Ties to the Ancestors: Examining a Late Classic Household at Las Ruinas de Arenal, Belize

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

There has been a long history of settlement and household archaeology in the Belize River valley that has added significantly to our understanding of everyday people in the Maya lowlands. Recent studies that include LiDAR provide a broader landscape perspective. LiDAR can also be useful in determining labor investment in domestic architecture through volumetric analysis, thus allowing for comparisons between households for a more fine-grained understanding of possible social distinctions based on access to materials and labor. Although volumetric analyses are insightful, these analyses need to be coupled with intensive excavation data to provide a more nuanced understanding of the social landscape. Furthermore, it is important to consider the placement of the household in relation to other key natural and architectural features, such as nearby ceremonial buildings. In this paper, I present new data from a Late Classic household at Las Ruinas de Arenal, Belize. This household was built just southeast of the site’s Preclassic ballcourt and E Group complex. Although research on this group is ongoing, preliminary data from volumetric analysis and excavations suggest that this non-elite household may have held a more privileged status within the larger Las Ruinas de Arenal community.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 36980.0