New Developments at Colha and Tzak Naab: Geophysical Survey and Faunal Remains

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Sessions in Honor of Dr. Fred Valdez Jr. and His Contributions to Archaeology, Part 1" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

During the summers of 2023 and 2024, new archaeological efforts were undertaken at the ancient Maya sites of Colha and Tzak Naab in northern Belize. At Colha in 2023, a Postclassic (1000-1500 CE) midden was uncovered and magnetometry surveys were completed in the main plaza and south of the main plaza to complement excavations. Magnetometry survey was also utilized at Tzak Naab in 2023 and this survey was ground truthed in 2024. The focus of this paper will be threefold 1) Present an overview of the midden excavations and new faunal data from the Postclassic midden. The faunal data provides new insights into Postclassic foodways. The zooarchaeological analysis offers insights into taphonomic processes including surface modification marks, contributing to a deeper understanding of Postclassic foodways 2) Discuss magnetometry survey collected from Colha and how the survey data will aid future excavations 3) Provide an overview of field efforts at Tzak Naab to train students in magnetometry survey in 2023 and search for previous construction phrases below the ground surface. Additionally, this part of the presentation will discuss ground truthing efforts in 2024, the results of these efforts, and how this new information will help guide future excavations at Tzak Naab.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Sessions in Honor of Dr. Fred Valdez Jr. and His Contributions to Archaeology, Part 1   •
• Society for American Archaeology 90th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (2025)

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 51597