Cara Blanca Pool 6: Colonial Logging and the Evolving Landscape

Summary

Cara Blanca, in central Belize, consists of 25 pools that run east to west along the base of a limestone cliff. The Pre-Colombian significance of the pools has been studied by the Valley of Peace Archaeology Project, yet little attention has been paid to their Post-Contact influence on the local and regional landscape. This paper explores the role that Pool 6, a shallow lake centrally located in the line of lakes and cenotes, played in colonial logging operations around Cara Blanca. The 2014 exploration of Pool 6 revealed equipment used in logging, as well as historic alterations to the landscape that facilitated the movement of hardwoods from inland towards the coast. While this presentation focuses on Post-Contact logging, its theoretical emphasis is on the resilient yet malleable nature of evolving landscapes. Through a relational perspective, archaeological sites lose the label of "in the past" and, rather, reveal their ever-developing life histories. Cara Blanca Pool 6 and surrounding features exemplify how a space—a landscape—can transform while retaining the core of its essence, tying together past and present.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 22231