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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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The Ancient Maya of the Caribbean Coast: A View from Wild Cane Cay, Belize
There are contrasting models for the role of coastal trading ports in the Maya economy throughout prehistory, but particularly in the Terminal Classic (A.D. 800-1000). Hammond (1972) presented a model of obsidian trade from the Maya highlands to the lowlands, in which El Chayal source obsidian was transported via inland routes, whereas Ixtepeque obsidian was traded along the Caribbean coast and then inland via rivers to the southern Maya lowland cities. Healy et al. (1984) and McKillop et al. (1988) suggested that obsidian from both sources was transported along the Caribbean coast but that El Chayal was the dominant source used in the Classic period and Ixtepeque during the Terminal and Postclassic periods. Hammond (1976) suggested that offshore trading ports were used as transshipment stations between maritime and riverine routes. This model was adopted by various researchers (Andrews et al. 1989; Cobos 2023; Guderjan and Garber 1995; Graham and Pendergast 1989; McKillop 2004, 2005a). Cobos (2023) asserts that after the abandonment of inland cities in the southern Maya lowlands at the end of the Classic period, the northern Yucatecan city of Chichen Itza developed a redistributive economy based on tribute and controlled trading ports around the Yucatan peninsula of Mexico and Belize. In the Classic period, the island trading port of Wild Cane Cay was integrated into a regional network of trade between the coast and inland communities. The inland trade was anchored by the dietary need for salt, produced on the coast but absent inland where this basic dietary necessity was in demand. The pattern of coastal-inland trade was replicated along the Caribbean coast of Belize and the Yucatan. Abandonment of inland settlements at the end of the Classic period did not end coastal settlement. Evidence presented in this paper illustrates that Wild Cane Cay was as an independent trading port integrated into a regional marketplace economy and not a node on a redistribution/tribute route controlled by Chichen Itza.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1826653
- PAR ID:
- 10526533
- Editor(s):
- Lyell, Victoria
- Publisher / Repository:
- Denver Art Museum
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Mar Caribe
- ISSN:
- 1025-6520
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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