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Abstract The fourth millennium b.p. in the Maya lowlands provides an interesting case, with mobile, aceramic peoples documented, while ceramic-using villagers lived in other parts of Mesoamerica. Rather than ask why ceramic containers and village life took so long to reach the Maya lowlands, the question can be inverted to posit that a mixed horticultural-foraging adaptation was so effective that it persisted longer than elsewhere. I propose that the so-called 4.2 ka b.p. event was the ultimate cause of increased sedentism and the first adoption of ceramic containers in a limited number of regions of Mesoamerica. My musings are grounded in the comparisons of data from the Soconusco region of southern Mexico and evidence from northern Belize at Colha and Pulltrouser Swamp, as well as the Freshwater Creek drainage. I assume that proximate behavior must account for local adaptations and different rates of change in each region of Mesoamerica. Therefore, regional adaptation in northern Belize during the Late Archaic period provides the evidence with which to reconstruct local adaptation. Excavations and regional reconnaissance document a distinctive orange soil horizon at Progresso Lagoon associated with patinated chert tools and an absence of ceramics. Stone tool assemblages from the preceramic components of three sites in the region indicate a spatial separation of tool use and resharpening at island versus shore. Starch grains recovered from these stone tools indicate that preceramic peoples in northern Belize harvested maize and several other domesticated plant species. These data are consistent with local paleoenvironmental studies that document an extended period of horticultural activity during the fifth and fourth millennia b.p. prior to the adoption of ceramics. Lithic assemblages and associated dietary information from multiple sites provide glimpses of the data necessary to reconstruct Late Archaic period adaptation from a single locale. Such data will be required to understand the proximate causes for the transition to a more settled, village life.
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IDENTIFYING LOCAL AND NON-LOCAL POTTERY IN THREE TOMBS AT UXBENKÁ, TOLEDO DISTRICT: RESULTS OF THIN SECTION ANALYSIS
Southern Belize has received less archaeological attention than other areas due in large part to its remote location. However, the difficulty in accessing the area in recent times does not necessarily equate to isolation for the Classic Period Maya who lived in what is now the Toledo District. This paper discusses petrographic data collected on ceramic vessels recovered from burial contexts at Uxbenká, Belize. The partial and reconstructed whole vessels from these primary contexts include locally produced vessels that are stylistically and technologically unique to the southern Belize region and vessels produced elsewhere. We use these data to evaluate how local Uxbenká potters produced ceramic vessels for local consumption and to identify long-distance interaction networks between Uxbenká and other regions of the Maya Lowlands. Our data indicate that most of the pottery at Uxbenká was produced locally. However, elite tombs often include both local and non-local vessels. The elites of Uxbenká engaged in interaction with people living much farther afield in regions like the Belize River Valley and possibly Guatemala.
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- PAR ID:
- 10302541
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Research reports in Belizean archaeology
- Volume:
- 17
- ISSN:
- 2079-1038
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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