Understanding the stratigraphic context of the maya postclassic in belize

Abstract

The Maya Postclassic (A. D. 900–1500) is a complex and poorly understood period of history which represents a conspicuous gap in the understanding of processes of social change in lowland Mesoamerica. Difficulties in interpreting this period are directly related to the stratigraphic context of Postclassic deposits such as those described in this examination of the site of Laguna de On, northern Belize. Belize Postclassic settlement has been heavily underestimated due to difficulties in detecting remains from this period in disturbed surface deposits. A lack of priority placed on Postclassic research in the southern Maya lowlands has also contributed to the relatively low number of large scale projects and refined descriptions of Postclassic remains that would enable regional synthetic reconstruction. Given the combined effect of problematic stratigraphy and limited professional attention, it is not surprising that the southern Maya lowlands are generally thought to have been drastically depopulated at the time of the collapse of Maya “civilization” around A.D. 900. © 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

What Maya Collapse? Terminal Classic Variation in the Maya Lowlands

“…Colha (Barrett and Scherer 2005;Hammond 1982;Hester 1982;Kotliar 1996;McAnany 1994;Michaels 1989Michaels , 1994Michaels and Shafer 1994;Mock 1994a, b) Laguna de On (Masson 1993(Masson , 1995(Masson , 1997(Masson , 1999a(Masson , b, 2000 Kichpanha (Masson 2000;Shaw 1995). (2007) 15: 329-377 343 of people from the Yucatán peninsula (Hester et al 1981).…”

Questioning Postclassic Continuity at Baking Pot, Belize, Using Direct AMS14C Dating of Human Burials

“…The political disintegration and depopulation of regional centers in the southern Maya lowlands at the end of the Classic period (AD 750-1000) has received a great deal of attention and remains one of the most debated topics in the literature (Demarest et al 2004;Aimers 2007;Kennett et al 2012;Webster 2012). Despite the large-scale abandonment of the central and southern lowlands by the end of the 10th century, some settlements appear to have persisted into the Postclassic period in coastal locations (Guderjan 1995;McKillop 1996), adjacent to lakes (Rice and Rice 2009), and along rivers and lagoons (Pendergast 1985;Graham and Bennett 1989;Graham 2004), although shallow stratigraphy, mixed deposits, and modern disturbance continue to plague age determinations for Postclassic contexts (Masson 1995;Pugh and Rice 2009:91). Radiocarbon dates have been used in a limited fashion to build regional and site chronologies in the Maya lowlands (but see Satterthwaite and Ralph 1960;Hammond et al 1977;Awe 1992;Andrews et al 2003;Peraza Lope et al 2006;Prufer et al 2011;Culleton et al 2012;Aquino et al 2013;Inomata et al 2013), particularly for understanding the timing of collapse (see Sidrys and Berger 1979 for a regional study).…”