Archaeologists are regularly asked to present public programs. The audiences are varied, as are the settings. Often, the programs are one-time events, and archaeologists usually talk about current or favorite projects. However, public programs may run into unexpected problems because they take archaeologists into unfamiliar situations. In addition, not all programs, including some that seem successful, leave the audience with the message the archaeologist intended to convey; occasionally, the audience will even receive the opposite message. This article is designed to help anyone preparing public programs to avoid some common problems. The lessons fit into three groups. The first group consists of knowledge lessons: know your audience, know their interests, and know their community. The second group consists of logistical lessons: how many programs or classes should be involved? How long should each program last, and what facilities should be used? The third group consists of development lessons for both you and your audience, including building goals and objectives into the program and using appropriate assessment methods. It also includes creating networks that support your program. Can you develop the individual encounters into a coherent approach? Whether a program is designed for a single school class of 30 fourth graders or for a booth at a county fair visited by 4,000 fairgoers, each one should be designed to provide a coherent message to the audience.

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This chapter examines regional and long-distance trade in several types of lithic artifacts, both chert and obsidian, among communities on Corozal Bay (southern Chetumal Bay), particularly Santa Rita Corozal and Cerro Maya, and interior northern Belize. In this region, there is substantial evidence for trade in stone tools made in northern Belize as well as exchange in imported obsidian. Although trade in stone tools was a long-standing tradition on the bay, this chapter focuses on the Late Preclassic period. During this era, communities around Corozal Bay participated in a vibrant commerce between sites on the Caribbean coast of Yucatán and settlements further inland, particularly Colha, a commercial scale stone tool production center situated on an outcrop of high quality chert. During the Late Preclassic, tranchet adzes, stemmed macroblades, and oval bifaces were exported from Colha in massive quantity.