Buenavista del Cayo Site

Last updated
Map of regions in Belize Belize Regions map.svg
Map of regions in Belize

Buenavista del Cayo is a classic period Mayan urban center located in the Mopan River Valley of Belize. [1] The site dates to 300-900AD and was used as a marketplace for merchants to sell material goods. Data suggests that the plazas were in use from the Middle Preclassic through the Terminal Classic Periods. [2] The Maya lowlands fostered a diverse economy of individuals with different economic goals. [1] Buenavista del Cayo attracted both merchants and consumers from other settlements in the surrounding valley. Evidence found at the site suggests that both practical and prestige items were sold at the marketplace, indicating the presence of both wealthy and poor individuals. [2] Distinct platforms found in the plazas along with the differentiation of goods by material type support the theory that the site was used as a central marketplace in the Maya lowlands. [2]

Contents

Project background

From 1984 to 1989 the Mopan-Macal Triangle Project (MMT) at San Diego State University conducted six seasons of archaeological fieldwork to investigate the sociobehavioral organization of the Maya lowlands during the Classic Period. [1] Surveys conducted in the Valley region of Belize suggested that the area would be suitable for a marketplace. Bernadette Cap's dissertation at the University of Wisconsin-Madison suggests the theory that Buenavista del Cayo was used as a central marketplace for the surrounding lowlands. [1] Fieldwork conducted in 2007 by the Mopan Valley Archaeological Project sought to answer this question through mapping the spatial distribution of different artifacts and comparing them to platform locations. [2]

Site location

Buenavista del Cayo is located in the Mopan Valley of Belize above the junction of the Mopan and Macal rivers. [1] It is on the western side of Belize in the Cayo district. This region fosters diverse environmental zones with different agricultural and material resources. [1] The East Plaza is surrounded by relatively flat terrain and is the largest of Buenavista's plazas. Entrance points into the East Plaza include a causeway in the southwest area of the plaza and a large gap in the perimeter. [2] Buenavista del Cayo has open plazas, unrestricted access, and a layout for easy internal circulation. [1]

Findings

Excavation of the southern region of the East Plaza revealed three short limestone platforms. Ceramics found among these platforms show that they were in use from the Preclassic though the Late Classic periods. [2] In the center of the plaza, a series of large limestone rocks with 20–70 cm of space between them were found. In the southwest corner of the plaza a semi-circular platform dating to the Early Classic period was partially uncovered. Shovel tests conducted across the plaza uncovered chert, ceramic, and obsidian debris. The highest frequencies of these items were located in different regions of the plaza. [2]

Archaeological analysis

The presence of chert, ceramic, and obsidian debris near distinct platforms found in separate areas of the plaza led archaeologists to believe that the platforms were used as vendor stalls. The vendors were likely located in different sections of the plaza, differentiated by the type of goods they sold. [2] The series of large limestone rocks in the center of the plaza is theorized to have been used to direct traffic though the marketplace and differentiate vendor space. [2] Buenavista del Cayo is thought to have been a central marketplace where people from surrounding settlements came to buy and sell goods from the Middle Preclassic though the Terminal Classic periods (300-900AD). The variety of materials found at the site suggest that there was a diverse socioeconomic class ranging from wealthy to poor. [1]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Xunantunich</span> Maya archaeological site in Belize

Xunantunich is an Ancient Maya archaeological site in western Belize, about 70 miles west of Belize City, in the Cayo District. Xunantunich is located atop a ridge above the Mopan River, well within sight of the Guatemala border – which is 0.6 miles (1 km) to the west. It served as a Maya civic ceremonial centre to the Belize Valley region in the Late and Terminal Classic periods. At that time, when the region was at its peak, nearly 200,000 people lived in the Belize Valley.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Altun Ha</span>

Altun Ha is the name given to the ruins of an ancient Maya city in Belize, located in the Belize District about 50 kilometres (31 mi) north of Belize City and about 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) west of the shore of the Caribbean Sea. The site covers an area of about 8 square kilometres (3.1 sq mi).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cahal Pech</span>

Cahal Pech is a Maya site located near the town of San Ignacio in the Cayo District of Belize. The site was a palatial, hilltop home for an elite Maya family, and though the most major construction dates to the Classic period, evidence of continuous habitation has been dated to as far back as 1200 BCE during the Early Middle Formative period, making Cahal Pech one of the oldest recognizably Maya sites in Western Belize.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mopan River</span> River in Guatemala and Belize

The Mopan River is a river in Central America spanning the Petén Department of Guatemala and the Cayo District of Belize. It merges with the Macal River at Branch Mouth, Belize, forming the Belize River, which ultimately discharges into the Caribbean Sea. The drainage area of the combined watershed is 9,434.2 km2 (3,642.6 sq mi). Tributaries of the Mopan include Chiquibul Branch, Ceiba Grande, Salisipuedes, and Delores.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Trade in Maya civilization</span> Transfer of ownership of goods and services

Trade was a crucial factor in maintaining Maya cities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chunchucmil</span>

Chunchucmil was once a large, sprawling pre-Columbian Maya city located in the western part of what is now the state of Yucatán, Mexico.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ixkun</span>

Ixkun is a pre-Columbian Maya archaeological site, situated in the Petén Basin region of the southern Maya lowlands. It lies to the north of the town of Dolores, in the modern-day department of Petén, Guatemala. It is a large site containing many unrestored mounds and ruins and is the best known archaeological site within the municipality of Dolores.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pre-Columbian Belize</span> Belize prior to Spanish colonisation

The Pre-Columbian Belize history is the period from initial indigenous presence, across millennia, to the first contacts with Europeans - the Pre-Columbian or before Columbus period - that occurred on the region of the Yucatán Peninsula that is present day Belize.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sacul, El Petén</span>

Sacul is an archaeological site of the Maya civilization located in the upper drainage of the Mopan River, in the Petén department of Guatemala. The city occupied an important trade route through the Maya Mountains. The main period of occupation dates to the Late Classic Period. In the late 8th century AD through to the early 9th century, Sacul was one of the few kingdoms in the southeastern Petén region to use its own Emblem Glyph, together with Ixtutz and Ucanal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ixtonton</span>

Ixtonton is a Maya archaeological site in the department of Petén in northern Guatemala. It is located in the northwestern portion of the Maya Mountains in the municipality of Dolores. The ruins are situated approximately 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) east of the town of Dolores itself. Ixtonton was the capital city of one of the four Maya kingdoms in the upper Mopan Valley. The site was occupied from the Late Preclassic period through to the Terminal Classic, with some evidence of continued activity into the Postclassic. For the majority of its history Ixtonton was the most important city in the upper Mopan Valley, with its only rivals emerging in the Late Classic. The acropolis at Ixtonton is laid out around two plazas on top of an artificially modified karstic hill.

Colha, Belize is a Maya archaeological site located in northern portion of the country, about 52 km. north of Belize City, near the town of Orange Walk. The site is one of the earliest in the Maya region and remains important to the archaeological record of the Maya culture well into the Postclassic Period. According to Palma Buttles, “Archaeological evidence from Colha allows for the interpretation occupation from the Early Preceramic (3400-1900B.C.) to Middle Postclassic with population peaks occurring in the Late Preclassic and again in the Late Classic ”. These peaks in population are directly related to the presence of stone tool workshops at the site. Colha's proximity to an important source of high quality chert that is found in the Cenozoic limestone of the region and well traveled trade routes was utilized by the inhabitants to develop a niche in the Maya trade market that may have extended to the Greater Antilles. During the Late Preclassic and Late Classic periods, Colha served as a primary supplier of worked stone tools for the region. It has been estimated that the 36 workshops at Colha produced nearly 4 million chert and obsidian tools and eccentrics that were dispersed throughout Mesoamerica during the Maya era. This made it an important player in the trade of essential good throughout the area.

Baking Pot is a Maya archaeological site located in the Belize River Valley on the southern bank of the river, northeast of modern-day town of San Ignacio in the Cayo District of Belize; it is 6 kilometres (3.7 mi) downstream from the Barton Ramie and Lower Dover archaeological sites. Baking Pot is associated with an extensive amount of research into Maya settlements, community-based archaeology, and of agricultural production; the site possesses lithic workshops, and possible evidence of cash-cropping cacao as well as a long occupation from the Preclassic through to the Postclassic period.

Kʼo is one of several Mayan ceremonial center sites around and associated with the Classic Mayan city of Holmul located in modern-day Guatemala. Currently, the site boasts what may be the royal tomb of the earliest known Mayan ruler.

Kʼaxob is an archaeological site of the Maya civilization located in Belize. It was occupied from about 800 B.C. to A.D. 900. The site is located in northern Belize in the wetlands of Pulltrouser Swamp in proximity to the Sibun River Valley in central Belize. Research has shown that Kʼaxob was occupied from the Late Preclassic Period to the Early Postclassic Period. This period in time and the site is characterized by specific ceramic types as well as agriculture and an increase in social stratification. Kʼaxob is a village site centered on two pyramid plazas and later grew in size during the Early Classic Period to the Late Classic Period. The site includes a number of household, mounds and plazas. Kʼaxob is mostly based on residential and household living but also has some ritualistic aspects.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pacbitun</span>

Pacbitun is a Maya archaeological site located near the town of San Ignacio, Belize, in the Cayo District of west central Belize. The modern Maya name given to the site means “stone set in earth”, likely a reference to multiple fragments of stone monuments. The site, at about 240 m above sea level, is one of the earliest known from the southern Maya Lowlands, and was inhabited for almost 2000 years, from ca. 900 BCE to 900 CE. Strategically, it straddles a territory of rolling, hilly terrain between the Mountain Pine Ridge and the tropical forest covered lowlands of the Upper Belize River Valley.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maritime trade in the Maya civilization</span>

The extensive trade networks of the Ancient Maya contributed largely to the success of their civilization spanning three millennia. Maya royal control and the wide distribution of foreign and domestic commodities for both population sustenance and social affluence are hallmarks of the Maya visible throughout much of the iconography found in the archaeological record. In particular, moderately long-distance trade of foreign commodities from the Caribbean and Gulf Coasts provided the larger inland Maya cities with the resources they needed to sustain settled population levels in the several thousands. Though the ruling class essentially controlled the trade economy, a middle merchant class supervised import and export from cities and trade ports. Not much is known of the Maya merchant class; however, merchants of royal lineage are sometimes represented in the iconography. Notably, a canoe paddle often accompanies the royal merchant depictions, signifying their association with marine resources.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Caracol</span> Maya archaeological site in Belize

Caracol is a large ancient Maya archaeological site, located in what is now the Cayo District of Belize. It is situated approximately 40 kilometres (25 mi) south of Xunantunich, and the town of San Ignacio, and 15 km (9.3 mi) from the Macal River. It rests on the Vaca Plateau, at an elevation of 500 m (1,600 ft) above sea-level, in the foothills of the Maya Mountains. Long thought to be a tertiary center, it is now known that the site was one of the most important regional political centers of the Maya Lowlands during the Classic Period. Caracol covered approximately 200 square kilometres (77 sq mi), covering an area much larger than present-day Belize City, the largest metropolitan area in the country, and supported more than twice the modern city's population.

Jaime José Awe is a Belizean archaeologist who specializes in the ancient Maya, a Professor of Anthropology at Northern Arizona University, and the Director of the Belize Valley Archaeological Reconnaissance Project.

Actuncan was an ancient Mayan urban center located in the Mopan River valley in Western Belize near the present-day Guatemalan border. The site sits on a ridge on the western banks of Mopan River, a tributary river to the Belize River. The site was first settled in the Middle Preclassic period around 1000 BC. During its approximate 2000 year occupation history, Actuncan, along with surrounding Mayan sites, experienced a large change in political power during the Terminal Classic period. This change in power led the urban centers to restructure their own political institutions, as well as their spiritual relationship and ritual practices, or face having their centers collapse. While many centers did fail, Actuncan was successful in its ability to effectively restructure their way of life by changing their practices and physically changing their surrounding to address those changes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Preclassic Period in Belize</span> Pre-Columbian period in Mesoamerican history

The Preclassic or Formative Period of Belizean, Maya, and Mesoamerican history began with the Maya development of ceramics during 2000 BC – 900 BC, and ended with the advent of Mayan monumental inscriptions in 250 AD.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Ball, Joseph W.; Taschek, Jennifer T. (1991). "Late Classic Lowland Maya Political Organization and Central-Place Analysis: New insights from the Upper Belize Valley". Ancient Mesoamerica. 2 (02): 149–165. doi:10.1017/S0956536100000481. ISSN   1469-1787. S2CID   153549922.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Yaeger, Jason, Bernadette Cap, and Meaghan Peuramaki-Brown. "The 2007 Field Season of the Mopan Valley Archaeological Project: Buenavista del Cayo's East Plaza and Near-Periphery Settlement." Research Reports in Belizean Archaeology 6 (2009): 209-216.