The Maya at Spanish Contact in the Lower Belize River Watershed

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Archaeology and the History of Human-Environment Interaction in the Lower Belize River Watershed" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Throughout the colonial period the Mérida-based Spanish administration organized and launched multiple entradas headed south into the Petén. These entradas ranged from relatively small groups of religious missionaries and their envoys, to private armies funded by opportunists seeking a reward of prestige and political power. The goals of these advances included the conversion of Maya people living as non-Christians in the areas beyond the reach of the colonial church network, toppling what has been deemed the “Last Maya Kingdom,” capturing Maya laborers who had fled their colonial circumstances, and securing the untamed area beyond the southern border of administrative control. For over a century, these largely unsuccessful entrada efforts left their mark on the historical and archaeological record. Many of these journeys traversed the survey area of the Belize River East Archaeological Project (BREA). This paper presents the results of the ongoing BREA efforts to gather the documentary and archaeological evidence for these earliest European incursions into this portion of Belize and characterize the landscapes and communities they encountered.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Archaeology and the History of Human-Environment Interaction in the Lower Belize River Watershed   •
• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)

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Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 32775