Early Middle Formative Occupation in the Central Maya Lowlands: Recent Evidence from Cahal Pech, Belize

AMS14C Dating of Preclassic to Classic Period Household Construction in the Ancient Maya Community of Cahal Pech, Belize

“…As the first directly dated sequence for a residential settlement at Cahal Pech, our results provide an initial framework for understanding the growth and decline of households around the site center, and differences between cultural developments within house groups and the civic-ceremonial site core. We compare our results to previous conventional radiocarbon dates from the Cahal Pech site core sampled from Preclassic contexts (Awe 1992; Healy and Awe 1995), and to relatively dated sequences from both the site core and to other hinterland house groups from the Preclassic through Terminal Classic periods. While the sample of 14 C dates for the Tzutziiy K’in settlement group is small, the stratigraphic models presented here can be used to guide future research focused on collecting additional 14 C samples at the site for undated events, as well as generating comparable data sets from other house groups to reconstruct broader spatial, demographic, and sociopolitical developments at Cahal Pech and in the Belize Valley.…”

“…Stratigraphic excavations conducted in the site core in Plaza B identified contexts representing the earliest permanent settlement at Cahal Pech dating to 1200–900 cal BC, associated with the first documented ceramics (Cunil ceramic complex) in the region (Sullivan and Awe 2013). During this time, the Maya of the Belize Valley lived in small, relatively egalitarian, and economically autonomous household groups (Awe 1992; Healy and Awe 1995; Clark and Cheetham 2002). A limited program of 14 C dating in the early 1990s was aimed at understanding the timing of the foundation and early growth of Cahal Pech into a major civic-ceremonial center during the Early to Late Preclassic periods (Awe 1992; Healy et al 2004a; Awe and Helmke 2005).…”

“…During this time, the Maya of the Belize Valley lived in small, relatively egalitarian, and economically autonomous household groups (Awe 1992; Healy and Awe 1995; Clark and Cheetham 2002). A limited program of 14 C dating in the early 1990s was aimed at understanding the timing of the foundation and early growth of Cahal Pech into a major civic-ceremonial center during the Early to Late Preclassic periods (Awe 1992; Healy et al 2004a; Awe and Helmke 2005). The clearest evidence for social differentiation at Cahal Pech appeared during the Late Preclassic, when the presence of monumental architecture and the first elaborate tombs suggest it was the seat of power for a small regional polity (Awe 1992, 2013; Healy et al 2004a; Garber and Awe 2008).…”

“…A limited program of 14 C dating in the early 1990s was aimed at understanding the timing of the foundation and early growth of Cahal Pech into a major civic-ceremonial center during the Early to Late Preclassic periods (Awe 1992; Healy et al 2004a; Awe and Helmke 2005). The clearest evidence for social differentiation at Cahal Pech appeared during the Late Preclassic, when the presence of monumental architecture and the first elaborate tombs suggest it was the seat of power for a small regional polity (Awe 1992, 2013; Healy et al 2004a; Garber and Awe 2008). Other large, formally organized civic centers were also established during the Late Preclassic throughout the Belize Valley including Blackman Eddy, Xunantunich Group E, Pacbitun, Actuncan, and Barton Ramie (Awe 1992; Garber et al 2004; Healy et al 2004b; Brown et al 2013).…”

“…This article reports the results of high-resolution AMS 14 C dating from Tzutziiy K’in, a large hinterland house group associated with the major ancient Maya polity of Cahal Pech, located outside the modern town of San Ignacio in the upper Belize Valley of west-central Belize (Figure 1). Cahal Pech provides a unique case study for understanding the development of sociopolitical complexity in the Maya lowlands because of its long occupational history from around 1200 cal BC to cal AD 900 (Figure 2; Awe 1992; Healy et al 2004a, 2004b). AMS 14 C dates recovered from excavations at Tzutziiy K’in were modeled within a Bayesian statistical framework using stratigraphic associations between dates to build an occupational chronology for the site.…”