Marilyn A. Masson and Shirley Boteler Mock
He archaeological settlement patterns of northeastern Belize during the Terminal Classic period reveal that coastal or interior wetland locations were attractive places for community establishment or continued occupation. While some upland inland sites in this region were abandoned at this time, other previously established upland and aquatic-oriented communities continued to be occupied throughout the Terminal Classic and into the Postclassic period. Coastal and inland communities grew affluent through participation in maritime exchange along the Caribbean coast that created new opportunities for entrepreneurial growth in the centuries following the collapse of interior Classic-period political centers. Belize communities extracted the region’s rich natural resources and manufactured products from them that were destined for exchange in a burgeoning network of circum-peninsular maritime trade that formed around Yucatan (Sabloff and Rathje 1975a; Andrews et al. 2000). This trade was stimulated by the expansionist military and economic efforts of the core city of Chichen Itza during Terminal Classic/Early Postclassic times (Kepecs et al. 1994). Smaller communities in northeastern Belize (towns, villages, and hamlets) directly participated in this maritime exchange through regional markets or through direct exchange with coastal merchants, and we feel that this pattern directly undermined the economic foundations of older, inland regional capitals in the Belize subregion. This process culminated in the social transformations of the Terminal Classic period and the emergence of loosely centralized provinces that may have been conducive to the amplification of commercial exchange.
17A Map of northern Belize with locations of selected sites mentioned in the text.
This chapter examines the socioeconomic transition of the Terminal Classic from the perspective of a set of sites located at coastal and inland lagoon locations of northeastern Belize (Figures 17.1, 17.2, 17.3). The coastal site of Northern River Lagoon (Figures 17.2, 17.4) is primarily a Late to Terminal Classic site that was abandoned and not substantially reoccupied after the ninth century a. d. In contrast, the coastal site of Saktunja (Figure 17.5) continued to be occupied after the Terminal Classic period (Mock 1994a, 1999) until Spanish contact. At Progresso Lagoon, located along the inland waterway of Freshwater Creek that connects interior sites to the Caribbean Sea (Figures 17.1, 17.2), continuity in site
77.2 Map of Northern Belize Coastal Project sites, showing the location of Northern River Lagoon and Saktunja.
173 Map of northern Belize showing locations of Progresso Lagoon sites and others along the Freshwater Creek drainage.
Occupation is also observed from the Terminal Classic to contact. The island site of Caye Coco (Figure 17.6) was founded in the Terminal Classic as one of several elite shrine centers at Progresso Lagoon and later formed the Postclassic political nucleus of communities scattered around the shores. We outline diachronic patterns in settlement and ceramic production found at each of these sites. Our data
Suggest that northeastern Belize was an advantageous setting for Maya entrepreneurial communities during the Late to Terminal Classic periods. In contrast to other subregions of the southern lowlands, this area maintained substantial population levels throughout the collapse of Classic-period political hierarchies, and it did so primarily through engaging in maritime trade networks driven by the distant but powerful economic interests of the northern center of Chichen Itza (a. d. 800-1000 or 1100, Andrews et al. 2000). A similar strategy may have aided the political center of Lamanai (Pendergast 1986a), one of the few Classic-period centers in northern Belize that never collapsed. Occupational continuity from the Terminal Classic to later periods is variable at the sites where we have worked.
Ceramic data from the coastal sites of Northern River Lagoon (NRL) and Saktunja reveal that inhabitants during the Late to Terminal Classic periods (a. d. 750-1000) were engaged in the production of salt and preservation of salted marine fish. These resources were probably destined for inland consumer sites in northern Belize and other areas reached by coastal canoe trade. NRL probably also served as a coastal trading port for exchange of products obtained from trading canoes to the interior, and delivering interior products to coastal merchants. The highly diverse assemblage of elite and utility pottery types at NRL
17.6 Map of Caye Coco showing the location of all structures, including Structures 1 and 13 that were initially constructed during the Terminal Classic period (all others were completely built during Postclassic), and the location of Terminal Classic middens and features at Suboperations 18, 26, and 38.
Indicates the extent of far-ranging northern and southern lowlands networks to which this northern Belize coastal community was tied through trade. These diverse types include those local to northern Belize, other locally made vessels that exhibit stylistic emulation of decorations and forms popular in northern Yucatan and the Peten interior, and a variety of unique vessels that are either imported or represent local experimentation with new combinations of decorative attributes.
At Progresso Lagoon, Terminal Classic settlement (a. d. 750-950) is dispersed along the west bank of this eight-kilometer-long semi-saline lagoon (Figure 17.3). Two small clusters of elite architecture are found among kilometers of dispersed.
Low house mounds. Maya settlement at the island of Caye Coco began in the Terminal Classic. At least two structures were built at the top of a hill at the center of the island, and domestic platforms and middens are also present (Rosenswig 1999; Rosenswig and Masson 2001). Ceramics at Progresso Lagoon sites bear close resemblances to types defined at Santa Rita, Cerros, and Nohmul (D. Chase 1982b; Walker 1990). It is not known to what degree pottery was produced locally at Progresso or was obtained in markets of the northeastern Belize area. The technological quality of the majority of utilitarian types is poor, and a diverse array of paste groups implies that ceramics were obtained from a large number of producers. The presence of diverse ceramic forms and paste groups at Terminal Classic households at this lagoon implies that the circulation systems for ceramic products made at different communities were well developed, and marketplaces may have facilitated such exchange. Influence from northern Yucatan is observed in some common types present among Terminal Classic assemblages at Caye Coco.
Northeastern Belize was a hub of Terminal Classic settlement and economic activity. Ceramic production patterns were strongly rooted in eastern southern lowland traditions, although they also incorporated stylistic and technological attributes from the northern sphere of Chichen Itza into their changing pottery traditions, and some vessels may have been imported. The exact origins of the slate ware pastes at Caye Coco await sourcing studies planned for the future.
Local economic industries of the Terminal Classic period at Progresso Lagoon were diverse. The lagoon has marine shell resources (conch are still obtained locally), coarse-grained chert resources, forest and aquatic game (and fish), and kilometers of fertile agricultural land. Progresso is located along the Freshwater Creek drainage, one of three inland waterways that link the interior of northern Belize to the Caribbean Sea (Figures 17.1, 17.3). This waterway provided easy access to coastal trading ports such as Cerros, within a day’s journey by canoe. Settlements along the western shore of Progresso Lagoon extend from its bank almost to the margins of the New River, a major parallel aquatic vein located 4.5 kilometers to the west. In addition to extracting local resources, Progresso Lagoon settlements were located between two primary waterways and may have profited from riverine transport of products made at southern interior sites to coastal ports of the Caribbean Sea.
By ca. A. D. 1000-1100, Late Classic and Terminal Classic ceramic types represented at NRL and Saktunja disappeared from local assemblages, and types that are diagnostic to the Postclassic period had replaced earlier traditions by this time. Middens at the island of Caye Coco at Progresso Lagoon provide data on the transition between Terminal Classic and Late Postclassic assemblages. Ceramics in these middens suggest that by a. d. 1000, occupants of Caye Coco ceased to manufacture types that resemble those of the Terminal Classic period. We have identified an Early Postclassic (ca. a. d. 900-1050) assemblage at this site, represented by two primary ceramic type groups: Zakpah Orange Red and
Tsabak Unslipped-Striated, following Walker’s work at Cerros (1990). Zakpah Orange Red is rare at Saktunja and is absent at NRL. The distribution of this pottery type is not well understood. By a. d. 1100, forms and surface decoration of Late Postclassic Payil Red and Santa Unslipped ceramic forms and pastes were established, as the numbers of Zakpah Orange Red and Tsabak Unslipped diminish.
Important differences between Terminal Classic and Early Postclassic-period pottery assemblages likely reflect changes in the organization of regional economies over time. Most notably, the brief cessation of use of pottery similar to that of northern Yucatan implies a breakdown in distant networks prior to the rise of Mayapan to power and the onset of the Late Postclassic. In this chapter we describe variation in ceramic assemblages at two coastal sites (NRL and Saktunja) and two inland lagoon sites (Laguna de On and Caye Coco), shown in Figure 17.1. Patterns at these sites are considered in the context of the history of research on Terminal Classic economic and social organization in northeastern Belize, including problems faced in placing this period within a tight cultural historical framework.
World History
