The Belize River Archaeological Settlement Survey (BRASS) was initiated in 1983 with the permission of Belize's Department of Archaeology by Anabel Ford (University of California, Santa Barbara) in the upper Belize River area north of San Ignacio, Cayo, after the enthusiastic introduction to the region by Jaime Awe, then of the Department of Archaeology. Previous work some 25 years eariler had shown that this area was occupied early and continuously, and could have been logistically important for the ancient Maya, as it is situated on a major seasonally-navigable river between the Caribbean and Tikal in the heart of the Maya area. The area had received little attention in the intervening time.

The road to El Pilar

Advocating efforts to appreciate the full range of Maya society -- both the monumental and the mundane -- the BRASS project was designed to examine the cultural, or human, ecology of the Belize River area. This involved using environmental and geographic information for the area as a backdrop for the archaeological settlement survey. The project collected data that identified where the ancient Maya lived, and what they were doing across the area. The results of the study have allowed us to assess the distribution of house sites and communities on the one hand, and their context and relationship to natural environment on the other.

The 1983 and 1984 field seasons involved the survey of all identifiable cultural remains within three 250 m wide transects, one ten km and two five km long. The three transects were designed to traverse a range of natural environmental zones from the river bottom at 60 m or 195 ft to the ridge lands peaking above 300-400 m or 980-1300 ft-- relief that begs the apellation of lowlands. This range of environmental zones included a variation of settlement sizes, from individual farmsteads to the major center of El Pilar. Excavations were conducted at residential sites within the identified resource zones of the valley, foothills, and ridge lands.

Test excavations revealed a wide variety of sites, from isolated field huts to large elite household compounds, not to mention monumental civic-ceremonial centers. Their locations were predictable: few and scattered houses were associated with poor agricultural soils in rugged or swampy terrain while dense settlements, including some imposing elite patio groups, were found in the rolling fertile ridge lands concentrated in the vicinities of El Pilar. While most houses displayed evidence of the basic household activities of farming, storage, cooking and serving, a few exhibited distinctions that spoke to other, more specialized occupations. Some, particularly in the poorer zones of the area, were involved in making the common stone tool, called the chopper, that would have served as the ancient Maya machete for everything from opening palm nuts to chopping firewood. Rare in all the Maya area was the discovery of an obsidian (volcanic glass) production site in the ancient settlement cluster we named Latón, about 2.8 miles or 4.5 km south of El Pilar. The 1985, 1989 and 1992 seasons expanded excavations at this important location. This elite house site at Latón is the first identifiable obsidian production site found in the Central Maya Lowlands. The site yielded a concentrated stash of thirty-nine exhausted prismatic cores behind one house wall and production waste in another stash of over 30,000 pieces of obsidian translating into densities as high as 1.7 million obsidian pieces per m. From trace element tests, we know that this obsidian was imported into the Belize River area from the volcanic highlands of Guatemala, over 300 km or 200 miles away as the crow flies.

The 1986 field season was dedicated to rescue and preliminary investigations at the minor centers of Alta Vista, Yaxox, Bacab Na and the major center of El Pilar. Valuable building and chronological data were recovered from looters' trenches, and those trenches that threatened the stability of structures were backfilled. Test pits were also excavated in plaza areas to identify the nature of rebuilding in open areas. This was the first concentrated attention that El Pilar had received since its abandonment some thousand years earlier.

The analysis of data from the 1983-84 survey transects demonstrated an association between the resource zones and settlements that was further tested in the 1987 field season. Systematic surveys were made of small areas (82.2 hectares total), supplemented by general surveys of the study area that verified these relationships. This decade of research painted a rich picture of the ancient Maya settlement community patterns and landscape that was the home to this complex society. These settlements and communities were integrated through the center of El Pilar, by far the largest center in the area.

A valley house

Communities of the fertile Belize River Valley were made up of moderately sized homes widely spaced from one another and contained just about everything that a household would need to enjoy life in those ancient times. The residents were able to afford a certain amount of luxuries which are most often associated with only the elite in other areas. The even distribution, considerable household resources, and large amount of land accorded to valley residents is curious. This unusual set of circumstances suggests privileges conferred by those in control upon valley dwellers. Since the valley alluvial soils are among the best in the Maya Lowlands, but form only a small proportion of the local area, let alone the region as a whole, it is probable that they were producing what today we might call cash crops. In fact, at the time of the first Spanish explorations in Belize, the populations of the Belize River Valley were producing cacao (chocolate).

The Cacao Tree

Like other ancient Mesoamericans, the Maya probably used cacao as a form of early currency, "money" that literally grew on trees. But these trees had to be carefully tended, managed, and protected, something a single family could not afford to do on their own. The production of valued crops, such as cacao, but also cotton or tobacco, sanctioned special luxuries. The valley Maya likely received luxury goods in exchange for faithful production of chocolate. Luxuries of the Maya included blades made of obsidian (like those produced at Latón), beads fashioned from marine shells, and ornaments of jade and other exotic stones. This reciprocal arrangement fostered a dependent relationship between the specialized farming communities and the elite aristocratic administration. The administration would have guaranteed redistribution of basic foodstuffs produced in the ridge lands in return for "cash-cropping."

But not all were so fortunate. Other Maya lived in the marginal zones found mainly in the foothills rising up from the valley. People of these zones could not depend solely on agricultural pursuits. Because of the poor agricultural lands, the dispersed families, relegated to these areas, augmented their farming tasks by manufacturing and independently trading stone tools, pottery, and other simple and basic household products to satisfy their daily food needs. Consequently, they could not afford many things beyond the bare necessities of life; hence, few valuables were found at these ancient houses. Such households relied on the central administration to maintain a stable exchange environment so that their household industries would net the foods so fundamental to making their ends meet.

Foothill Flintknappers

While the settlements of the valley and foothills of the Belize River area were integrated from afar, communities of the ridge lands such as Latón were under the more direct scrutiny of the local Maya hierarchy whose apex was located at El Pilar. The ridge lands have the greatest proportion of good agricultural lands and make up the grain basket of the region. Some 85% of the area's settlement was concentrated in these ridge lands that form only 35% of the areas resources. Here, in the ridge lands, we discovered the great diversity of occupations and lifestyles of Maya society. They were composed of both rural areas and central civic areas. There were elite "haves", who controlled and governed, and peasant "have-nots", who toiled and bore the obligations associated with sustaining the civilization. At the community centers, elites managed everything from the local farmers to the broader political agenda, manipulated loyalties of elite within their grasp, and negotiated with peers of other centers. This undoubtedly included far-flung trade relations, as we know that many valuables were made of material not found locally in the Maya Lowlands, such as obsidian from the volcanic zones of Guatemala and Mexico, and jade from the Montagua Valley in Guatemala.

The have-nots were involved in occupations that kept all the basic aspects of daily life going. The majority of Maya were farmers who provided food for the populace. Some, as with the foolhill, manufactured basic household items that were exchanged for food. Still others provided direct services to the elite and in return, were supported by them. The most diverse of these people were found at the major centers of the region. El Pilar served as the focal center for these local households as well as the wider communities throughout the Belize River area.

The mosaic distribution of good agricultural land spread the ancient Maya across the landscape in large and small communities as well as hamlets and homesteads. Settlement patterns in the ridge lands around El Pilar show this hierarchy of community size and composition as related directly to the amount of available farm lands. The fertile lands around El Pilar are abundant in the surrounding rolling hills and ridges. Smaller areas of fertile land supported minor centers, such as Chorro, not far away to the northeast. Pockets of land, such as those of Latón, had a single administrative temple associated with an elite residence. There were other dispersed and isolated spots of good farm lands, but due to small size, these would have only field huts within or adjacent to them. But all sizable areas of good land had the same density of settlement, about one house per acre. The larger the area of fertile lands, the larger the community, and the largest community in the area was El Pilar.

Back to index of Archive 1997-1998