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APPLYING REGIONAL, CONTEXTUAL, ETHNOHISTORIC, AND ETHNOGRAPHIC APPROACHES FOR UNDERSTANDING THE SIGNIFICANCE OF PERI-ABANDONMENT DEPOSITS IN WESTERN BELIZE

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 May 2020

Jaime J. Awe*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Northern Arizona University, 5 East McConnell Drive, Flagstaff, Arizona86011
Christophe Helmke
Affiliation:
Institute of Cross-cultural and Regional Studies, University of Copenhagen, Karen Blixens Plads 8, DK-2300, Copenhagen S, Denmark
James J. Aimers
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, State University of New York Geneseo, 1 College Circle, Geneseo, New York14454
Claire E. Ebert
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Northern Arizona University, 5 East McConnell Drive, Flagstaff, Arizona86011
W. James Stemp
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Criminology, Keene State College, 229 Main Street, Keene, New Hampshire03435
Julie A. Hoggarth
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology and Institute of Archaeology, Baylor University, One Bear Place #97173, Waco, Texas76798
*
E-mail correspondence to: [email protected]

Abstract

The discovery of cultural remains on or above the floors of rooms and courtyards at several Maya sites has been interpreted by some archaeologists as problematic deposits, squatter's refuse, as evidence for feasting, termination rituals, de facto refuse, or rapid abandonment as a result of warfare. Investigations by the Belize Valley Archaeological Reconnaissance Project have recorded similar deposits at several surface and subterranean sites in Western Belize. Our regional, contextual, and methodological approaches for studying these deposits, coupled with ethnohistoric and ethnographic information, provide limited support for the interpretation of these remains as de facto refuse or due to rapid abandonment. Instead, we argue that these deposits are more likely the result of peri-abandonment activities such as propitiation rituals and/or pilgrimages during and after the gradual abandonment of sites in the Belize River Valley.

Type
Special Section: Problematic “On-Floor” Deposits in the Terminal Classic Eastern Maya Lowlands: Implications for the Maya Collapse
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press, 2020

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