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Antiquity Vol 79 No 304 June 2005

Archaeological investigation of Prehispanic Maya residential terraces, commoner housing and hydrology at Chawak But'o'ob, Belize

Stanley Walling

Recent archaeological investigations at the Prehispanic Maya site of Chawak But'o'ob in north-western Belize by the Rio Bravo Archaeology Project (RBAP) have brought to light the remains of an unusual Late Classic-period (c. AD 600-850) farming community characterised by residential terraces, densely distributed commoner housing, and complex water management systems (Walling n.d.a, n.d.b, Walling & Misdea 1996, Walling et al. 1999, Walling et al. 2001).

The seven closely situated residential groups that compose Chawak But'o'ob cover an area of 1/2km2 on the inclined surface of the 60m-tall Rio Bravo Escarpment, one of three similar escarpments in the RBCMA (Figure 2). Relic domestic settlement at Chawak But'o'ob consists of 350 platforms, most of which exhibit very humble proportions and construction techniques. No formal ritual or administrative structures, such as pyramidal platforms, have been found at the site. Commoner homes, which constitute the vast majority of the housing, have an unusually small average surface area of 12m2.

Figure 1

Figure 1. Map of the Three Rivers Region showing the core of the Programme for Belize Conservation and Management Area and significant sites (after Adams et al. 2004 and Houk 2003)
Figure 2 (Click to view)

Figure 2. Map of Group E, Chawak But'o'ob. Click to enlarge.

Chawak But'o'ob (Yucatec Maya for 'long land' or 'long terraces') is one of a number of recently discovered sites in the Rio Bravo Conservation and Management Area (RBCMA) within the research region of the long-running Programme for Belize Archaeology Project (Figure 1) (Adams & Valdez 1994, Dunning et al. 1999, Scarborough et al. 2003).

Artefacts consist almost entirely of utilitarian ceramics and lithics. From the site's lithic artefacts (Kaplan n.d.), it is inferred that the principal occupation of the inhabitants was farming, which several lines of evidence suggest was carried out as recessional agriculture on the adjacent Rio Bravo flood plain. Ceramics date construction almost exclusively to middle to late, Late Classic period (Tepeu 2-3 ceramic phases, c. AD 700 - 850). The degree of settlement expansion during this time was on the order of several hundred percent, as perhaps a handful of early Late Classic farmsteads were supplemented by more than 300 domestic structures by the end of the Classic period. The fact that the number of construction events in evidence in excavated commoner homes is at most two suggests that the substantial settlement growth here took place during an extremely short period of time. This, in turn, suggests that internally driven population growth was supplemented by immigration (cf. Adams et al. 2004).

It is conservatively estimated that half of the site's 350 platforms were occupied when Chawak But'o'ob was at its population maximum, probably in the late eighth or early ninth century. From this figure is derived an estimated peak population of approximately 850 residents, which makes this one of the most densely occupied non-urban communities in the Prehispanic Maya lowlands.

Among the architectural tools used by Chawak But'o'ob's ancient residents to regulate the flow of water across the site's suburban landscape were dry-slope and cross-channel terraces. Other mechanisms were residential patios that functioned as collection surfaces, interconnected water basins, and a large central reservoir that funneled water over the face of the escarpment to occupation areas below. The scale and disposition of these features suggest that water management at the site was centrally planned, which is unique among known water-control systems at lowland Maya settlements of this size.

More than 3.3 linear km of relic terracing occurs at Chawak But'o'ob, of which 2.7km consists of sizeable dry-slope contour terraces. Among these terraces are distinctive spiral terraces, in which a continuously-sloped level of terracing serves as a ramp to the apex of a knoll. The site's residential dry-slope terraces, which support the remains of more than 60 small domestic platforms and foundation braces (stone alignments outlining ancient house structures), are the first reported examples of ancient Maya housing on linear dry-slope terraces (cf. Walling 1994, Cuddy 1997). The occurrence of these occupied terraces begs the question of whether some of the thousands of dry-slope terraces at other Prehispanic Maya sites have been misidentified as exclusively agricultural features. If only a small proportion of the dry-slope terraces recorded so far in the lowlands had a residential function, population estimates for the Maya area in the Classic period, which are already substantial (Culbert & Rice 1990, Adams et al. 2004), would need revision upward.

Acknowledgments
Principal among those who have provided assistance to the Rio Bravo Project are the Directors of the Programme for Belize Archaeology Project, Fred Valdez Jr. and Richard E.W. Adams. The RBAP also owes thanks to the Belizean Institute of Archaeology in Belmopan for permission to conduct investigations at Chawak But'o'ob. RBAP staff members who have played an important part in this project are: Peter Davis, Marisol Cortes, Melissa DeVito, Jennifer Gabra, Melissa Vogel, Sharon Misdea, Kelly O'Connell, Leigh Hartmann, Sandra Dias, and Roberta McIntyre. Funding for research at Chawak But'o'ob has been provided by the Montclair State University Foundation, the Montclair State University Center for Global Education, and the Bigel Endowment.

References

  • ADAMS, R. E. W., H. ROBICHAUX, F. VALDEZ JR., B. HOUK & R. MATTHEWS 2004. Transformations, periodicity, and urban development in the Three Rivers Region, in A. Demarest, P. Rice & D. Rice (ed.) The Terminal Classic in the Maya lowlands: 324-341. Boulder: University of Colorado Press.
  • ADAMS, R. E. W. & F. VALDEZ JR. (ed.) 1994. The Programme For Belize Archaeological Project: 1994 interim report. San Antonio: University of Texas at San Antonio.
  • CUDDY, T. 1997. Residential terracing in Maya settlement patterns at Chau Hiix, Belize. Paper presented at the 62nd annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Nashville.
  • CULBERT, T. P. & D. RICE (ed.). 1990. Precolumbian population history in the Maya lowlands. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.
  • HOUK, B. 2003. The ties that bind: site planning in the Three Rivers Region, in V. Scarborough, F. Valdez Jr. & N. Dunning (ed.) Heterarchy, political economy, and the ancient Maya: the Three Rivers Region of the east-central Yucatan Peninsula: 52-63. Tucson: University of Arizona Press.
  • KAPLAN, M. n.d. The lithic artifacts of Chawak But'o'ob. Manuscript on file at the Center for Archaeological Studies, Montclair State University, Montclair, New Jersey.
  • SCARBOROUGH, V., F. VALDEZ & N. DUNNING (ed.). 2003. Heterarchy, political economy, and the ancient Maya: the Three Rivers Region of the east-central Yucatan Peninsula. Tucson: University of Arizona Press.
  • WALLING, S. n.d.a Ancient Maya landscape and subsistence in the Rio Bravo Drainage, Northwestern Belize. Manuscript in submission.
  • - n.d.b Archaeological investigation of Classic-Period residential terraces at Chawak But'o'ob, Belize. Manuscript in submission.
  • - 1994. Bajo and floodplain sites along the Rio Bravo: 1994 survey and excavations, in R. E. W. Adams and F. Valdez Jr. (ed.) Programme for Belize Archaeological Project: 1994 interim report: 63-67. San Antonio: Center for Archaeology and Tropical Research, University of Texas.
  • WALLING, S. & S. MISDEA 1996. Recent investigations of Prehispanic Maya households in northern Belize: implications for ancient social organization and demography. Paper presented at the 61st annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, New Orleans.
  • WALLING, S., J. ARAHILL, K. BAEDENKOPF, R. HOLMLUND, S. LARKIN, C. RUFF, M. VOGEL & J. STAHL 1999. Living on the edge: Classic Maya settlement and resource use on the Rio Bravo Escarpment, Belize, Central America. Paper presented at the 64th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Chicago.
  • WALLING, S., J. HUNTER, M. TOMASO, M. CORTES, P. DAVIS, M. DEVITO, S. DIAS, K. DOUGHERTY, M. HAMILTON, S. MORSE & K. O¹CONNELL 2001. Household settlement at Chawak But'o'ob in the Three Rivers Region, northern Belize. Paper presented at the 66th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, New Orleans.


Stanley Walling: Department of Classics and General Humanities, Center for Archaeological Studies, Montclair State University, Upper Montclair, New Jersey 07042, USA (Email: wallings@mail.montclair.edu)

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