"Pots, Potters, …and Polities": Classic Period Ceramic Spheres and Systems at Aventura, Northern Belize, and the Legacy of Joe Ball

Summary

Early work in the 1970’s by Joe Ball on Northern Belize ceramics from the site of Aventura highlighted its geopolitical location between multiple spheres of interaction. These spheres, reflected in the ceramics of the Classic Period, demonstrate that Aventura’s intermediary position between the cities of the Petén to the west, and the Yucatan to the north no doubt contributed to its success and long occupation. My own research on the Aventura ceramics, begun in 2015 as part of the Aventura Archaeology Project, supports Joe Ball’s early observations on Classic Period ceramics in Northern Belize. Furthermore, his important definitions of ceramic spheres and systems provide an excellent way to frame Aventura’s long chronology and inter-regional connections through time. While still in its preliminary stages, I am hopeful that continuing work on the ceramics of Aventura will go beyond establishing a site and regional chronology, and highlighting inter-site connections, to telling us something more about "ancient Maya economic systems, political history, ceremonial behavior, ideology, societal structure, and community organization." (Ball 1993)

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): 18865