The Economic Base of an Ancient Maya City

Part of the Blue Creek Central Precinct project

Author(s): thomas guderjan

Year: 2005

Summary

Intensive agriculture supported large ancient Maya populations. However, there have been few attempts to understand how agriculture was integrated with the political economy of a Maya city and that city’s interaction with other polities. The site of Blue Creek in northern Belize offers the opportunity to begin to assess these relationships. Blue Creek had access to enormous agricultural resources and direct access to the riverine coastal trade system. The combination of these factors enabled Blue Creek to become a small, but wealthy Early Classic Maya city.

Cite this Record

The Economic Base of an Ancient Maya City. thomas guderjan. 2005 ( tDAR id: 6710) ; doi:10.6067/XCV88P5XGP

Keywords

Culture
Maya

Material
Building Materials • Ceramic • Chipped Stone • Dating Sample • Human Remains • Macrobotanical • Mineral • Pollen • Shell

Site Name
Blue Creek

Site Type
Agricultural or Herding • Archaeological Feature • Ball Court • Burial Pit • Commercial or Industrial Structures • Domestic Structure or Architectural Complex • Domestic Structures • Funerary and Burial Structures or Features • Isolated Burial • Non-Domestic Structures • Plaza • Pyramid • Resource Extraction / Production / Transportation Structure or Features • Settlements • Structure • Temple • Tomb • Water-Related

Investigation Types
Archaeological Overview • Architectural Documentation • Architectural Survey • Bioarchaeological Research • Collections Research • Data Recovery / Excavation • Site Evaluation / Testing • Systematic Survey

General
Blue Creek

Temporal Keywords
Aguas Turbias Ceramic Complex, Late Classic I Period (A.D. 600–750) • Cool Shade Ceramic Complex, Early Middle Preclassic Period (1000/800–650 B.C.) • Dos Bocas Ceramic Complex, Late Classic II Period (A.D. 750–830/850) • Leguas Ceramic Complex, Late Preclassic Period (350 B.C.–A.D. 100) • Linda Vista Ceramic Complex, Terminal Late Preclassic Period (A.D. 100/150–250) • Postclassic Period (after A.D. 1000) • Rio Bravo Ceramic Complex, Terminal Classic Period (A.D. 830/850–1000) • Rio Hondo Ceramic Complex, Early Classic Period (A.D. 250–600) • San Felipe Ceramic Complex, Middle Preclassic Preclassic ( 650–350 B.C.)

Spatial Coverage

min long: -88.888; min lat: 17.868 ; max long: -88.848; max lat: 17.897 ;

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Stephen Reichardt

Project Director(s): thomas guderjan

File Information

  Name Size Creation Date Date Uploaded Access
the-economic-base-of-an-ancient-maya-city.pdf 85.73kb Jul 11, 2011 12:13:31 PM Public