The Maritime Maya: Current Archaeology of Coastal Yucatan, Mexico, and Belize

This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "The Maritime Maya: Current Archaeology of Coastal Yucatan, Mexico, and Belize" at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

“Recognition of the centrality of the sea in the Maya worldview has been slow to emerge.” In the 15 years since those words were written in Fiery Pool: The Maya and the Mythic Sea, this recognition has continued to more fully develop and mature through the work of numerous researchers interested in studying the dynamics of precolumbian Maya coastal life. That publication helped to promote further exploration of the powerful connections that existed between the Maya and the watery world that surrounded them. This symposium presents an updated view from archaeologists, bioarchaeologists, and other related scientists working to reveal the nature of Maya coastal adaptations over time. In the past decade and a half the majority of this research has taken place along the Gulf and Caribbean coasts of Mexico and Belize, and many of the symposium papers center on the ancient Maya. But the sea facilitated the development of sociocultural, economic, political, and biological ties between different Maya peoples and other Mesoamericans and beyond. The papers in this symposium also explore the myriad relationships the coastal Maya developed with other coastal and inland Maya groups, as well as groups outside the Maya world.