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1. Household Excavations at Aventura, A Northern Belize Civic Center

   Grauer, Kacey; Nissen, Zachary; Dziki, Gabriela; Menz, Martin; Kosakowsky, Laura; Robin, Cynthia (August 2020, Research reports in Belizean archaeology)

   null (Ed.)

   Recent research at Aventura in Northern Belize presents the first glimpse into a range of its prehistoric households from commoners to elites. In summer 2018, the Aventura Archaeology Project (AAP) excavated two elite households and conducted test pits in five commoner household groups. Drone technology provided the ability to create 3D models of household architecture and excavations. Excavations at the elite households consisted of the first horizontal exposure of buildings by AAP and provide comprehensive insight into structures, features, burials, and middens. One elite household compound, Group 48, was located adjacent to one of six civic-ceremonial plazas that make up Aventura’s central precinct. Excavations at Group 48 identified a series of late occupation structures in the group’s plaza areas, one of which was excavated in its entirety. The other elite household excavation at Group 22 was located directly on the edge of a microenvironment known as a pocket bajo, providing insight into the relationship between households and pocket bajos at Aventura. The earliest occupation of commoner households known to date was the Early Classic period, and all elite and commoner households were occupied in the Late Classic to the Terminal Classic/Early Postclassic, coinciding with Aventura’s maximal occupation. These results suggest Aventura was a thriving community during a time period associated with “collapse” in areas outside of Northern Belize. Aventura’s longevity of occupation contributes to the notion that Northern Belize was an important region in the Maya area and pushes back against traditional narratives about Classic Period “collapse.” 

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2. Flooded mangrove landscapes hide ancient Maya coastal sites in Belize

   https://doi.org/10.1080/15564894.2022.2163323  

   McKillop, Heather I (February 2023, The Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology)

   Evidence of ancient Maya exploitation of salt, other marine resources, settlement, and sea trade is hidden in flooded mangrove landscapes on the cays, mainland, and in shallow offshore locations on the south coast of Belize. This paper includes a discussion of the coastal economy from the Middle Preclassic through the Postclassic periods (600 B.C.-A.D. 1500). Data from sites discovered and excavated since 1982 in the coastal area of the Port Honduras and Paynes Creek National Park support a model of coastal reliance marine resources and tree crops. The need for a regular supply of coastal salt to inland cities may have expanded the market for other marine resources. Obsidian imported from volcanic highlands documents long-distance trade throughout prehistory in the area. The island of Wild Cane Cay expanded its role in long-distance coastal trade after the abandonment of inland cities in southern Belize at the end of the Classic period. Inundation of the region documented from the depths of radiocarbon-dated archaeological deposits below the water table and from a sediment core indicates sea-level rise of at least 1m that submerged the coastal sites. The waterlogged deposits provided an ideal matrix for preservation of vertebrate material at Wild Cane Cay. The red mangrove (Rhizophora mangle) peat below the sea floor in a shallow lagoon preserved wooden buildings. 

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3. FACELESS HIERARCHY AT NIXTUN-CH'ICH’, PETEN, GUATEMALA

   https://doi.org/10.1017/S0956536119000105  

   Pugh, Timothy W.; Chan Nieto, Evelyn M.; Zygadło, Gabriela W. (January 2020, Ancient Mesoamerica)

   Abstract Societies vary in how they approach the challenges of increased population, inequality, and occupational specialization. The city of Nixtun-Ch'ich’ and its satellite, T'up, in Peten, Guatemala exhibit orthogonal urban grids—a trait absent from all other known Maya cities. Such grids require extensive planning and the ability to mobilize the population. The present data suggests that Nixtun-Ch'ich’ was substantially larger than any of the surrounding settlements and was, therefore, a primate center during the Middle Preclassic period. The extensive urban planning of the site, as well as that of T'up suggests centralized planning. Yet, we have not encountered evidence of a central ruler propagated as a unifying symbol of the polity. The gridded public streets and lack of a rulership cult suggest that Nixtun-Ch'ich’ had a more collaborative social system. 

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4. Early Pottery and Construction at Nixtun-Ch'ich’, Petén, Guatemala: Preliminary Observations

   https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1017/laq.2019.26  

   Rice, Prudence M. (June 2019, Latin American antiquity)

   Early occupation at Nixtun-Ch'ich’, on the western edge of Lake Petén Itzá, is dated by two ceramic complexes, K'as and Chich. These represent the Late and Terminal Early Preclassic or the early and late “Pre-Mamom” periods, respectively (ca. 1300–800 BC), including a “Transitional” period incorporating Nix Middle Preclassic (Mamom) pottery. Comparisons with complexes at other sites in the region permit the dating of 10 construction loci, including 3 in the civic-ceremonial core. Low late Pre-Mamom platforms were raised and expanded in Transitional and Early Middle Preclassic times, when they were elaborated into two E-Groups and a Triadic Structure on the central axis. This building activity is interpreted in terms of cooperative or corporate labor organization and related to evolutionary game theory. The ritual foundation of such organization is evident in the site's gridded layout based on a mythical world-creation crocodile. 

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5. MIDDLE PRECLASSIC HYDRAULIC PLANNING AT NIXTUN-CH'ICH', PETEN, GUATEMALA

   https://doi.org/10.1017/S0956536121000274  

   Pugh, Timothy W.; Rice, Prudence M.; Chan Nieto, Evelyn M.; Meranda, Marie L.; Milley, David S. (January 2022, Ancient Mesoamerica)

   Abstract Nixtun-Ch'ich', on the western edge of Lake Peten Itza in Peten, northern Guatemala, features an axis urbis and an urban grid dating to the Middle Preclassic period (800–500 b.c. ). New research reveals that Middle Preclassic constructions—five circular or oval artificial pools and planned surface drainage—facilitated or impeded the movement of water. Large limestone rubble lines at least two of the pools ( aguadas ) in the city's core; two pools lie on the axis urbis, demonstrating that they were central ceremonial constructions. The gridded streets facilitated drainage: they consistently slope from west to east and from the center to north and south. In some areas seeing intense water flow, the streets divide into waterways and pedestrian-ways and/or were given special paving. Many scholars argue that water management contributed to the power of despotic kings, but no evidence of such rulers exists among the Middle Preclassic Maya. Nonetheless, we believe that such systems emerged in the Middle Preclassic. Nixtun-Ch'ich' appears to have been cooperative in its organization and its water management system was a public good. 

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