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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. Urban Commoner Households: (In)equality and Daily Life at Aventura

   Nissen, Zachary A (April 2023, Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting)

   Cities are locations of diverse human interaction where persons from different families and social affiliations can gather, exchange goods, and participate in community events. However, the management of these diverse interactions and activities requires social and political systems that do not value the contribution of all residents equally, resulting in inequities. In this paper, I present excavation data collected from two urban commoner households at Aventura to assess the nature of inequality at the site. Illustrated through the horizontal excavation of two commoner households, this paper examines what life at Aventura was like for the city’s lower-status residents. Through a discussion of domestic architecture, ritual practices, and refuse deposits, I argue that while some households at Aventura experienced inequality, they remained active and integrated members of the broader community. I conclude by reflecting on the role that this integration of low-status households played in the city’s longevity and the maintenance of its robust and diverse population. 

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3. Quantitative analyses of wealth inequality at Classic period El Pilar: The Gini index and labor investment

   https://doi.org/10.1017/S0956536123000081  

   Horn, Sherman; Tran, Justin; Ford, Anabel (January 2023, Ancient Mesoamerica)

   Abstract Survey teams at the El Pilar Archaeological Reserve for Maya Flora and Fauna have mapped 70 percent of its 20 km²area and revealed the extent of settlement around the city center. Large-scale civic architecture, and the distribution of smaller ceremonial groups and minor centers, reflect the wealth and power of Maya rulers presiding over the largest Classic period city in the upper Belize River area. Previous analyses suggest disparities in wealth at El Pilar were more nuanced than the elite/commoner dichotomy commonly invoked for Classic Maya society. This article works to understand wealth inequality at ancient El Pilar by computing Gini coefficients from areal and volumetric calculations of primary residential units—the class of settlement remains most likely to represent ancient households. Presentation of Gini coefficients and their potential interpretations follows a discussion of settlement classification and residential group labor investment. We conclude by contextualizing these results within prior settlement pattern analyses to explore how disparities in wealth may have been distributed across the physical and social landscape. 

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4. Aventura in a Northern Belize Context: Challenging Traditional Narratives of Ancient Maya Civilization

   Robin, Cynthia; Kosakowsky, Laura; Grauer, Kacey; Nissen, Zachary; Fitzgerald, Kat (June 2019, Research reports in Belizean archaeology)

   null (Ed.)

   This paper draws upon the results of the 2017 field research at Aventura to illustrate how Aventura research challenges traditional narratives about ancient Maya civilization. The Maya site of Aventura, located in northern Belize, is a community with a five millennia history spanning forager-horticulturalist, PreColumbian Maya, historic, and contemporary periods. The Classic Maya city of Aventura had its heyday during the period of the Maya “collapse.” As a community with a five millennia history and a city that survives the period of the “collapse,” Aventura challenges traditional narratives about the trajectory of ancient Maya civilization. While Aventura lacks extensive trappings of Maya high culture (stelae, hieroglyphs, and tall temples) its long history belies its importance and prompts reassessment of traditional measures of high culture and reconsideration of terms such as collapse and decline. Aventura is not unique in northern Belize in terms of its ability to survive, and even thrive, during the “collapse.” Lamanai, Caye Coco, Nohmul, Santa Rita, and Sarteneja, among others, survive the “collapse.” Originally considered a peripheral part of the ancient Maya world, site longevity in northern Belize challenges the identification of this region as peripheral. 

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5. Households, Workshops, and Household Workshops: Understanding Biface Production in western Belize

   Horowitz, Rachel A (April 2026, Society for American Archaeology Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA)

   Crafting and specialization are frequently discussed topics within household archaeology. Previous studies illustrate that much craft production in the Maya area occurred in households, especially of flaked stone lithic tools. Previous studies of household craft production in the Mopan Valley, western Belize, identified the presence of multiple biface production workshops within the region. The presence of multiple, contemporaneous workshops allows a discussion of the potential for economic competition among lithic producers and an evaluation of the role of householders in regional lithic economies. This paper will examine the role of households in biface production and exchange through the lens of the Manzanero Lithic Workshop, a mostly Late Classic period biface production area in Succotz, Belize. The relationship of the households at the site with the workshop area will be discussed and compared with other household lithic producers in the Mopan Valley and elsewhere in the Maya lowlands. We suggest that biface producers were predominately household craft specialists with workshops located adjacent to the households and that the location of these workshops was based on ease of access to lithic raw material resources. Economic competition among biface producing households may have influenced production activities. 

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