Light Comes from the East: The Archaeology of Belize in Historical Context

Summary

This is an abstract from the "“The Center and the Edge”: How the Archaeology of Belize Is Foundational for Understanding the Ancient Maya" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

For more than a century, archaeological research in Belize has been at the vanguard of Maya Studies, contributing disproportionately to our knowledge of ancient Maya civilization. Yet, Belize’s archaeological contributions to the field are often overlooked in many current synthetic statements on the ancient Maya. Research in Belize pioneered the application of settlement pattern studies and also witnessed the initial use of large-scale lidar, building on archaeological data that suggested the need for different organizational models for the past. In fact, Belizean lidar has undergirded new formulations and models concerning Mesoamerican settlements, urbanism, and landscape modification. Archaeological research in Belize has also led the way in studies focusing on Preceramic occupation, human ecology, the rise of cultural complexity, cave research, coastal adaptations, the Postclassic and Historic Period Maya, aDNA, and climate change; this research has additionally shed new light on the transformation of ancient Maya civilization from the Classic to Postclassic Periods. In this presentation, we discuss these considerable accomplishments and further highlight many other significant contributions that archaeological investigations in Belize have made to our understanding of the Maya past.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• “The Center and the Edge”: How the Archaeology of Belize Is Foundational for Understanding the Ancient Maya   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 39020.0