Search Results

More so than any other area of the eastern lowlands, southern Belize developed a distinctive regional tradition, influenced by its geographical isolation. The major sites in the region share common urban planning and architectural traits not seen in other parts of Belize. Following a description of the natural setting of southern Belize, this chapter discusses the four largest and best-documented sites in the region–Pusilhá, Uxbenka, Lubaantun, and Nim Li Punit. Southern Belize is notable for the high frequency of carved monuments, the small stela plazas, and the curious lack of textual reference to neighboring cities. Another important characteristic of the region is that the major cities lacked Preclassic antecedent architecture, as the region apparently was not heavily settled until the Early Classic period. Southern Belize, isolated and unique, is atypical when stacked along side the rest of the eastern lowlands in terms of chronology, architecture, use of stelae, settlement patterning, and concepts of city building.

In Chapter 2, Keith Prufer and Douglas J. Kennett focus on the long history of human occupation in southern Belize, from initial colonization at the end of the Pleistocene to the present. First occupied by Paleoindians, the landscape of southern Belize has seen 10 millennia of cultural modifications. The authors, drawing on more than two decades of archaeological research, discuss why studying the long historical trajectories of settlements within a region can provide data about how humans adapt and reorganize over long periods of time and insights into underlying processes of resilience and reorganization in response to climatic, demographic, and social pressures. The chapter draws on climate reconstruction data to look at Holocene adaptations to a changing landscape.

This chapter examines the impact of the rise of the sea-level on the civilization especially on the salt production and salt works of Punta Ycacos during the Late Classic Maya period. The discovery and excavation of ten inundated sites that date back to the Classic period in the Port Honduras region suggest and document the Holocene sea-level rise. The production of salt in Punta Ycacos occurred in relation to the surge of settlement in the Port Honduras region and in the inland region of southern Belize during the Late Classic Maya period. However, the collapse of the southern Maya civilization and the abandonment of inland cities in southern Belize and Pasion led to the decline of demand for Punta Ycacos salt. The rising seas which submerged the salt workshops led to the abandonment of Punta Ycacos salt production sites. The sea level played an important role in the Mayan civilization as the level of the sea determined the availability of resources and habitable land for the ancient coastal areas of the Mayan civilization. Although the rise of sea-level cannot be pinpointed as the sole rationale behind the abandonment of the Punta Ycacos salt shops as the extinction of the coastal towns of Port Honduras and the Punta Ycacos salt shops were the result of the complex interplay between cultural and environmental factors, the sea-level at some point did obviate the use of the Punta Ycacos shops during the Postclassic period.