“The Center and the Edge”: How the Archaeology of Belize Is Foundational for Understanding the Ancient Maya, Part II

Part of: Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "“The Center and the Edge”: How the Archaeology of Belize Is Foundational for Understanding the Ancient Maya, Part II" at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

In 1841, following his first historic trip to the Maya World, John Lloyd Stephens commented that between Belize City and the “inhabited part of Central America is a wilderness, unbroken even by an Indian path” and that “residence there is more confining than living on an island” (Stephens 1841:19). While spectacular architectural remains and carved monuments pertaining to the ancient Maya were almost immediately recorded in the center of the Yucatan Peninsula, coastal areas like Belize had yet to yield similar results. Thus, many early archaeologists automatically assumed that what became the modern country of Belize was peripheral or, at best, on the edge of ancient Maya development. For many researchers in the Maya area, especially in modern countries surrounding Belize, this perspective continues to be espoused with little attention being paid to the Belizean archaeological data. Yet, the archaeology that has been undertaken in Belize has contributed disproportionately and significantly to our collective knowledge of ancient Maya civilization. This session highlights the many contributions that Belizean archaeology has made to the broader area of Maya studies and demonstrates how research in Belize has been at the leading edge of scholarly debates on ancient Maya prehistory.

Other Keywords
Maya: Classic • Bioarchaeology/Skeletal Analysis • Cultural Resources and Heritage Management • Dating Techniques: Radiometric • Geoarchaeology • Architecture • Migration • Underwater Archaeology • Archaic • Mortuary archaeology

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 1-10 of 10)

  • Documents (10)
Documents
  • Before There Were Ceramics in Belize (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Robert Rosenswig. Keith Prufer.

    This is an abstract from the "“The Center and the Edge”: How the Archaeology of Belize Is Foundational for Understanding the Ancient Maya, Part II" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The 10,000 years before ceramics first appear is the longest epoch in the human occupation of Belize, and yet the least understood. Many fundamental cultural developments are first documented in what is now known as the Maya region, including management of tropical forest...

  • Bona Fide: Advances in Ancient Maya Bioarchaeology from Belize (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Kirsten Mink. Anna Novotny. Gabe Wroble.

    This is an abstract from the "“The Center and the Edge”: How the Archaeology of Belize Is Foundational for Understanding the Ancient Maya, Part II" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Bioarchaeological studies have taken a central role in developing our current understanding of the sociopolitical and economic organization of the ancient Maya. This is in large part due to advances in methods and theory that allow a deeper contextualization of the...

  • Climate and Cultural Responses in Belizean Prehistory (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Julie Hoggarth. Claire Ebert. Douglas Kennett.

    This is an abstract from the "“The Center and the Edge”: How the Archaeology of Belize Is Foundational for Understanding the Ancient Maya, Part II" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Over the past 25 years, numerous paleoclimate studies have been published across the Maya Lowlands, providing the climatic context for cultural change from Preclassic through modern times. Increasing archaeological studies have followed suit by documenting cultural...

  • Coastal Trade: The Ancient Maya of Belize (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Heather McKillop. E. Cory Sills.

    This is an abstract from the "“The Center and the Edge”: How the Archaeology of Belize Is Foundational for Understanding the Ancient Maya, Part II" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The sea was important to the ancient Maya as a source of ritual paraphernalia and seafood, as a transportation and trade route, and as a desirable place of settlement. The coast of Belize includes hundreds of cays within the second longest barrier reef in the world and a...

  • Community Archaeology in Belize (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Cynthia Robin. Antonio Beardall. Cynthia Ellis-Topsey. Anabel Ford.

    This is an abstract from the "“The Center and the Edge”: How the Archaeology of Belize Is Foundational for Understanding the Ancient Maya, Part II" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper examines community archaeology in Belize: its recent history and contemporary practice. Community archaeology, following the work of Sonya Atalay, is archaeology done “with, by, and for” Indigenous and local communities. It produces an archaeology that is...

  • From Buried Preclassic Villages to the Lexicon for Maya Architecture: The Impact of Architectural Studies in Belize on Maya Scholarship (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only David Mixter. Amy E. Thompson. Terry G. Powis.

    This is an abstract from the "“The Center and the Edge”: How the Archaeology of Belize Is Foundational for Understanding the Ancient Maya, Part II" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In 1984, Stanley Loten and David Pendergast published “A Lexicon for Maya Architecture” based to a large degree on their observations during excavations at Lamanai and Altun Ha, both major Maya centers in Belize. At 16 brief pages of text and nine of figures, this...

  • Genomic and Isotopic Migration and Kinship among the Classic Maya of Belize (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Carolyn Freiwald. John Walden. Rick Smith.

    This is an abstract from the "“The Center and the Edge”: How the Archaeology of Belize Is Foundational for Understanding the Ancient Maya, Part II" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Emerging genomic and isotopic approaches have opened new doors to reconstructing diet, mobility, kinship, demography, and identity in the past and have the potential to transform our understanding of the ancient Maya world. These methods offer ways to reconstruct where...

  • Life on the Edge: Fifty Years of Belize Wetland Archaeology (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Eleanor Harrison-Buck. Marieka Brouwer Burg. Samantha Krause.

    This is an abstract from the "“The Center and the Edge”: How the Archaeology of Belize Is Foundational for Understanding the Ancient Maya, Part II" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In the early years of Maya archaeology, Belize was considered peripheral, and the wetlands were at the far edge of this pseudo-backwater. It was not until Turner and Harrison’s seminal study of Pulltrouser Swamp in the 1970s that Belizean wetlands moved from the edge to...

  • Soils, Water, and Agriculture in the Maya Lowlands: Lidar and Paleoproxies Reveal New Perspectives on Complexity and Resilience (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Sheryl Luzzadder-Beach. Timothy Beach.

    This is an abstract from the "“The Center and the Edge”: How the Archaeology of Belize Is Foundational for Understanding the Ancient Maya, Part II" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Questions of human subsistence, impacts, and response to environmental change have driven decades of research on ancient life in the Maya Lowlands. While traditional geoarchaeology and paleoecology methods have already documented a rich variety of agricultural and...

  • Thoughts on the Most Recent Katun of Archaeological Heritage Management in Belize (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Meaghan Peuramaki-Brown. Shawn Morton. Antonio Beardall.

    This is an abstract from the "“The Center and the Edge”: How the Archaeology of Belize Is Foundational for Understanding the Ancient Maya, Part II" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Archaeological heritage management (AHM) involves identifying, protecting, managing, and preserving material remains of past human activity. In Belize, the Institute of Archaeology-NICH oversees AHM, including archaeological permitting, artifact management (including...