the pitted stela face are fitted with calabashes containing fruit, while candles are inserted into into 4 or 5 smaller holes. The monument remains in the same location where founder of the village discovered it. The stela was turned over by our survey to reveal the rough plain surface of the opposite side, which was not quite as deeply pitted. None of the nearby structures in Group B are over 4.5m in height. Groups C, D, and E in the middle of the site are noteworthy because they each have at least one structure 5m in height. While they are probably not ceremonial groups, large structures and plaza areas suggest they were elite residential areas

            Some 168 structures (including group platforms) were mapped at Sarteneja, of which probably 113 served as residential during its time of maximum population. This converts to a very high populated density of about 940 person/km during the terminal classic. A substantial population may have remained throughout the Late Post Classic.  The population density estimate may be somewhat high, since during the mapping the group was led by a local inhabitant directly from one mound to another. Assuming the same density exists throughout the entire site and that about a third of the site was mapped, the projected total population for Sarteneja would be about 1880 people.

A Unique group of Artifacts found at Sarteneja consisted of problematical objects fashioned by cutting sections from conch or other large gastropod shells. Gastropods are obtained presently by Sarteneja fishermen from San Pedro reef, about 40-70 km from Sarteneja.