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Locating Maya Lowlands Spanish Colonial Towns: A Case Study from Belize

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

David M. Pendergast ,
Grant D. Jones  and
Elizabeth Graham
David M. Pendergast
Affiliation:
Department of New World Archaeology, Royal Ontario Museum, 100 Queen's Park, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5S 2C
Grant D. Jones
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology and Sociology, Davidson College, Davidson, NC 280
Elizabeth Graham
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, York University, North York, Ontario, Canada M3J 1P3
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Abstract

Recent excavations of the Spanish Colonial Maya communities of Lamanai and Tipu, Belize, combine with extensive ethnohistorical research to provide guidelines for the location of other Historic-period sites in the region. We present brief case studies of community-location data from the ethnohistorical record, followed by observations regarding survey expectations and approaches appropriate to identification of Spanish Colonial-period sites. Though rooted in Belize experience, the strategies outlined should prove applicable throughout the Maya Lowlands, and perhaps beyond the region's borders as well.

Recientes excavaciones de las comunidades hispanocoloniales de Lamanai y Tipu, Belice, se unen con extensas investigaciones etnohistóricas para proveer elementos en cuanto a la identificación de otros sitios del período histórico ubicados en la región. Presentamos estudios breves sobre las ubicaciones de varias comunidades con datos etnohistóricos, seguidos por observaciones en cuanto a las expectaciones y técnicas apropiadas para el reconocimiento con el fin de identificar sitios del período hispanocolonial. Aunque basadas en experiencia beliceña, las estratégias descritas son pertinentes a todas las tierras bajas mayas, como quizás también más allá de las fronteras de la región.

Type
Articles
Information
Latin American Antiquity , Volume 4 , Issue 1 , March 1993 , pp. 59 - 73
Copyright
Copyright © Society for American Archaeology 1993

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