Cameron McNeil - Paleoethnobotanical Fieldwork in Honduras

This photo, taken in 2001, shows Cameron McNeil extracting a sediment core from a pond in Sesesmil, Honduras with the aid of Obdulio Garza and Rigoberto Morales.

The collection of sediment cores from bodies of water in the Copan Valley forms a part of McNeil’s dissertation work studying the ritual use of plants by the Maya at the site of Copan. McNeil took pollen samples from the floor surfaces of 38 structures (temples, palaces and royal tombs), buried inside the Acropolis, as well as residues from vessels placed as offerings in tombs and caches. The analysis of the sediment cores is providing McNeil with an understanding of the ambient pollen during the Classic. Without this information it would not be possible to prove that pollen signatures in the structures and vessels reflect ritual activities, not environmental contamination.