Terminal Classic-period settlement has been detected at Laguna de On (Honey Camp Lagoon) and Progresso Lagoon (Figure 17.3). At the former site, this occupation is found in artifact scatters around the shores of the lagoon (which has been heavily impacted by development) and in the final phases of residential platform groups identified at the southwest shore of Laguna de On (Masson 1997). At Progresso Lagoon, Terminal Classic domestic occupation is found in dispersed residential mounds and middens that sprawl intermittently for eight kilometers along the lagoon’s west shore and extend at least two kilometers into modem cane fields along a bluff to the west of the shoreline (Figure 17.3). At least two small clusters of elite platform groups indicate central foci for upper-status ritual and domestic activities along the shore, and the larger center of Rancho Corozal to the north of Progresso may have been an administrative node with influence over the lagoon sites. The two elite platform groups to the west of Progresso have stmctures of modest height (four to five meters).
The island site of Caye Coco (Figure 17.6) was also first settled by Maya populations during the Terminal Classic period, although Preceramic (Late Archaic) deposits are also found on the island. Terminal Classic settlement is reflected in basal deposits of house mounds and middens (Sastry 2001) found in several locations at Caye Coco and in two structures that were initially constructed at this time (Rosenswig 1999; Digrius and Masson 2001). These stmctures rise three to four meters above surrounding terrain and were capped by later Postclassic constmction activities. Fifteen other mounds at this site (ranging from one to four meters in height) fully date to the Late Postclassic period (Rosenswig 1999). The presence of Terminal Classic mounded architecture, house structures, and middens across the site suggest that the island formed a third focus of elite activity, along with the two large platform groups identified along the west shore and Rancho Corozal to the north. At both Laguna de On and Caye Coco, Terminal Classic settlement and the presence of modest ritual architecture suggest that multiple, affluent petty elites occupied these lagoons, accompanied by a population of dispersed agrarian households. These famiUes showed little concern for organizing their communities in a nucleated or centralized fashion. A desire for lagoon shore access may have contributed to the linear dispersion of house mounds along these waterways, although the platform groups are two kilometers to the west of the lagoon, midway between Progresso Lagoon and the New River in a rich agricultural zone. The platform groups may have been constructed in more central places, enabling them to access resources of the watersheds of both the New River and Progresso Lagoon/Freshwater Creek.
World History
