In bioarchaeology, funerary taphonomy and preservation become part of the biocultural narrative of the dead. We evaluate the role of these factors in reconstructing the identities of those buried in an emerging deathway, the ventrally placed legs flexed (VPLF) burial position, during the Terminal Classic (750–900/1000 CE) period at the Maya polity of Lower Dover in western Belize. The term “VPLF” describes a divergent burial practice which may have resulted from intentional binding prior to burial. In our analysis of VPLF burials (n = 12), we use a two-step process to reconstruct the social identities and potential meaning of the burial pattern: (1) interpretation of the archaeological context based on excavation observations and biogeochemistry and (2) osteological analysis of curated individuals to reconstruct their biological profiles and post-mortem/post-excavation histories. Osteological analyses included age and sex estimation, paleopathological assessment of frailty and trauma, and skeletal modifications from cultural and taphonomic forces. Radiocarbon dating and ceramic analyses were used to date the burials. Stable and radiogenic isotopic analyses were applied to reconstruct diet and mobility for a subset of the VPLF burials. Our results show that individuals were buried in the VPLF position irrespective of age, sex, or social status, consistent with patterns at other Terminal Classic and Postclassic Maya sites, although VPLF interment may have been practiced earlier at Lower Dover. We hypothesize that the appearance of VPLF burials in the Terminal Classic period signified an ideological shift in light of emerging social and environmental pressures in the region.

Western Belize was on the frontier of initial European contact in Central America and experienced the impacts of colonialism indirectly through immigration that brought new goods, foodways, and religious practices. This chapter provides an osteobiography of a young child buried at the site Cahal Pech, located in the upper Belize River Valley of western Belize during the Colonial period (AD 1520–1800). Combining skeletal analysis and mortuary analysis, radiocarbon dating, and stable isotope data about diet and mobility, this study provides the most concrete archaeological evidence for Colonial activity in the Belize River Valley date. While mortuary treatment was consistent with Classic Maya interments, the burial was placed in Cahal Pech centuries after the site’s Terminal Classic (~AD 850–900) abandonment. Strontium and sulfur geochemical data suggest immigration of the individual from the Petén to the west of the Belize River Valley. Evidence of Colonial period site use speaks to the strong connection the Maya had with their ancestors, with Cahal Pech perhaps representing a pilgrimage destination during this critical time of transition for lowland Maya communities.

Recent excavations at the ancient Maya minor center of Tutu Uitz Na in the Belize River Valley revealed an especially large-about 20 million shells-Middle Preclassic (900-300 BC) shell deposit underlying the plaza. Although marine shell species make up a small percentage of the assemblage, most shells are Pachychilus spp., a common freshwater snail known in the southern Maya Lowlands as jute. This report describes the architectural context and assemblage of the deposit and compares it to similar examples in the region. We propose that the Tutu Uitz Na deposit provides one of the earliest examples of depictions of the Maya primordial sea in an architectural context.

The Caribbean & Mesoamerica Biogeochemical Isotope Overview (CAMBIO) is an archaeological data community designed to integrate published biogeochemical data from the Caribbean, Mesoamerica, and southern Central America to address questions about dynamic interactions among humans, animals, and the environment in the region over the past 10,000 years. Here we present the CAMBIO human dataset, which consists of more than 16,000 isotopic measurements from human skeletal tissue samples (δ13C, δ15N, δ34S, δ18O, 87Sr/86Sr, 206/204Pb, 207/204Pb, 208/204Pb, 207/206Pb) from 290 archaeological sites dating between 7000 BC to modern times. The open-access dataset also includes detailed chronological, contextual, and laboratory/sample preparation information for each measurement. The collated data are deposited on the open-access CAMBIO data community via the Pandora Initiative data platform ( https://pandoradata.earth/organization/cambio ).

The Classic Maya polities of Baking Pot and Lower Dover developed along two dramatically different trajectories. At Baking Pot, the capital and associated apical elite regime grew concomitantly with surrounding populations over a thousand-year period. The smaller polity of Lower Dover, in contrast, formed when a Late Classic political center was established by an emergent apical elite regime amidst several long-established intermediate elite-headed districts. The different trajectories through which these polities formed should have clear implications for residential size variability. We employ the Gini coefficient to measure variability in household volume to compare patterns of residential size differentiation between the two polities. The Gini coefficients, while similar, suggest greater differentiation in residential size at Baking Pot than at Lower Dover, likely related to the centralized control of labor by the ruling elite at Baking Pot. While the Gini coefficient is synonymous with measuring wealth inequalities, we suggest that in the Classic period Belize River Valley, residential size was more reflective of labor control. Las entidades politicas mayas clasicas de Baking Pot y Lower Dover se desarrollaron a lo largo de dos trayectorias dramaticamente diferentes. En Baking Pot, la capital y el regimen de elite apical asociado crecieron junto con las poblaciones circundantes durante un periodo de mil anos. La entidad politica mas pequena de Lower Dover, por el contrario, se formo cuando un centro politico del clasico tardio fue establecido por un regimen de elite apical emergente en medio de varios distritos encabezados por elites intermedias establecidas desde hace mucho tiempo. Las diferentes trayectorias a traves de las cuales se formaron estas politicas deberian tener claras implicaciones para la desigualdad residencial. Empleamos el coeficiente de Gini para medir la variabilidad en el volumen de las plataformas domesticas para comparar los patrones de diferenciacion del tamano residencial entre las dos entidades politicas. Los coeficientes de Gini, aunque similares, sugieren una mayor diferenciacion en el tamano residencial en Baking Pot que en Lower Dover, probablemente relacionado con el control centralizado del trabajo por parte de la elite gobernante en Baking Pot. Si bien el coeficiente de Gini es sinonimo de medir las desigualdades de riqueza, sugerimos que en el periodo clasico del Valle del Rio Belice, el tamano residencial reflejaba mas el control laboral.

Mesoamerica's Formative period was one of the most critical transitions in social, political, and economic dynamics in the region. Over the course of ∼2000 years, communities settled on the landscape, committed to agriculture, adopted pottery technology, and started building monumental constructions. By the end of this era, most people lived in highly stratified state-level societies, and cities dominated the social and political landscape. This review traces the emergence of Formative cultural traits and social structures to appreciate how this important period set the stage for the rise of later Classic and Postclassic societies across Mesoamerica.

Land use practices have had important implications for structuring household inequalities and broader political systems in the past. Our contribution examines settlement patterns in relation to political structure, household wealth, ecological productivity and agricultural techniques. Combining settlement pattern data with high–precision soils data, we examine the extent to which different trajectories of polity formation impact the settlement location and land use practices of intermediate elites and commoners. The Classic Maya (CE 250/300–900) polities of Baking Pot and Lower Dover in the Upper Belize River Valley serve as enlightening case studies because despite being situated near one another, the two centers emerged along very different trajectories. Whereas the polity of Baking Pot arose slowly, in tandem with surrounding demography, the neighboring polity of Lower Dover arose rapidly in the Late Classic period (CE 600–900) in an area which was already home to established local populations. Our analysis shows that while Baking Pot had substantial settlement clustering around its epicenter, populations at Lower Dover aggregated around secondary and tertiary centers farther away from the polity core. Analyses also demonstrate that most commoner and intermediate elite residences were situated on the most productive agricultural lands in the region, though some intermediate elite households were situated on hilltops or in border zones with marginal soil productivity for political and tactical reasons. Commoner households were situated on a range of productivity zones reflecting diverse land–use practices which had implications for household wealth. Our case study illustrates the importance of integrating land use practices into our reconstructions of ancient political hierarchies, especially in terms of understanding political strategies and household wealth.

Archaeological investigations in western Belize have recorded a growing body of evidence that is indicative of non-central lowland Maya influences in this Maya sub-region during the Terminal Classic period. Evidence for Yucatec and non-Maya influence in the Belize River Valley is manifested by the presence of new architectural styles and programs, and by the introduction of “foreign” artifacts and ideologically charged symbols. These cultural changes represent a departure from the previous Late Classic cultural tradition which reflects closer ties with central Peten sites. Besides providing evidence for Yucatecan style architecture and artifacts in western Belize, we suggest that these non-local traits were likely associated with the waning influence of Peten sites during a period of economic and political decline in the central Maya lowlands, and with the concurrent rise of Terminal Classic polities in the northern lowlands of the Yucatan Peninsula and the Gulf Coast of Mexico.

Previous articleNext article No AccessBook ReviewsSustainability and Water Management in the Maya World and Beyond. Jean T. Larmon, Lisa J. Lucero, and Fred Valdez Jr., eds. Louisville: University Press of Colorado, 2022, 268 pp. $67.00, cloth. ISBN 978-1-64642-231-9.Claire E. EbertClaire E. EbertUniversity of Pittsburgh Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmailPrint SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Journal of Anthropological Research Volume 79, Number 1Spring 2023 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/723073 Views: 14Total views on this site For permission to reuse, please contact [email protected]PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

Many humans live in large, complex political centers, composed of multi-scalar communities including neighborhoods and districts. Both today and in the past, neighborhoods form a fundamental part of cities and are defined by their spatial, architectural, and material elements. Neighborhoods existed in ancient centers of various scales, and multiple methods have been employed to identify ancient neighborhoods in archaeological contexts. However, the use of different methods for neighborhood identification within the same spatiotemporal setting results in challenges for comparisons within and between ancient societies. Here, we focus on using a single method-combining Average Nearest Neighbor (ANN) and Kernel Density (KD) analyses of household groups-to identify potential neighborhoods based on clusters of households at 23 ancient centers across the Maya Lowlands. While a one-size-fits all model does not work for neighborhood identification everywhere, the ANN/KD method provides quantifiable data on the clustering of ancient households, which can be linked to environmental zones and urban scale. We found that centers in river valleys exhibited greater household clustering compared to centers in upland and escarpment environments. Settlement patterns on flat plains were more dispersed, with little discrete spatial clustering of households. Furthermore, we categorized the ancient Maya centers into discrete urban scales, finding that larger centers had greater variation in household spacing compared to medium-sized and smaller centers. Many larger political centers possess heterogeneity in household clustering between their civic-ceremonial cores, immediate hinterlands, and far peripheries. Smaller centers exhibit greater household clustering compared to larger ones. This paper quantitatively assesses household clustering among nearly two dozen centers across the Maya Lowlands, linking environment and urban scale to settlement patterns. The findings are applicable to ancient societies and modern cities alike; understanding how humans form multi-scalar social groupings, such as neighborhoods, is fundamental to human experience and social organization.

Production and consumption of pottery tempered with fresh volcanic ash peaked in the Late to Terminal Classic periods in the Maya lowlands. Differences in the type of volcanic inclusion and vessel form indicate that the pottery was produced in multiple locations by different groups of potters. In this article, we characterize pottery from household contexts at Baking Pot, Belize, using thin-section petrography and neutron activation analysis (NAA) to document mineralogical and chemical variability and determine provenance. The pottery was produced by adding fresh volcanic ash to a micritic clay. The petrographic and chemical data indicate that this paste recipe was produced locally in the Belize Valley. Variation in the paste recipes used is likely due to both production differences and postdepositional alteration. We argue that it is critical to use both petrography and NAA to understand pottery production and provenance in the Maya region.

This chapter examines Classic to Postclassic population dynamics throughout the tenth b'ak'tun in the Belize River Valley to explore the topic of demographic decline in greater depth. It also examines patterns in archaeological, epigraphic, and isotopic data from human remains to understand changing population dynamics in Belize Valley at the end of the Classic period. The chapter identifies evidence for rapid population decline that corresponds to an increase in atypical burial patterns and non-local strontium isotope signatures at the sites of Baking Pot, Barton Ramie, and Cahal Pech. The Belize Valley is best-known as the location of Gordon Willey's pioneering settlement archaeology research of the 1950s. The Early Classic period is not well-understood in the Belize River Valley, to great degree because local Preclassic ceramics were not rapidly or completely replaced by Tepeu sphere pottery. An impressive number of elaborate Late Classic royal and elite tombs containing a wealth of imported grave goods also have been identified at Baking Pot.

The populations that occupied these early villages practiced maize agriculture and engaged in long-distance interactions at an ever-increasing frequency. The Middle Preclassic period also was characterized by important changes in the local pottery tradition of the Belize Valley, reflecting increasing contact and interaction with other regions of the Maya lowlands. War and other forms of conflict play central roles in theories that explain the development of sociopolitical complexity, in part because they achieve political and ideological objectives. Archaeologists have used settlement pattern data to infer the practice of ancient Maya warfare as well as to investigate strategies and tactics. The identification of profaning or violent termination rituals also has been used by some researchers as evidence for warfare. Changes in the production and distribution of goods, including pottery, also have been used as data to identify and interpret ancient warfare.

We thank our colleague for his comment, address concerns raised, and encourage future collaborative research to answer important questions about the Middle Preclassic at Cahal Pech.

Archaeologists and demographers increasingly employ aggregations of published radiocarbon (14C) dates as demographic proxies summarizing changes in human activity in past societies. Presently, summed probability densities (SPDs) of calibrated radiocarbon dates are the dominant method of using 14C dates to reconstruct demographic trends. Unfortunately, SPDs are incapable of converging on the distribution that generated a set of radiocarbon measurements, even when the number of observations is large. To overcome this problem, we propose a more principled alternative that combines finite mixture models and end-to-end Bayesian inference. Numerical simulations and an assessment of the statistical identifiability of our method demonstrate that it correctly converges on the generating distribution for two important models, exponentials and finite Gaussian mixtures, at least if the same statistical model is used to fit the data as was used to generate the data. To further validate this approach, we apply it to a set of radiocarbon dates from the Maya city of Tikal. We show that an end-to-end approach reconstructs with high accuracy expert demographic reconstructions based on settlement patterns and ceramics, but with more precise time-resolution and characterization of uncertainty than has heretofore been possible. Future work should consider alternatives to finite Gaussian mixtures for fitting the generating distribution.

The Mesoamerican Radiocarbon Database (MesoRAD) compiles radiocarbon dates from the archaeological literature of Mesoamerica. The inaugural data set, 'Lowland Maya Dates', includes 1846 radiocarbon dates from 132 sites in 21 distinct environmental zones in the Maya lowlands. These data span the Paleoindian to Colonial Periods (11,670 to 190 uncal BP, 13,740 cal BP to modern) across southern Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras. Here, we describe the methods used to compile and organize these dates, including the spatial, chronological, and environmental coverage of the data set.

AbstractThe transition from the Late Archaic to the Late Early Formative period witnessed profound changes in the Maya lowlands. In addition to the establishment of the first settlements and agrarian communities, this critical phase of cultural development heralded the introduction of ceramics, saw changes in lithic technology, gave rise to inter-regional trade and exchange, and witnessed the introduction of a complex symbolic system expressed on portable objects. In this article, we synthesize data collected over the past several decades by various archaeological projects in western Belize to provide an overview of the cultural changes that unfolded during the Late Archaic to Late Early Formative period in the Upper Belize River Valley. We also provide evidence indicating that it was during this critical transitional period that we begin to see the establishment of several cultural traditions that became uniquely lowland Maya.

Recent investigations at Cahal Pech, Belize, documented a previously unrecognized Middle Preclassic (700–500 cal BC) E-Group complex. Located in an open public plaza, the monumental complex likely functioned as a forum for communal public events. In the Late Preclassic, the E-Group was replaced by an ancestor shrine where several royal tombs are located, as well as buildings separating public civic space from private elite space. These shifts in monumental construction temporally track the development of ideological manifestations of power and provide evidence for the formalization of dynastic rulership by an emerging elite class.