Dating Postclassic Maya Occupation in the Belize River Valley

Summary

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

Gordon Willey’s pioneering work in the Upper Belize River Valley presented some of the first perspectives on household and community archaeology in the Maya Lowlands. Beginning with that work, scholars came to identify Postclassic occupation at sites along the Belize River, primarily at Barton Ramie and later at Baking Pot. However, the Barton Ramie excavations did not provide clear details on occupation after the collapse, given that Postclassic ceramics were only identified after excavations were complete. Willey (1973) presented two contrasting scenarios for the nature of Classic to Postclassic depopulation of the Belize Valley. The first proposed Classic to Postclassic continuity, with slow depopulation over the span of several hundred years between AD 900 and 1300. In the second, he proposed for discontinuity between periods, possibly with population replacement, based on major changes in ceramics between the Classic and Postclassic. Today, most scholars have emphasized the narrative of continuity between periods (at least at Barton Ramie), although recent radiocarbon research (Hoggarth et al. 2014) has questioned that scenario. We discuss a targeted radiocarbon dating program aimed at differentiating these scenarios and elucidating the nature of depopulation in the Upper Belize Valley.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

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

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 37307.0