Yucatec and Gulf Coast Influences in Terminal Classic Western Belize: Examining the Evidence and Processes for Change

Summary

This is an abstract from the "The Movement of People and Ideas in Eastern Mesoamerica during the Ninth and Tenth Centuries CE: A Multidisciplinary Approach Part I" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Archaeological investigations in western Belize have recorded a growing body of evidence that is indicative of non-central lowland Maya influences in this Maya subregion during the Terminal Classic period. Evidence for Yucatec and non-Maya influence in the Belize River Valley is manifested by the presence of new architectural styles and programs, and by the introduction of “foreign” artifacts and ideology. This changing pattern represents a departure from the previous Late Classic cultural tradition which reflects closer ties with central Petén sites. Besides providing evidence for Yucatecan style architecture and artifacts in western Belize, we suggest that these nonlocal traits were likely associated with the waning influence of Petén sites during a period of economic and political decline in the central Maya lowlands, and with the concurrent rise of Terminal Classic polities in the northern lowlands of the Yucatan Peninsula and in the Gulf Coast of Mexico.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• The Movement of People and Ideas in Eastern Mesoamerica during the Ninth and Tenth Centuries CE: A Multidisciplinary Approach Part I   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 36157.0