Archaeology and the History of Human-Environment Interaction in the Lower Belize River Watershed
Part of: Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)
This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "Archaeology and the History of Human-Environment Interaction in the Lower Belize River Watershed" at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.
This organized session presents archaeological investigations in the lower half of the Belize River Watershed. The Belize River East Archaeology (BREA) project was initiated in 2011 and comprises a study area between Belmopan and Belize City that measures roughly 6,000 km2. In the first decade of the project, the BREA team has documented over 100 ancient Maya settlements as well as numerous colonial period archaeological sites within the Belize River Watershed, most previously unrecorded. An overall goal of this interdisciplinary research has been to document changing human-environment interaction through time, specifically examining wetland use in this low-lying coastal zone. As home to the largest inland wetland in the country, this part of Belize is biologically diverse and provides a rich repository of sediments, fauna, and plant remains that offer important proxies for gauging climate change, such as drought, and for understanding the history of human-environment interaction through time. Perhaps not coincidentally, the area shows evidence of thousands of years of continuous occupation, beginning in preceramic times and continuing with ancient Maya and colonial period occupation. This session offers a comprehensive review of these finds.
Other Keywords
Maya: Classic •
Geoarchaeology •
Landscape Archaeology •
Maya: Postclassic •
Mortuary Analysis •
Zooarchaeology •
Survey •
Soil •
Colonialism •
Human Behavioral Ecology
Geographic Keywords
United Mexican States (Country) •
Belize (Country) •
North America (Continent) •
Peten (State / Territory) •
Yucatan (State / Territory) •
Orange Walk (State / Territory) •
Cayo (State / Territory) •
Corozal (State / Territory) •
Belize (State / Territory) •
Stann Creek (State / Territory)
Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-9 of 9)
- Documents (9)
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Ancient Maya Use of Fauna from the Wetlands and Beyond (2021)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
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. Understanding how the ancient Maya interacted with wetland environments has been a topic of research for roughly 50 years. Previous studies suggest these resource-rich environments provided a diverse assortment of flora and fauna for the ancient Maya to utilize. Wetlands provide an ideal...
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From Rural Hinterlands to Urban Centers: Investigating Ancient Maya Settlement in the Lower Belize River Watershed (2021)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
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. One of the primary objectives of the Belize River East Archaeology (BREA) project has been to identify and document archaeological sites in a relatively understudied part of north-central Belize that encompasses the lower Belize River Watershed. In this area, which measures roughly 6,000...
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Geoarchaeological Investigations of Wetlands and Waterways in Crooked Tree, Belize (2021)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
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. The lagoon system around the island of Crooked Tree in northern Belize provides a compelling hydrological landscape with a strongly seasonal flood regime. The area also presents evidence of long occupation and use by the Maya. Our ongoing investigations include geoarchaeological testing...
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High-Resolution Landscape-Level Mapping in the Western Lagoon of Belize (2021)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
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. During the summer of 2016, large-scale unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) mapping was conducted in the Western Lagoon near Crooked Tree, the largest inland perennial wetland in all of Belize. Our aim was to record a series of linear features in the wetlands that may represent ancient Maya canals...
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Introduction to the Lower Belize River Watershed: A Deep History of Human-Environment Interaction (2021)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
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,...
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The Maya at Spanish Contact in the Lower Belize River Watershed (2021)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
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. Throughout the colonial period the Mérida-based Spanish administration organized and launched multiple entradas headed south into the Petén. These entradas ranged from relatively small groups of religious missionaries and their envoys, to private armies funded by opportunists seeking a...
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Maya Structures for Wet and Dry Seasons: Adaptive Strategies and Microenvironments at the Site of Chulub in the Crooked Tree Lagoon System (2021)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
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 study evaluates a water feature and two associated structures within the Late Terminal/Early Postclassic Maya site of Chulub in the Western Lagoon Wetlands near the island of Crooked Tree, Belize. The term “pocket *bajo” is a term used to describe water features that are similar to...
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Modeling Preceramic Occupation around the Wetlands of the Low-Lying Coastal Zone (2021)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
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. While the Late Archaic (3400–900 BCE) has received comparably less research attention than the subsequent Maya period, there has been a surge of interest in this important period in the past two decades. In Belize, the majority of Late Archaic or Preceramic finds occur on the surface and...
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Terminal Classic Ancestors and the Eastern Shrine of Chikin Chi’Ha, Belize (2021)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
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. Investigations of an eastern shrine building in a residential group at Chikin Chi’Ha exposed a complex burial of an adult male and three children under the age of two who were placed near his head and feet. While there is abundant evidence for the construction and use of Classic period...