Rockshelter Excavations in the Caves Branch River Valley

Research by the Belize Valley Archaeological Reconnaissance project during the summers of 2005 and 2006 focused on the excavation of the Caves Branch Rockshelter, as well as the initial surveying and test pitting of other sites in the surrounding river valley. The data from the Caves Branch Rockshelter suggest that a small farmingcommunity used it as a cemetery sometime during the Protoclassic period, after which other local groupsoccasionally visited it. The skeletal population from the cemetery includes both sexes and all age groups, includinga high ratio of infants. These demographic proportions are typical of pre-industrial societies, though are rarely found at Maya sites because of cultural bias in mortuary patterning at complex urban centers. The age and sexratios of the skeletal population, as well as the lack of signs of social complexity in this early, rural community,suggest that this context may contain a relatively complete population that could serve as a skeletal reference population, thus aiding in future bioarchaeological studies of the ancient Maya

Social and Political Transformations in the Caves Branch River Valley: Evidence from Natural and Constructed Ritual

This paper presents a synthesis of recent work in the Caves Branch River Valley, which has focused on the many cave and rockshelter ritual sites and the core of the monumental center Deep Valley. These results are supplemented by data generated from prior investigations in the that allows us to establish that small stable communities in the valley beginning in the Middle- Late Formative period and continuing through the Late Classic period were the norm. This pattern was abruptly broken in the Late-Terminal Classic with a brief period of annexation of the valley into a broader political and economic sphere. While thelimited settlement data seem to point to increased population sizes during the late period, the main body of evidence comes fromvariations in the ritual use of caves and rock shelters, which increases dramatically and shows evidence for changes that can beinterpreted as demonstrating increased social complexity within local populations and as reflecting less provincialism. Inaddition, the hastily constructed site of Deep Valley clearly reveals the late presence of some type of centralized administration.Taken together, these data suggest a late and significant influx of migrants into the valley, followed by a sudden depopulationconcurrent with similar abandonment’s at nearby centers

An Introduction to the First Season of the Caves Branch Archaeological Survey

This report summarizes the fieldwork and preliminary lab analyses conducted during the first season of the Caves Branch Archaeological Survey project, which focused on the cave sites of Actun Lubul Ha and Franz Harder Cave,Overlook Rockshelter, and the monumental center of Deep Valley. The cave sites all show repeated use, thoughvary in the types of rituals performed and in the amount of time used. While caching activities consistent with pilgrimage are constant over time, they vary in intensity between contexts. However, the mortuary use of cavesappears to intensify significantly during the Late- to-Terminal Classic period (A.D. 700-900). These patterns maybe directly related to the apparently late founding of the minor civic-ceremonial center of Deep Valley and other settlements in the Caves Branch River Valley between A.D. 600 and 800. While subterranean sites areunquestionably important in documenting the extensive history of use of the Caves Branch River Valley, settlement data are critical to understanding the rise of local social and political complexity

Estimating Sex of Maya Skeletons by Discriminant Function Analysis of Long-Bone Measurements From the Protohistoric Maya Site of Tipu, Belize

Discriminant functions were developed using long-bone robusticity measurements of 82 individuals from the protohistoric Maya site of Tipu, Belize. All individuals were sexed using nonmetric morphological indicators, particularly those of the pelvis. These functions are designed to provide a means of determining the sex of fragmentary prehistoric Maya skeletons. The equations ranged in accuracy from 77.5% to 100%. The reliability of these equations was tested using a jackknife method on the Tipu sample and by applying the equations to small samples of prehistoric skeletons from the sites of Seibal, KOB Swamp, Laguna de On, and Chau Hiix. The vast majority of the equations applied to the test cases succeeded in correctly estimating the sex based on pelvic and cranial features. A more reliable technique for sex determination of poorly preserved skeletal remains will allow a whole new range of archaeological and bioanthropological hypotheses concerning sex and gender among the ancient Maya to be investigated and considered

Digital Modeling for Bioarchaeologists

The creation of digital repositories of human skeletal remains offers bioarchaeologists a variety of potential means of aiding efforts related to curation and analysis. We present a discussion of how issues of preservation and access can affect research and argue that digital repositories not only maintain a record of objects but that the digital format allows researchers to expand their studies to include otherwise inaccessible collections. Digital models can be utilized by bioarchaeologists to collect and analyze a wide variety of quantitative and qualitative data. We review several digital capture methods employed by bioarchaeologists, including CT scanning, laser scanning, and photogrammetry. While photogrammetry is underutilized by bioarchaeologists, we point out its many advantages over other methods

THE VIEW OF MAYA CAVE RITUAL FROM THE OVERLOOK ROCKSHELTER, CAVES BRANCH RIVER VALLEY, CENTRAL BELIZE

Archaeological investigations of the Overlook Rockshelter in the Caves Branch River Valley of central Belize offer a unique view of ancient Maya cave ritual through the complete recovery and analysis of all artifacts within the site’s two small activity areas. In general, the assemblage contains many of the same types of objects documented from other nearby caves and rockshelters. However, the nearly 1700 ceramics sherds showed almost no refits, demonstrating that sherds were deposited at the site individually, rather than as complete vessels. The human bone assemblage represents three or four individuals, with the majority of the bones comprising a single individual, and all of these were deposited as incomplete secondary interments. Analogies for this depositional behavior based on archaeological and ethnographic studies suggest that this rockshelter may represent a waypoint within a ritual circuit composed of multiple locations over which fragments of complete items such as ceramic vessels and secondary burials were spread