To date, 81 stemmed and barbed preceramic (Archaic) points (8000–900 B.C.) have been identified i... more To date, 81 stemmed and barbed preceramic (Archaic) points (8000–900 B.C.) have been identified in Belize. Fifty-four are Lowe points; 21 are Sawmill points. Four more are provisionally classified as Allspice and two as Ya’axche’ points. These stemmed bifaces are frequently beveled on alternate-opposite edges and demonstrate variable degrees of resharpening and reworking, which affects blade shape and tool size. Numerous functions have been attributed to these artifacts; specifically, they have been called spear points, dart points, harpoons, and knives. Metric data from these bifaces, limited macrowear and microwear analyses, and design features, such as barbs and alternate-opposite edge beveling, have been used to interpret likely tool functions. Results suggest that Lowe points were affixed to throwing/thrusting spears and also served as knives, whereas the Sawmill points were used as spear-thrower dart points and as knives. New dating information suggests that alternate-opposite...
Data from rock shelters in southern Belize show evidence of tool making, hunting, and aquatic res... more Data from rock shelters in southern Belize show evidence of tool making, hunting, and aquatic resource exploitation by 10,500 cal b.c.; the shelters functioned as mortuary sites between 7600 and 2000 cal b.c. Early Holocene contexts contain stemmed and barbed bifaces as part of a tradition found broadly throughout the neotropics. After around 6000 cal b.c., bifacial tools largely disappear from the record, likely reflecting a shift to increasing reliance on plant foods, around the same time that the earliest domesticates appear in the archaeological record in the neotropics. We suggest that people living in southern Belize maintained close ties with neighbors to the south during the Early Holocene, but lagged behind in innovating new crops and farming technologies during the Middle Holocene. Maize farming in Belize intensified between 2750-2050 cal b.c. as maize became a dietary staple, 1000-1300 years later than in South America. Overall, we argue from multiple lines of data that the Neotropics of Central and South America were an area of shared information and technologies that heavily influenced cultural developments in southeastern Mesoamerica during the Early and Middle Holocene.
We use thin section petrography and SEM-EDS to analyze fabrics, slips, and paints on ceramics fro... more We use thin section petrography and SEM-EDS to analyze fabrics, slips, and paints on ceramics from the Classic Period Maya center of Uxbenká located in the Toledo District of southern Belize. Pottery produced in southern Belize differs from other regions of the Maya lowlands due to the underlying bedrock composed of interbedded calcareous sandstones and siltstone rather than limestone. Our analyses indicate that Late to Terminal Classic (c. CE 600-900) pottery at Uxbenká was produced in five primary fabric groups using locally available raw materials. The composition of red slips is indistinguishable from the associated ceramic fabrics. White and orange slips on polychrome vessels are composed of very fine calcareous sandstone rather than micritic limestone used in other regions. Pottery production changed over time from the Early Classic (c. AD 250/300-600) to the Late Classic Period when crystalline calcite temper was used less frequently. This is the first study to analyze potter...
Recent advances in spatial and remote sensing technology have led to new methods in archaeologica... more Recent advances in spatial and remote sensing technology have led to new methods in archaeological site identification and reconstruction, allowing archaeologists to investigate landscapes and sites on multiple scales. These remotely conducted surveys create virtual cultural landscapes and seascapes that archaeologists and the public interact with and experience, often better than traditional maps. Our study examines landscape reconstruction and archaeological site classifications from a phenomenological and human behavioural ecology (HBE) perspective. HBE aims to reconstruct how humans interacted with these places as part of their active and passive decision making. Through temporal reconstructions, archaeologists and others can experience and interpret past landscapes and subtle changes in cultural land- and seascapes. Here, we evaluate the use of remotely sensed data (lidar, satellite imagery, sonar, radar, etc.) for developing virtual cultural landscapes while also incorporating Indigenous perspectives. Our study compares two vastly different landscapes and perspectives: a seascape in coastal Alaska, USA, and a neotropical jungle in Belize, Central America. By incorporating ethnographic accounts, oral histories, Indigenous traditional knowledge and community engagement, archaeologists can develop new tools to understand decisions made in the past, especially pertaining to settlement selection and resource procurement. These virtual reconstructions become cognitive images of a possible place that the observer experiences. Virtual cultural landscapes allow archaeologists to reproduce landscapes that may otherwise be invisible and present them to different publics. These processes elucidate how landscapes changed over time based on human behaviours while simultaneously allowing archaeologists to engage with Indigenous communities and the public in the protection of prehistoric and historic sites and sacred spaces through cultural heritage management.
The peoples of southern Mesoamerica, including the Classic period Maya, are often claimed to exhi... more The peoples of southern Mesoamerica, including the Classic period Maya, are often claimed to exhibit a distinct type of spatial organization relative to contemporary urban systems. Here, we use the settlement scaling framework and properties of settlements recorded in systematic, full-coverage surveys to examine ways in which southern Mesoamerican settlement systems were both similar to and different from contemporary systems. We find that the population-area relationship in these settlements differs greatly from that reported for other agrarian settlement systems, but that more typical patterns emerge when one considers a site epicenter as the relevant social interaction area, and the population administered from a given center as the relevant interacting population. Our results imply that southern Mesoamerican populations mixed socially at a slower temporal rhythm than is typical of contemporary systems. Residential locations reflected the need to balance energetic and transport c...
The peoples of southern Mesoamerica, including the Classic period Maya, are often claimed to exhi... more The peoples of southern Mesoamerica, including the Classic period Maya, are often claimed to exhibit a distinct type of spatial organization relative to contemporary urban systems. Here, we use the settlement scaling framework and properties of settlements recorded in systematic, full-coverage surveys to examine ways in which southern Mesoamerican settlement systems were both similar to and different from contemporary systems. We find that the population-area relationship in these settlements differs greatly from that reported for other agrarian settlement systems, but that more typical patterns emerge when one considers a site epicenter as the relevant social interaction area, and the population administered from a given center as the relevant interacting population. Our results imply that southern Mesoamerican populations mixed socially at a slower temporal rhythm than is typical of contemporary systems. Residential locations reflected the need to balance energetic and transport c...
<p&amp... more <p>For millions of people living in the humid neotropics seasonally predictable rainfall is crucial for agricultural success and food security.  Understanding long-term stability and volatility of seasonal rainfall distributions should be of concern to researchers and policy makers. However, reconstructions of paleorainfall seasonality in the neotropics have been constrained by a lack of precisely dated and sub-annually resolved records. We present a 1,600-year rainfall paleoseasonality reconstruction from speleothem sample Yok G, from Yok Balum Cave located in southern Belize, Central America. Yok G grew continuously from 400 C.E. to 2,006 C.E. and its age is constrained by 52 U-series dates with a mean error of ~7 years. The isotope record consists of 7,151 δ<sup>18</sup>O and δ<sup>13</sup>C measurements at ~0.22-year resolution allowing us to detect the presence and amplitude of annual wet-dry cycles. In Belize rainfall distribution and seasonality controls are currently dominated by the annual migration of the intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ) with marked meridional contrast.  The Yok G record suggest distinct changes in seasonality at multi-centennial intervals.  The earliest portion of the record (400-~850 C.E.) shows little intra-annual seasonal variation, the period from ~850-1400 C.E. has highly variable annual oscillations and periods of low seasonality, while the period from 1,400-2,006 C.E. shows well developed seasonal signals.  Element ratios (Mg/Ca, Sr/Ca, and U/Ca) are used to assess Prior Carbonate Precipitation in the epikarst system.  We review these changes and the isotopic record from Yok G and discuss tools for interpreting the stability and volatility in seasonal rainfall distributions and possible implications for past and modern agricultural societies. </p>
In the highlands of southern Brazil an anthropogenitcally driven expansion of forest occurred at ... more In the highlands of southern Brazil an anthropogenitcally driven expansion of forest occurred at the expense of grasslands between 1410 and 900 cal BP, coincident with a period of demographic and cultural change in the region. Previous studies have debated the relative contributions of increasing wetter and warmer climate conditions and human landscape modifications to forest expansion, but generally lacked high resoltiuon proxies to measure these effects, or have relied on single proxies to reconstruct both climate and vegetation. Here, we develop and test a model of natural ecosystem distribution against vegetation histories, paleoclimate proxies, and the archaeological record to distinguish human from temperature and precipitation impacts on the distribution and expansion of Araucaria forests during the late Holocene. Carbon isotopes from soil profiles confirm that in spite of climatic fluctuations, vegetation was stable and forests were spatially limited to south-facing slopes i...
Lidar has shown considerable utility for answering specific questions regarding anthropogenic lan... more Lidar has shown considerable utility for answering specific questions regarding anthropogenic landscape alteration in archaeological contexts. We document the extent and timing of these alterations in the construction of the public and political core architectural groups at Uxbenká, Belize, using combined data from Lidar and archaeological excavations. We detail how Lidar methods combined with archaeological excavations enhance the precision of our measurements of the broad range of impacts on the landscape from investment in the built environment. We conclude that the large social investment in landscape alteration to accommodate public architecture occurred early in the polity's history (prior to A.D. 400) and that later developments, including architectural reconfigurations, did not expand greatly on these initial investments.
Cross-culturally we find that emerging leaders in agrarian societies create ritual ties to the la... more Cross-culturally we find that emerging leaders in agrarian societies create ritual ties to the land as a political resource in gaining and maintaining political power. Based on research in ancient Maya caves, we argue that this strategy was used by emerging Maya kings, who used ritual practice in caves to establish their relationships with deities associated with the earth and its resources. These rites bolstered their legitimacy, supported their right to rule, and established a natural political order. This is borne out both ethnohistorically and ethnographically, by examples in which caves figure prominently in the foundation of communities and in establishing geopolitical boundaries that serve to spiritually anchor leaders to the land by providing the most important ritual venue for the propitiation of local deities. In this paper we demonstrate that this practice has a deep history by examining an Early Classic cave site in southern Belize, Kayuko Naj Tunich, and argue that it served as a foundational shrine for the polity of Uxbenká.
To date, 81 stemmed and barbed preceramic (Archaic) points (8000–900 B.C.) have been identified i... more To date, 81 stemmed and barbed preceramic (Archaic) points (8000–900 B.C.) have been identified in Belize. Fifty-four are Lowe points; 21 are Sawmill points. Four more are provisionally classified as Allspice and two as Ya’axche’ points. These stemmed bifaces are frequently beveled on alternate-opposite edges and demonstrate variable degrees of resharpening and reworking, which affects blade shape and tool size. Numerous functions have been attributed to these artifacts; specifically, they have been called spear points, dart points, harpoons, and knives. Metric data from these bifaces, limited macrowear and microwear analyses, and design features, such as barbs and alternate-opposite edge beveling, have been used to interpret likely tool functions. Results suggest that Lowe points were affixed to throwing/thrusting spears and also served as knives, whereas the Sawmill points were used as spear-thrower dart points and as knives. New dating information suggests that alternate-opposite...
Data from rock shelters in southern Belize show evidence of tool making, hunting, and aquatic res... more Data from rock shelters in southern Belize show evidence of tool making, hunting, and aquatic resource exploitation by 10,500 cal b.c.; the shelters functioned as mortuary sites between 7600 and 2000 cal b.c. Early Holocene contexts contain stemmed and barbed bifaces as part of a tradition found broadly throughout the neotropics. After around 6000 cal b.c., bifacial tools largely disappear from the record, likely reflecting a shift to increasing reliance on plant foods, around the same time that the earliest domesticates appear in the archaeological record in the neotropics. We suggest that people living in southern Belize maintained close ties with neighbors to the south during the Early Holocene, but lagged behind in innovating new crops and farming technologies during the Middle Holocene. Maize farming in Belize intensified between 2750-2050 cal b.c. as maize became a dietary staple, 1000-1300 years later than in South America. Overall, we argue from multiple lines of data that the Neotropics of Central and South America were an area of shared information and technologies that heavily influenced cultural developments in southeastern Mesoamerica during the Early and Middle Holocene.
We use thin section petrography and SEM-EDS to analyze fabrics, slips, and paints on ceramics fro... more We use thin section petrography and SEM-EDS to analyze fabrics, slips, and paints on ceramics from the Classic Period Maya center of Uxbenká located in the Toledo District of southern Belize. Pottery produced in southern Belize differs from other regions of the Maya lowlands due to the underlying bedrock composed of interbedded calcareous sandstones and siltstone rather than limestone. Our analyses indicate that Late to Terminal Classic (c. CE 600-900) pottery at Uxbenká was produced in five primary fabric groups using locally available raw materials. The composition of red slips is indistinguishable from the associated ceramic fabrics. White and orange slips on polychrome vessels are composed of very fine calcareous sandstone rather than micritic limestone used in other regions. Pottery production changed over time from the Early Classic (c. AD 250/300-600) to the Late Classic Period when crystalline calcite temper was used less frequently. This is the first study to analyze potter...
Recent advances in spatial and remote sensing technology have led to new methods in archaeologica... more Recent advances in spatial and remote sensing technology have led to new methods in archaeological site identification and reconstruction, allowing archaeologists to investigate landscapes and sites on multiple scales. These remotely conducted surveys create virtual cultural landscapes and seascapes that archaeologists and the public interact with and experience, often better than traditional maps. Our study examines landscape reconstruction and archaeological site classifications from a phenomenological and human behavioural ecology (HBE) perspective. HBE aims to reconstruct how humans interacted with these places as part of their active and passive decision making. Through temporal reconstructions, archaeologists and others can experience and interpret past landscapes and subtle changes in cultural land- and seascapes. Here, we evaluate the use of remotely sensed data (lidar, satellite imagery, sonar, radar, etc.) for developing virtual cultural landscapes while also incorporating Indigenous perspectives. Our study compares two vastly different landscapes and perspectives: a seascape in coastal Alaska, USA, and a neotropical jungle in Belize, Central America. By incorporating ethnographic accounts, oral histories, Indigenous traditional knowledge and community engagement, archaeologists can develop new tools to understand decisions made in the past, especially pertaining to settlement selection and resource procurement. These virtual reconstructions become cognitive images of a possible place that the observer experiences. Virtual cultural landscapes allow archaeologists to reproduce landscapes that may otherwise be invisible and present them to different publics. These processes elucidate how landscapes changed over time based on human behaviours while simultaneously allowing archaeologists to engage with Indigenous communities and the public in the protection of prehistoric and historic sites and sacred spaces through cultural heritage management.
The peoples of southern Mesoamerica, including the Classic period Maya, are often claimed to exhi... more The peoples of southern Mesoamerica, including the Classic period Maya, are often claimed to exhibit a distinct type of spatial organization relative to contemporary urban systems. Here, we use the settlement scaling framework and properties of settlements recorded in systematic, full-coverage surveys to examine ways in which southern Mesoamerican settlement systems were both similar to and different from contemporary systems. We find that the population-area relationship in these settlements differs greatly from that reported for other agrarian settlement systems, but that more typical patterns emerge when one considers a site epicenter as the relevant social interaction area, and the population administered from a given center as the relevant interacting population. Our results imply that southern Mesoamerican populations mixed socially at a slower temporal rhythm than is typical of contemporary systems. Residential locations reflected the need to balance energetic and transport c...
The peoples of southern Mesoamerica, including the Classic period Maya, are often claimed to exhi... more The peoples of southern Mesoamerica, including the Classic period Maya, are often claimed to exhibit a distinct type of spatial organization relative to contemporary urban systems. Here, we use the settlement scaling framework and properties of settlements recorded in systematic, full-coverage surveys to examine ways in which southern Mesoamerican settlement systems were both similar to and different from contemporary systems. We find that the population-area relationship in these settlements differs greatly from that reported for other agrarian settlement systems, but that more typical patterns emerge when one considers a site epicenter as the relevant social interaction area, and the population administered from a given center as the relevant interacting population. Our results imply that southern Mesoamerican populations mixed socially at a slower temporal rhythm than is typical of contemporary systems. Residential locations reflected the need to balance energetic and transport c...
<p&amp... more <p>For millions of people living in the humid neotropics seasonally predictable rainfall is crucial for agricultural success and food security.  Understanding long-term stability and volatility of seasonal rainfall distributions should be of concern to researchers and policy makers. However, reconstructions of paleorainfall seasonality in the neotropics have been constrained by a lack of precisely dated and sub-annually resolved records. We present a 1,600-year rainfall paleoseasonality reconstruction from speleothem sample Yok G, from Yok Balum Cave located in southern Belize, Central America. Yok G grew continuously from 400 C.E. to 2,006 C.E. and its age is constrained by 52 U-series dates with a mean error of ~7 years. The isotope record consists of 7,151 δ<sup>18</sup>O and δ<sup>13</sup>C measurements at ~0.22-year resolution allowing us to detect the presence and amplitude of annual wet-dry cycles. In Belize rainfall distribution and seasonality controls are currently dominated by the annual migration of the intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ) with marked meridional contrast.  The Yok G record suggest distinct changes in seasonality at multi-centennial intervals.  The earliest portion of the record (400-~850 C.E.) shows little intra-annual seasonal variation, the period from ~850-1400 C.E. has highly variable annual oscillations and periods of low seasonality, while the period from 1,400-2,006 C.E. shows well developed seasonal signals.  Element ratios (Mg/Ca, Sr/Ca, and U/Ca) are used to assess Prior Carbonate Precipitation in the epikarst system.  We review these changes and the isotopic record from Yok G and discuss tools for interpreting the stability and volatility in seasonal rainfall distributions and possible implications for past and modern agricultural societies. </p>
In the highlands of southern Brazil an anthropogenitcally driven expansion of forest occurred at ... more In the highlands of southern Brazil an anthropogenitcally driven expansion of forest occurred at the expense of grasslands between 1410 and 900 cal BP, coincident with a period of demographic and cultural change in the region. Previous studies have debated the relative contributions of increasing wetter and warmer climate conditions and human landscape modifications to forest expansion, but generally lacked high resoltiuon proxies to measure these effects, or have relied on single proxies to reconstruct both climate and vegetation. Here, we develop and test a model of natural ecosystem distribution against vegetation histories, paleoclimate proxies, and the archaeological record to distinguish human from temperature and precipitation impacts on the distribution and expansion of Araucaria forests during the late Holocene. Carbon isotopes from soil profiles confirm that in spite of climatic fluctuations, vegetation was stable and forests were spatially limited to south-facing slopes i...
Lidar has shown considerable utility for answering specific questions regarding anthropogenic lan... more Lidar has shown considerable utility for answering specific questions regarding anthropogenic landscape alteration in archaeological contexts. We document the extent and timing of these alterations in the construction of the public and political core architectural groups at Uxbenká, Belize, using combined data from Lidar and archaeological excavations. We detail how Lidar methods combined with archaeological excavations enhance the precision of our measurements of the broad range of impacts on the landscape from investment in the built environment. We conclude that the large social investment in landscape alteration to accommodate public architecture occurred early in the polity's history (prior to A.D. 400) and that later developments, including architectural reconfigurations, did not expand greatly on these initial investments.
Cross-culturally we find that emerging leaders in agrarian societies create ritual ties to the la... more Cross-culturally we find that emerging leaders in agrarian societies create ritual ties to the land as a political resource in gaining and maintaining political power. Based on research in ancient Maya caves, we argue that this strategy was used by emerging Maya kings, who used ritual practice in caves to establish their relationships with deities associated with the earth and its resources. These rites bolstered their legitimacy, supported their right to rule, and established a natural political order. This is borne out both ethnohistorically and ethnographically, by examples in which caves figure prominently in the foundation of communities and in establishing geopolitical boundaries that serve to spiritually anchor leaders to the land by providing the most important ritual venue for the propitiation of local deities. In this paper we demonstrate that this practice has a deep history by examining an Early Classic cave site in southern Belize, Kayuko Naj Tunich, and argue that it served as a foundational shrine for the polity of Uxbenká.
Traditional interpretations of the ancient Maya collapse during the Terminal Classic Period (~AD ... more Traditional interpretations of the ancient Maya collapse during the Terminal Classic Period (~AD 730-910) have favored a quick population decline across the Maya Lowland based on terminal long count dates at large elite centers. However, some researchers have argued for a more protracted sociopolitical disintegration and persistence of populations long after the dynastic collapse in several regions based on evidence from household contexts (Webster et al. 2004). The last recorded long count date at the Uxbenká site core (AD 780, Stela 15, Group A) is thought to mark the decline of elite authority and decentralization of the political economy at the site. This is consistent with termination of epigraphic records in Southern Belize starting first at Pusilhá (AD 731) and then extending northeast towards Nimli Punit (AD 810), suggesting a relatively rapid regional collapse, but work on settlements associated with these centers has been minimal. Excavations conducted at Settlement Group (SG) 37 at Uxbenká in 2011 uncovered residential structures and domestic artifacts along with prestige items (e.g. jade, polychrome ceramics) and formal architecture consistent with an elite residential household that may have been occupied during and after the collapse. Radiocarbon dates place the construction of at least one residence in the Terminal Classic (cal AD 684-806), and occupation may have persisted for a short time after the decline of the royal dynasty at Uxbenká.
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