The Ancient City of Dos Hombres: Material Expressions of Power

Summary

Investigations at the ancient Maya city of Dos Hombres have been guided by an interest in social, political and economic organization, based on architecture and material culture remains. Excavations in the civic ceremonial center of Dos Hombres have been focused in the northern plaza, a very public space that likely was a place of commerce, public ritual and sacred space, thereby the prime backdrop for publicly legitimizing authority. Newly excavated data, especially architectural exposures as well as material culture deposits are presented. These new data are rich with information about public activities and architectural programming at the ancient city. New material culture analyses, including that of the ceramic deposit unearthed from a range structure in the northern plaza are presented. Recent XRF data reveal that most of the obsidian found thus far at Dos Hombres originated at El Chayal, both in the Early Classic and in the Late/Terminal Classic. The resulting lines of evidence delineate various expressions of power by the Dos Hombres polity and elucidate social and economic relationships, both individually and collectively, of the ancient Maya at Dos Hombres and northwestern Belize.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Polities, Hinterland Communities, and Everything in Between: Twenty-Five Years of Archaeological Research in Northwest Belize   •
• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 17142