Postclassic Finds in the Cayo District, Belize

Abstract

The present-day country of Belize falls within the cultural area of the Southern Maya Lowlands. On all soils suitable for agriculture, it bears evidence of a dense Maya population over a long period of time. Especially heavy settlement concentrations occur in its Western or Cayo District bordering with the Departament of El Petén in Guatemala. In the fertile bottomlands of the wide Belize River Valley habitation mounds and plazuela groups cluster in groups of varying size, and form a nearly continuous zone of settlement. Further upstream, along and between the Macal and Mopan, the two branches which form the Belize River, this concentration continues, including much of the adjoining hill country. A typical section of the northern part of this continuum is the Barton Ramie site, investigated for Harvard University by Gordon Willey and others (Willey et al., 1965).