The Porous Boundary: Understanding Late Postclassic Belize-Petén Interactions through Lithic Technology

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Making and Breaking Boundaries in the Maya Lowlands: Alliance and Conflict across the Guatemala–Belize Border" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The Late Postclassic and Early Contact Periods (A.D. 1400-1697) of central Petén and western Belize are typically characterized by intensive interaction and migration during a time of shifting geo-political divisions. One of the divisions in Belize known as Dzuluinikob (loosely, "foreign people") remains enigmatic in terms of archaeological research, and contacts with Petén are poorly understood. This paper examines various sociopolitical identities across the Petén-Belize border from a technological perspective that includes elements of vertical (generational) and horizontal (contact-related) transfer in lithic technology. Data interpretations suggest not only differences in resource acquisition and production, but also in the use-life of stone tools during a time of known interaction, conflict, and population movements among groups. In addition to marked differences between the two subregions, research reveals unexpected technological similarities between Belize and historic Lacandon populations in Chiapas that could indicate a secondary western movement or technological sharing among groups. Such information adds to our understanding of fluid of boundaries of Late Postclassic polities from perspective that is often ignored.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)   •
• Making and Breaking Boundaries in the Maya Lowlands: Alliance and Conflict across the Guatemala–Belize Border

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 24155