In the Shadow of the Giant: Investigating the Rise and Fall of Settlement Groups Adjacent to Site Cores in the Belize Valley

Summary

Located directly across the Belize River from Barton Ramie, the recently discovered site of Lower Dover has been the focus of intensive research by the BVAR Project since 2011. The major foci of these investigations are to determine the relationship between Lower Dover, Blackman Eddy and Baking Pot, and to ascertain the development of the site within the sociopolitical landscape of the Belize River Valley region. In an effort to address the latter research questions, excavations have focused on both the monumental architecture of the site core, and on plazuela groups in the immediate periphery of the site’s epicenter. One of these peripheral settlements, designated as Group G, consists of 5 mounds that enclose a small plaza just north of the center’s ballcourt. This paper presents preliminary results of our investigations on Group G, and compares the development of this settlement with that of the site center.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 17574