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Punta Canbalam in Context

A peripatetic coastal site in northwest Campeche, Mexico

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 October 2008

Bruce H. Dahlin ,
Anthony P. Andrews ,
Timothy Beach ,
Clara Bezanilla ,
Patrice Farrell ,
Sheryl Luzzadder-Beach  and
Valerie McCormick
Bruce H. Dahlin
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Howard University, Washington, DC 20059, USA
Anthony P. Andrews
Affiliation:
Division of Social Services, New College of the University of South Florida, Sarasota, FL 34243, USA
Timothy Beach
Affiliation:
STIA Program, School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University, Washington, DC 20057, USA
Clara Bezanilla
Affiliation:
37 Seymour Buildings, Seymour Place, London W1H 5TR, UK
Patrice Farrell
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH 45221, USA
Sheryl Luzzadder-Beach
Affiliation:
Department of Geography and Earth Systems Science, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA 22030, USA
Valerie McCormick
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA
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Abstract

Investigations at Punta Canbalam on the Gulf Coast of Campeche reveal it is probably the largest of several important but underreported trading sites on the pan-Mesoamerican maritime trade route. The coastline has been unstable for the last thousand years, subjecting the site to sea level changes and repeated episodes of beach erosion and redeposition. The relatively dense scatter of temporally mixed, highly weathered sherds and other artifacts on an exceedingly narrow, modern beach indicates that it is all secondarily deposited and that its original location was offshore. An interdisciplinary team is beginning to recognize clues in its environmental and cultural contexts as to where this peripatetic site was originally located and the extent to which it depended upon exchanges of salt, petty commodities from inland, and canoe-borne exotics from afar. This predominantly Terminal Classic and Early Postclassic site likely served as a port of entry for obsidian, jade, fine-paste ceramics, and other goods for the nearby inland city of Chunchucmil. It also probably supplied the interior with marine and estuarine food and ornamental and ritual products in exchange for inland agricultural products and other items.

Type
Articles
Information
Ancient Mesoamerica , Volume 9 , Issue 1 , Spring 1998 , pp. 1 - 15
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1998

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