We use the results of a high-resolution lidar survey to assess the advantages and limitations of archaeological applications of lidar data and address some of its methodological challenges. Our data come from the Mopan and Macal River valleys in western Belize, a region that includes several ancient Maya political centers and their hinterlands. Visual inspection of the lidar data has revealed many new sites and new features at previously mapped sites, and these findings significantly enhance our understanding of the valley's cultural history and political dynamics. By comparing data from prior systematic pedestrian surveys, visual and TPI analysis of the lidar data, and analysis of other remotely sensed data, we assess the limits of mound visibility in the lidar data and examine how vegetation and topographic factors impact those limits. We also present slope analysis as a useful tool for predicting whether mounds were constructed in the Preclassic period (1000 B.C.–A.D. 250) or the Classic period (A.D. 250–900).

Stone tool producers in the Maya Lowlands had several types of raw materials from which to choose. Limestone, chert, and obsidian are the most naturally abundant, whereas chert and obsidian outnumber limestone in archaeological contexts. The presence of flaked-stone tools made of limestone is typically attributed to the scarcity of more suitable raw materials. Nevertheless, in chert-rich areas, such as the upper Belize River valley, limestone bifaces and production debitage are present. To understand their presence, we examine limestone biface production and use at Buenavista del Cayo.

Many humans live in large, complex political centers, composed of multi-scalar communities including neighborhoods and districts. Both today and in the past, neighborhoods form a fundamental part of cities and are defined by their spatial, architectural, and material elements. Neighborhoods existed in ancient centers of various scales, and multiple methods have been employed to identify ancient neighborhoods in archaeological contexts. However, the use of different methods for neighborhood identification within the same spatiotemporal setting results in challenges for comparisons within and between ancient societies. Here, we focus on using a single method—combining Average Nearest Neighbor (ANN) and Kernel Density (KD) analyses of household groups—to identify potential neighborhoods based on clusters of households at 23 ancient centers across the Maya Lowlands. While a one-size-fits all model does not work for neighborhood identification everywhere, the ANN/KD method provides quantifiable data on the clustering of ancient households, which can be linked to environmental zones and urban scale. We found that centers in river valleys exhibited greater household clustering compared to centers in upland and escarpment environments. Settlement patterns on flat plains were more dispersed, with little discrete spatial clustering of households. Furthermore, we categorized the ancient Maya centers into discrete urban scales, finding that larger centers had greater variation in household spacing compared to medium-sized and smaller centers. Many larger political centers possess heterogeneity in household clustering between their civic-ceremonial cores, immediate hinterlands, and far peripheries. Smaller centers exhibit greater household clustering compared to larger ones. This paper quantitatively assesses household clustering among nearly two dozen centers across the Maya Lowlands, linking environment and urban scale to settlement patterns. The findings are applicable to ancient societies and modern cities alike; understanding how humans form multi-scalar social groupings, such as neighborhoods, is fundamental to human experience and social organization.

The discovery of Classic Maya marketplaces within urban cores—the seats of royal power—brings into question the potential ways royal rulers contributed to the organization and effectiveness of marketplaces. Though Maya rulership is legitimated through family lineage, engagement in marketplaces could have presented rulers with an additional path toward maintaining order, gaining household allegiance, and accumulating wealth. Using multiple variables, I examine marketplace facilities at the sites of Buenavista del Cayo and Classic Xunantunich, located in the Mopan River valley of Belize. Findings show that the two marketplaces are largely complementary to each other in the types of goods available, suggesting similar functions. The timeframes in which the marketplaces were in use overlap during a transition of power from Buenavista del Cayo to Xunantunich. From this I suggest that the function and success of the marketplaces may have influenced the actions of rulers. In this case, rulers could have influenced trade networks and swayed household allegiances, all the while gaining wealth and power by levying taxes and monitoring wealth accumulation by non‐royal elites.

Chapter 22 examines Classic Maya marketplace exchange from the perspective of the marketplace facility, which can differ or compliment from that which is learned from household-based studies of consumption patterns. Presented as a case study is the Late to Terminal Classic Maya marketplace in the urban center of Buenavista del Cayo where chert and limestone bifaces, obsidian blades, organics, and perhaps ceramics were available for exchange. Insights gained are that limestone tools were included as marketplace trade goods and that the vendors of the different stone stools were also the producers. The discovery of clay-covered wooden stalls that divided activity areas in the facility speaks to the level of commitment to this venture. The presence of a marketplace in the site’s architectural center was likely at the favor of or planned by rulers who would have been positioned to extract from it economic or social capital.