Aventura: An Introduction

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Households at Aventura: Life and Community Longevity at an Ancient Maya City" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Urban households anchor the first decade of research at the Maya site of Aventura, Belize, situating the daily lives of the city’s heterogenous residents. They also illuminate social, political, economic, and environmental factors that enhanced life in the community. Summarizing research results of the Aventura Archaeology Project from 2014 to 2023, I begin with an overview of the Classic period city, couched within Aventura’s broader 5,000-year history. I highlight previous research, key theoretical frameworks, and methodologies that enable and crosscut the research of project members. This research has been a collaborative effort from its inception. In developing the Aventura Archaeology Project, we drew on the previous research of Raymond Sidrys (1974, UCLA) and the Belize Institute of Archaeology (2007), as well as conversations with local cultural heritage leaders and community members. Our research is animated by the themes: household, community, landscape, city, longevity, and the entwined nature of studying ancient communities and collaboration with contemporary communities. Our methodology of bringing together a study of urban households and an analytical focus on multiple lines of evidence affords a deeper understanding of both daily life and the organization and operation of the city.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Households at Aventura: Life and Community Longevity at an Ancient Maya City   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 36978.0