Catalog sheets provide detailed descriptions of specific artifacts recovered from particular collection units (lots). The lot number is recorded on each catalog sheet. Beginning in the 1990s, we began describing the pastes of ceramic, non-pottery objects using a series of categories designated by letters. These are described in the folder entitled “PVN and PVC CAT Paste Descriptions” that can be found in the Analysis Sheets partition of the collection. While the pastes were originally defined based on our study of artifacts from the Naco valley, the classification was extended to include examples from the lower Cacaulapa valley. The descriptions provided on catalog sheets are accompanied by drawings when the item is sufficiently large or well enough preserved to warrant including such an illustration.
For guidance on how to search for a particular kind of artifact, see the guide to navigating the collection. The following abbreviations are used to describe the different types of artifacts in the collection:
- ANTWRKD – Worked antler
- BDS – Beads
- BJART – Bajareque artifacts, some vitrified bajareque (wattle and daub fragment)
- BONE - Bone fragments and tools
- BRKBTR - Bark beater (stone artifact used to beat and soften bark as material for paper and clothes)
- CAND - Candelero (ceramic artifact with one or more chambers in which smoldering fires were maintained)
- CHST: Chipped stone
- CLYBAL - Ceramic or clay ball
- CNCMP - Complex censer lid (top of a cylindrical ceramic incense burner)
- CNCMPB - Complex censer bowl (bottom part of a cylindrical ceramic incense burner)
- CNCMPS - Complex censer support (support for censer lid and bowl)
- CNCMPBMDL – Complex censer bowl with modeled elements
- CNLP (or CNCMPS) - Censer prong (cylindrically shaped ceramic object tapering to a point that projected from the top on a complex incense burner)
- CNMDL - Ceramic modeled incense burner (pottery container decorated through the addition or shaping of clay on its exterior)
- CNSPK (or SPKCN) - Spiked Censer.
- DNUTS (or GSDNUTS) - Donut stone (rock with a hole drilled in it).
- ECO: Ecofacts, floral or faunal remains.
- ECOB – Obsidian eccentric
- ECTC – Insect housing
- EFLR - Earspool
- ENIG (or ENIGBC) - Enigmatic baked clay.
- ENIGST (or GSENIG) - Enigmatic ground stone.
- FLT - Flute
- FWO - Ceramic figurine, whistle, or ocarina. It was often difficult to separate members of these categories from their fragmentary remains. We, therefore, included all such pieces under this heading, distinguishing among them on the catalog sheets when there was sufficient information to do so.
- GSB – Ground stone ball
- GSUV: Vesicular basalt, ground stone, uncertain artifact status
- HACHA (or GSHACHA) - Hacha (celt).
- HMRST - Hammerstone
- JWLRY - Jewelry
- LCSH - Ladle censer strap handle
- LCTH – Ladle censer tube handle
- LWTS – Ceramic net or loom weights
- MANO (or GSMANO) - Mano (stones used to grind materials atop a metate [MTE]).
- MANOR: Incomplete mano; roughout that was never completed. Some examples are included under MANO.
- MBLV-Marble vessel
- MDRNP - Modern piece of melted plastic
- MDRNRT - Modern ceramic roof tile
- MINVES – Fragment of a small, or mini, ceramic vessel
- MLDBWO – Bowl mold
- MLDFWO – Figurine, whistle, or ocarina mold
- MODPOT – Historic era pottery
- MRTPST – Ground stone mortar or pestle
- MTE (or GSMTE) - Metate (surface of a grinding stone).
- MTER (or METR): Metate rough-out; a metate that was never completed. Some examples are included under MTE.
- OSTN – Ground stone
- PEND - Pendent
- PIGST - Pigment stone. These are soft rocks, usually yellow or red, that we infer might have been used in making paint.
- PLCN (or LC)- Pierced ladle censer (ceramic bowl with holes cut completely through its base).
- POLST (or GSPOLST)- Smoother/Polisher (a stone, purposely shaped or not, with clear signs of smoothing due to human use on one or more of its facets).
- PRPT- Stone projectile point
- PTSTD (or PTSTND or VSM) – Potstand. These are ceramic supports, many of which were used to support vessels during the shaping and firing process.
- RSTA – Bone rasp (possible musical instrument) and stone abrader. These different types of artifacts are distinguished on their respective catalog sheets.
- SCNL - Scored censer lid (shallow ceramic plate with lines incised on its convex side; often shows evidence of smudging from prolonged exposure to smoke on that side)
- SCULP – Stone sculpture
- SHDSK - Sherd disk
- SHELL - Marine shell
- SPNWHL (or SPWL)- Spindle whorl.
- STBL - Ball stone
- STBWLS – Stone bowl
- STMP - Stamp (ceramic artifact with a deeply engraved design on one side; likely used to apply pigment in that design to skin or cloth)
- STNDSK- Stone Disk
- UHSD - Used sherd. A ceramic fragment with signs of being worn down on one or more edges due to use.
- UNWRKDR – Stone of uncertain function, possibly worked.
- USCNL – Unscored censer lid.
- VES – Whole ceramic vessel or large fragment of a container.
- WKDS (or WKSHD) - Worked sherd
- WKST (or GSUV) - Worked stone.
Submissions from 1985
PSB CAT 8A-005-001 LCTH, Colleen Siders
PSB CAT 98B-007-001 LCSH, Colleen Siders
PSB CAT 98B-007-003 LCSH, Colleen Siders
PSB CAT 98C-005-001 LCSH, Colleen Siders
PSB CAT 98C PLCN, Colleen Siders
PSB CAT 98I-001-001 CNCMPBMDL, Colleen Siders
PSB CAT 9C-004-001 SCNL, Colleen Siders
PSB CAT 22D-005 CNSPK_001, Colleen Siders and Sylvia Smith
PSB CAT 105A-005-001 LCSH, Sylvia Smith
PSB CAT 105A-005-002 LCSH, Sylvia Smith
PSB CAT 106C-009-001 LCSH, Sylvia Smith
PSB CAT 106C-009-003 PLCN, Sylvia Smith
PSB CAT 106C-013-002 SCNL, Sylvia Smith
PSB CAT 106C-018-003 LCSH, Sylvia Smith
PSB CAT 106C-019-001 Unscored Censer Lid, Sylvia Smith
PSB CAT 106C-020-003 LCSH, Sylvia Smith
PSB CAT 106C-020-005 CNSPK, Sylvia Smith
PSB CAT 106C-031-003 PLCN, Sylvia Smith
PSB CAT 106C-033-001 SCNL, Sylvia Smith
PSB CAT 106C-033-002 SCNL, Sylvia Smith
PSB CAT 106C-034-002 SCNL, Sylvia Smith
PSB CAT 106C-034-003 PLCN, Sylvia Smith
PSB CAT 106C-034-006 SCNL, Sylvia Smith
PSB CAT 106C-034-007 SCNL, Sylvia Smith
PSB CAT 106C-034-008 PLCN, Sylvia Smith
PSB CAT 106G-001-001 LCSH, Sylvia Smith
PSB CAT 106G-007-001 PLCN, Sylvia Smith
PSB CAT 106T-001-001 SCNL, Sylvia Smith
PSB CAT 114D-001-020 PLCN, Sylvia Smith
PSB CAT 115B-004-020 and 021 LCSH, Sylvia Smith
PSB CAT 115C-001-020 SCNL, Sylvia Smith
PSB CAT 115C-001-021 PLCN, Sylvia Smith
PSB CAT 150F-003-020 Censer Body, Sylvia Smith
PSB CAT 21A-004-001 MTE, Sylvia Smith
PSB CAT 300A-001-001 SCNL, Sylvia Smith
PSB CAT 300A-001-002 SCNL, Sylvia Smith
PSB CAT 308B-022-002 SCNL, Sylvia Smith
PSB CAT 334C-003-020 CAND, Sylvia Smith
PSB CAT 33H-005-001 MANO, Sylvia Smith
PSB CAT 347F-002-004 CNCMPBMDL, Sylvia Smith
PSB CAT 347F-002-020 Censer Body, Sylvia Smith
PSB CAT 347F-002-022 and 347F-002-034 PLCN, Sylvia Smith
PSB CAT 347F-002-023 PLCN, Sylvia Smith
PSB CAT 347F-002-026, Sylvia Smith
PSB CAT 347F-002-027, 028, 029 Censer Bodies, Sylvia Smith
PSB CAT 347F-003-020 SCNL, Sylvia Smith
PSB CAT 347H-006-020 CNCMPB, Sylvia Smith
PSB CAT 350B-002-020 CNSPK, Sylvia Smith
PSB CAT 3D-002-001 SCNL, Sylvia Smith
PSB CAT 3E-002-001 CNSPK, Sylvia Smith
PSB CAT 3E-002-003 Unscored Censer Lid, Sylvia Smith
PSB CAT 3E-009-001 SCNL, Sylvia Smith
PSB CAT 3E-009-002 SCNL, Sylvia Smith
PSB CAT 3E-010-001 SCNL, Sylvia Smith
PSB CAT 3E-010-002 CNSPK, Sylvia Smith
PSB CAT 3E-021-009 LCSH, Sylvia Smith
PSB CAT 3E-026-001 SCNL, Sylvia Smith
PSB CAT 3F-002-001 MTE, Sylvia Smith
PSB CAT 3F-004-001 Biface, Sylvia Smith
PSB CAT 3G-011-005 SCNL, Sylvia Smith
PSB CAT 3G-026-002 SCNL, Sylvia Smith
PSB CAT 3H-008-007 LCSH, Sylvia Smith
PSB CAT 3K-002-001 LCSH, Sylvia Smith
PSB CAT 3K-006-024 LCSH, Sylvia Smith
PSB CAT 3K-006-025 CNLP Modeled, Sylvia Smith
PSB CAT 3K-006-028 PLCN, Sylvia Smith
PSB CAT 3K-007-001 SCNL, Sylvia Smith
PSB CAT 3L-003-001 SCNL, Sylvia Smith
PSB CAT 3L-003-002 Unscored Censer Lid, Sylvia Smith
PSB CAT 3L-005-001 CNSPK, Sylvia Smith
PSB CAT 3M-001-001 SCNL, Sylvia Smith
PSB CAT 3M-001-002 SCNL, Sylvia Smith
PSB CAT 3O-002-003 LCSH, Sylvia Smith
PSB CAT 3O-002-004 SCNL, Sylvia Smith
PSB CAT 3O-009-001 Unscored Censer Lid, Sylvia Smith
PSB CAT 3O-009-009 Unscored Censer Lid, Sylvia Smith
PSB CAT 500B-002-020 PLCN, Sylvia Smith
PSB CAT 5H-058-001 MANO, Sylvia Smith
PSB CAT 7A-010-001 CNCMPBMDL, Sylvia Smith
PSB CAT 7F-009-020 SCNL, Sylvia Smith
PSB CAT 7F-010-020 SCNL, Sylvia Smith
PSB CAT 9A-004 Bones, Sylvia Smith and Wendy Ashmore
PSB CAT 3M-001-003 SCNL, Sylvia Smith and Victoria Paine
PSB CAT 98D-005-001 PLCN, Sylvia Smith and Victoria Paine
PSB CAT 343H-002-001CNCMPBMDL, Sylvia Smith and Colleen Siders
PSB CAT 347H-002-021 LCTH, Sylvia Smith and Colleen Siders
PSB CAT 3G-016-001 CNSPK, Sylvia Smith and Colleen Siders
PSB CAT 320D-009-001 LCTH, Sylvia Smith and unknown unknown
PSB CAT 102B-002-001 CAND, unknown unknown
PSB CAT 103D-001-002 MTE, unknown unknown
PSB CAT 104C-002-002 and 003 Stone Sphere Structure 1, unknown unknown
PSB CAT 104C-002-002 PLCN, unknown unknown
PSB CAT 104G-001-001 PLCN, unknown unknown
PSB CAT 106C-018-004 CAND, unknown unknown
PSB CAT 106C-020-002 CNCMPBMDL, unknown unknown
PSB CAT 106C-026-001 BRKBTR, unknown unknown
PSB CAT 106F-013-001 PLCN, unknown unknown
PSB CAT 106I-001-001 Used Stone Structure 13, unknown unknown
PSB CAT 106I-001-002 SCNL, unknown unknown
PSB CAT 106L-006-001 PLCN, unknown unknown