“…Owing to its variety and importance, the corpus of Lamanai is the subject of a separate study by Helmke and Pendergast. The relatively large corpora of monuments from these two large centers is in part a reflection of the size and importance of the sites, as there is a rather unsophisticated correlation between the size of a site and the number of monuments encountered (Andres et al 2014:Table 1; Houk 2015:242–246). Figure 2.Map of northern Belize, showing the location of major archaeological sites where glyphic texts have been found.…”
Section: Corporamentioning
confidence: 99%
“…Aside from the corpora from these two major sites, an important carved stone panel has recently been discovered in the vicinity of the minor center of Tzunun in northwestern Belize (Hanratty et al 2016; Stuart 2017). In addition, relatively small numbers of uncarved stelae (and a few plain altars) are also known from Chan Chich (one), Chau Hiix (one), Cuello (one), Kaxil Uinic (one), Sarteneja (one), San José (one), Aventura (two), Blue Creek (two), Chanchen (two), Gallon Jug (three), Dos Hombres (three), and Tikin Ha (four; Guderjan 2004:241–243; Hammond 1982; Houk 2015:182, 191, 195; Sidrys 1983:23, 82, 114–123, 169–171; Thompson 1939:9). Of these, the stela of Kaxil Uinic and one of the stelae of Tikin Ha preserve faint traces of carving, despite extensive erosion (Brett Houk, personal communication 2019).…”
Section: Corporamentioning
confidence: 99%
“…Peculiar lacunae are the sites of Nohmul, notwithstanding its relatively large size, where no monuments have been found, and Altun Ha, where only two carved altars are known, stelae being altogether unknown, despite the economic and political importance of the site during the Classic period (Helmke et al 2018). Yet once more, this may be a product of site size, for Altun Ha is one of the smallest primary centers not only in northern Belize, but also in Belize as a whole (Helmke and Awe 2008:69; Houk 2015:235–237).…”
The hieroglyphic texts of northern Belize are remarkable for their longevity, spanning from the Late Preclassic to the Late Postclassic (ca. 100 b.c –a.d. 1544). Together, these texts constitute an invaluable body of information that has thus far been generally overlooked and has not been integrated into larger syntheses of the region. This paper provides a diachronic review of the glyphic texts of northern Belize and contrasts them to the wider historical processes of the eastern Maya lowlands. A definition of the northern Belizean region precedes an outline of the corpora of monuments, as well as the textual sources on portable objects. This provides an historical review of northern Belize from the incipience of royalty to the eve of the Spanish Conquest.
“…Owing to its variety and importance, the corpus of Lamanai is the subject of a separate study by Helmke and Pendergast. The relatively large corpora of monuments from these two large centers is in part a reflection of the size and importance of the sites, as there is a rather unsophisticated correlation between the size of a site and the number of monuments encountered (Andres et al 2014:Table 1; Houk 2015:242–246). Figure 2.Map of northern Belize, showing the location of major archaeological sites where glyphic texts have been found.…”
Section: Corporamentioning
confidence: 99%
“…Aside from the corpora from these two major sites, an important carved stone panel has recently been discovered in the vicinity of the minor center of Tzunun in northwestern Belize (Hanratty et al 2016; Stuart 2017). In addition, relatively small numbers of uncarved stelae (and a few plain altars) are also known from Chan Chich (one), Chau Hiix (one), Cuello (one), Kaxil Uinic (one), Sarteneja (one), San José (one), Aventura (two), Blue Creek (two), Chanchen (two), Gallon Jug (three), Dos Hombres (three), and Tikin Ha (four; Guderjan 2004:241–243; Hammond 1982; Houk 2015:182, 191, 195; Sidrys 1983:23, 82, 114–123, 169–171; Thompson 1939:9). Of these, the stela of Kaxil Uinic and one of the stelae of Tikin Ha preserve faint traces of carving, despite extensive erosion (Brett Houk, personal communication 2019).…”
Section: Corporamentioning
confidence: 99%
“…Peculiar lacunae are the sites of Nohmul, notwithstanding its relatively large size, where no monuments have been found, and Altun Ha, where only two carved altars are known, stelae being altogether unknown, despite the economic and political importance of the site during the Classic period (Helmke et al 2018). Yet once more, this may be a product of site size, for Altun Ha is one of the smallest primary centers not only in northern Belize, but also in Belize as a whole (Helmke and Awe 2008:69; Houk 2015:235–237).…”
The hieroglyphic texts of northern Belize are remarkable for their longevity, spanning from the Late Preclassic to the Late Postclassic (ca. 100 b.c –a.d. 1544). Together, these texts constitute an invaluable body of information that has thus far been generally overlooked and has not been integrated into larger syntheses of the region. This paper provides a diachronic review of the glyphic texts of northern Belize and contrasts them to the wider historical processes of the eastern Maya lowlands. A definition of the northern Belizean region precedes an outline of the corpora of monuments, as well as the textual sources on portable objects. This provides an historical review of northern Belize from the incipience of royalty to the eve of the Spanish Conquest.
“…This underlies the issue with simplifying complex issues such as Maya water management (Ertsen & Wouters, 2018) and ignoring the diversity present between and among Maya cities (A. F. Chase & D. Z. Chase, 2016a;Dahlin & A. F. Chase, 2014;Houk, 2015;Hutson, 2016). Models are not automatically useful in and of themselves, without consideration of how and why they are used and built (Till, Haverkamp, White, & Bhaduri, 2018).…”
Section: Water and The Tropical Environmentmentioning
The Classic Period Maya cities of Caracol and Tikal possessed unique urban morphologies of water management. In part, the built environment at each city reflects adaptations to the hydrology of their landscapes. Caracol exists in a rugged, hilly, and karst environment; its residents invested their landesque capital in constructing agricultural terraces and residential reservoirs. These features created Caracol's anthropogenic garden‐city landscape. This landscape was unified through a dendritic causeway system and the distributed nature of monumental nodes. The landscape of Tikal exhibits a lower slope, is generally smoother, and its residents invested in constructing a large and condensed site core along with their monumental reservoirs. Additionally, the people of Tikal invested in bajo margin agriculture. The differences in urban form and hydrology conditioned the resulting water management strategies employed by both cities; the resulting built environmental features are preserved in the archeological record. Because of its higher slopes, Caracol's landscape presents a greater hazard for soil erosion and faster rainfall runoff. Yet, the construction of distributed residential reservoirs and agricultural terraces acted to collect rainfall, increase soil saturation, and reduce this runoff. Tikal's landscape on the whole presents fewer hazards in terms of soil erosion but perhaps greater issues from torrential rainfall. Water management infrastructure at both cities reflects both their unique urban morphologies and environmental conditions.
This article is categorized under:
Engineering Water > Planning Water
Science of Water > Water and Environmental Change
“…Chan Chich is a moderate-size Maya city in the southern part of the Orange Walk District, less than five kilometers from the Guatemalan border (Aimers et al 2020:Figure 1). It is the largest known site in the eastern part of the Three Rivers adaptive region between La Milpa to the north and El Pilar to the south (Houk 2015). The CCAP has investigated the site over the course of 13 seasons (1996–1999, 2001, and 2012–2019), with most excavations taking place in and around the site core (Houk 2017).…”
At Chan Chich, Belize, archaeologists have encountered Terminal Classic artifact scatters and piled artifact deposits in elite residential compounds near the epicenter of the site. This article presents a detailed comparison of four artifact deposits’ contexts and compositions to highlight similarities and differences among them. Commonly classified as “problematic deposits” in the field, all four examples considered here formed directly on floors or steps. Although they exhibit compositional variability, all four deposits appear to be abandonment-related features, which unknown actors deliberately created, specifically targeting elite residential architecture rather than monumental public structures in the site core.
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