Belize (State / Territory) (Geographic Keyword)

DOCUMENT Citation Only Garrett Jones. Timothy Hare. Mike Dowell.

We describe an integrated heavy-lift unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and remote sensing platform used to map archaeological features under the forest canopy in the northern Yucatán. We collaborated with Mobile Recon Systems Inc. to construct a UAV-based aerial mapping system that can be used to create high-resolution maps and 3D models of archaeological ruins, excavations, caves, and cenotes for small to medium-sized areas of the forested environment. The system integrates Light Detection and...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Scott Simmons.

After a span of over twenty years archaeological investigations have resumed at the San Pedro site, located in downtown San Pedro, Ambergris Caye. Investigations in the early 1990s revealed portions of a Spanish contact period Maya community that was settled as early as the 14th Century CE. Based on previous as well as ongoing investigations at the San Pedro site and other Maya sites on the island and the mainland, it appears that communities on the caye were linked to one another in various...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Anabel Ford.

This is an abstract from the "Finding Fields: Locating and Interpreting Ancient Agricultural Landscapes" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. As we look at agricultural intensification and the archaeological correlates, we need to understand that capital based investment and arable farming are only one path to intensification. Labor-based economies, especially those of the Americas before European conquest, present an entirely distinct track toward...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Fred Valdez.

This is an abstract from the "2023 Fryxell Award Symposium: Papers in Honor of Timothy Beach Part I" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Programme for Belize Archaeological Project (PfBAP) has operated in NW Belize for more than three decades. While much of the research effort has been under what might be described as traditional archaeology, the research program today is significantly informed by geoarchaeology interests and lidar. Initial efforts...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Nadia Rubio-Cisneros. Ilse Martínez-Candelas. Diana Ordaz-García. Nayeli Jiménez Cano. Jeffrey Glover.

This is an abstract from the "Past Human-Shark Interactions" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Knowledge of sawfishes is still scant for Latin America. Pristis pristis (largetooth sawfish) and Pristis pectinata (smallthooth sawfish) are critically endangered. In the Yucatán Peninsula (YP) these species populated coastal landscapes. We collected 290 surveys of fishers’ Local Ecological Knowledge (LEK) with a geospatial component and reviewed 74...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Anna Bishop.

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper discusses the internal structure of the elite Classic Maya at the site of El Zotz, in the Petén region of Guatemala. By examining the behavior of elites living in different parts of El Zotz at the end of the Late Classic, I will consider whether the aristocracy of the Pa’ka’n court acted as a cohesive unit with shared behaviors, or if they were...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Christina Iglesias.

This is an abstract from the "The Subterranean in Mesoamerican Indigenous Culture and Beyond" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. During the 2019 season, a subterranean feature was excavated atop a pyramidal structure in the pueblo of San Felipe Nuevo, 839 m northeast of the El Castillo pyramid at Chichen Itza. The entrance is a round, finely finished, chultun-like entrance 53 cm in diameter. The walls are plastered, which suggests its function as a...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Samantha Lorenz. Toni Gonzalez. Alanna Abel. Jessica Strayer.

This is an abstract from the "Archaeology as an Engine or a Camera?" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Mulch’en Witz (glossed ‘Hill of Many Caves’) is located in northwestern Belize within the periphery of the ancient Maya site of La Milpa. Preliminary investigations have recorded a high concentration of chultuns associated to architectural features and groups and, thus far, all cultural material dates to the Late Classic period (CE 600-800). Human...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Arlen Chase. Diane Chase. Adrian Chase.

This is an abstract from the "2023 Fryxell Award Symposium: Papers in Honor of Timothy Beach Part I" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Human-nature relationships are key to understanding past societal developments. The value of conducting transdisciplinary research, involving new methods and other investigators, has become increasingly apparent as the field of Maya Studies has matured. While there has continued to be a significant increase in the...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Nicholas Suarez. Claire Ebert. John Walden. Julie Hoggarth. Jaime Awe.

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Studies of ancient Maya commodities have focused on elite control of economic institutions, yet goods were mobilized at different levels of the social hierarchy to support the growth of broader economic institutions. Here we present the results of portable x-ray fluorescence (pXRF) analyses of over 4000 obsidian artifacts from Preclassic to Terminal...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Frank Tzib. John Walden. James Mesh. Christina Warinner. Jaime Awe.

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. New archaeological aDNA approaches have the potential to dramatically change our understanding of the ancient Maya but it is important that living Maya people are aware of the research, provide their thoughts and input, and give their consent given the involvement of ancestral human remains. This poster presents the ongoing interview based consultation...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Brigitte Kovacevich. Michael Callaghan. Karla Cardona. Rodrigo Guzman.

This is an abstract from the "Holtun: Investigations at a Preclassic Maya Center" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The archaeological site of Holtun, Guatemala has been documented as an intermediate-sized Maya center with occupation spanning the Middle Preclassic through Terminal Classic periods. The site is situated approximately 35 km southwest of Tikal and 12.3 km to the south of Yaxha. The formal site consists of a monumental epicenter built...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Luis Martos. Sergio Grosjean.

This is an abstract from the "The Subterranean in Mesoamerican Indigenous Culture and Beyond" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The "ejidatarios" of Cuzama in Yucatán have developed a community tourist complex on the lands of the ancient hacienda of the same name, where they opened three cenotes. This work presents the first results of a survey carried out in a recently discovered cave and cenote known as Xaan Chan, where there are notable paintings...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Eleanor Harrison-Buck.

This is an abstract from the "Archaeology and the History of Human-Environment Interaction in the Lower Belize River Watershed" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper situates the results of 10 years of archaeological investigations by the Belize River East Archaeology (BREA) project, beginning more than 10,000 years ago in the preceramic period. We have also documented ample Maya occupation, including their settlement, production activities,...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Marcia Chacon De Hernandez.

This is an abstract from the "Recent Multidisciplinary Investigations in the Mirador Basin, Guatemala" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Investigaciones en el Grupo Sereque han enfocado en la estructura principal conocida como Edificio 5A7.1 del Grupo Sereque, que corresponde al complejo La Danta. El grupo esta ubicada al norte sobre una elevación y área de cantera y está conectado directamente a la primera plataforma de la Danta por una calzada de...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Tucker Austin.

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Despite more than a century of intensive archaeological research, factors leading to the Classic Maya Collapse continue to be debated by Maya archaeologists. This presentation discusses the Classic Maya Collapse and its effects on the people of Xunantunich, Belize. Investigations from the 2018 field season, carried out by the Belize Valley Archaeological...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Daniel Conley. Rissa Trachman.

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Finding evidence of an ancient Maya marketplace is difficult due to the perishability of telltale materials such as food, textiles, and wooden stalls in the tropical environment of northwestern Belize. Therefore, multiple lines of evidence including material culture, stratigraphy, soil chemistry, and spatial analysis are essential in identifying possible...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Evan Parker.

This is an abstract from the "The Bolonchen Regional Archaeological Project: 25 Years of Research in the Puuc" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Research conducted by the Bolonchen Regional Archaeological Project over the last several decades has firmly established the presence of Middle Preclassic occupations across the Puuc region. Survey and excavation at sites such as Xocnaceh, Yaxhom, and Kiuic have identified and confirmed the antiquity of a...

DOCUMENT Citation Only George J. Micheletti. Terry Powis. Norbert Stanchly.

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Since the discovery of Stela 6 in the mid-1980s, the weathered remains of this Early Classic period carved stone monument continue to lie in the main plaza at Pacbitun, displaced in antiquity. Re-exposed in 2003, epigraphic analysis verified the monument’s AD 485 Long Count date—confirming it as one of the earliest carved stelae in the Maya lowlands—and...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Brian Waldo. Samantha Lorenz. Toni Gonzales.

Mul Ch’en Witz (Hill with Many Caves) was first excavated in the summer of 2017 by the Contested Caves Archaeological Project (CCAP), a subproject of the Three Rivers Archaeological Project (TRAP). The area, located just below the escarpment on which the core architecture of the ancient site of La Milpa, Belize is situated, was chosen for excavation because of the high density of chultunes encountered within a restricted area. The chultunes have similar entrance styles and diameters, and five of...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Wendy Layco.

This is an abstract from the "Studies in Mesoamerican Subterranean Archaeology" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Some 75 m southwest of the Las Monjas complex at Chichen Itza and just west of Sacbe No. 7, lie a series of eleven sascaberas that are shown schematically on the Carnegie map. While ceiling collapse has undoubtedly occurred in the millennium since their creation, some, such as Sascabera #2, have an extensive enclosed dark zone space. In...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Erin Ray. Holley Moyes.

The ancient Maya site of Las Cuevas, in Western Belize features a cave system that runs beneath the main plaza. Investigations by the Las Cuevas Archaeological Reconnaissance project suggest that the site functioned as a Late Classic ritual pilgrimage venue and that the cave was used for large public centrally-organized performances. The cathedral-like cave entrance contains monumental architecture consisting of at least 76 plastered platforms. I hypothesize that the level of managerial...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Yasmine Flynn-Arajdal. Katherine Miller Wolf. Carolyn Freiwald. Christina Halperin.

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Ucanal, is an archeological site situated in the Petén area of the southern Maya Lowlands. Close to the modern-day border between Guatemala and Belize, it is situated on the Mopan River which seems to have facilitated the trade of objects between different neighboring sites. While we know that this site was a nexus for the movement of goods from afar, less is...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Rick Smith. Angelina Locker. Austin Reynolds. Diane Chase. Arlen Chase.

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Santa Rita Corozal, hereafter known as Chactemal, is a Maya site located in what is now northern Belize on the coast of Chetumal Bay. Chactemal was home to some of the earliest known Maya peoples in northern Belize during the Middle Preclassic (~800-300 BCE), was continuously occupied throughout all subsequent phases of Maya chronology, grew to become an...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Richard Paine. Richard Hansen. Carlos Morales-Aguilar. Kevin Johnston.

El Mirador, in the northern Peten, has redefined our ideas about the Maya Preclassic. Its massive architecture and its complex system of sacbes compare to the largest Classic period centers. Unlike many of its smaller Preclassic neighbors, El Mirador collapsed at the dawn of the Classic. Understanding El Mirador’s organization, economy, and relationship to its environment requires detailed knowledge of the site’s population trajectory. Reconstructing El Mirador’s population trajectory, we face a...