The Sacred Landscape of Xunantunich, Belize

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Manifesting Movement Materially: Broadening the Mesoamerican View" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Early Maya communities centered themselves within a broader sacred landscape imbued with meaning through ritual practices. Centuries of movement through the landscape converted spaces into places that were deeply rooted in cosmology and social memory. Ritual practices at the center of the community and important places in the cardinal or inter-cardinal directions were integral to establishing the community’s sacred center and maintaining cosmological order. These important places include natural features such as hilltops and caves, as well as constructed features such as platforms and pyramids. In this brief presentation, we discuss the sacred landscape of Early Xunantunich during the Preclassic period and highlight changes and transformations that occurred during the Classic period.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Manifesting Movement Materially: Broadening the Mesoamerican View   •
• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 25351