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Prehistoric Settlement Patterns in the Upper Belize River Valley and their for Models of Low-Density Urbanism Jaime J. Awe NORTHERN ARIZONA UNIVERSITY Julie A. Hoggarth UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH Christophe Helmke UNIVERSITY OF COPENHAGEN “[the] Mesoamerican urban comparable with that in the — Diane Z. Chase, “…we cannot ignore the there, or the social and — Jason Yaeger (2003: “It is astonishing that still some who deny that — Geoffrey Braswell Abstract Beginning with Gordon Willey’s settlement continuous settlement research in the sub-regions of the Maya Lowlands. Recent differences in their historical development, valley ever significantly exceeded further demonstrate that although some these centers remained relatively dispersed In addition to describing the settlement causal factors that may account for Resumen Comenzando con el estudio de Gordon medio siglo, la investigación continua que este área sea una de las subregiones base de datos ahora indica que ninguno históricos, localidades y configuraciones sociopolítico de sus vecinos. Nuestras ocupados durante más de mil años, dispersos – un resultado consistente del Valle Bajo del Río Belice, este persistencia de este tipo de asentamiento 264 Introduction During the past two decades, Mesoamericanists have expended considerable effort on the study of ancient Maya socio-political organization, and on the structure of prehistoric Maya communities. In their attempts to address these questions, a number of researchers (Sanders and Webster 1988; Ball and Taschek 1991; Demarest 1992; Ball 1993; Houston 1993; Ball 1996) applied models of political organization that derive from European, Asian, African and Japanese cultural contexts. Depending on their model bias, some researchers concluded that the lowland Maya landscape was “dominated by unstable polities whose populace was held together by ideological and kin ties…Others argued for large centralized states with administrative institutions that operated beyond the limits of kinship” (Gillespie 2000: 467). Invariably, related questions concerning the configuration of Mesoamerican sites also emerged. Two such questions are whether or not Maya sites display the characteristics of true cities, and whether or not they fit within the defined ranges of urban centres. In our opinion, both of these issues have been addressed, particularly as they relate to sites in western Belize (Chase and Chase 1996; Chase et al. 2009; Yaeger 2003) and for the central Maya lowlands in general (Chase et al. 1990; Fletcher 2009). The question of why densely occupied, “western-style” urban centres developed in some parts of Mesoamerica and not in the Maya area, however, has never been truly examined. The purpose of this paper is to focus on this question, and particularly to explore the factors that may have deterred the establishment of “western-style” urbanism in the Belize River valley. Urbanism and Lowland Maya Settlement Patterns Understanding prehistoric centres and the origins of urbanism has been a long-running topic of archaeological debate since with early contributions to the topic (1950), Adams (1969), Blanton (1976), and Fox (1977). Generally, these early discussions of urban centres were conflated with broader topics of state-level organization (Cowgill as well as focusing on the earliest in Mesopotamia (Graham n.d.). Many early discussions on the nature of settlement in the Maya lowlands often dismissed these centres as Prehistoric Settlement Patterns in the Contrast has often been drawn between the civilizations of highland Mexico and the Maya lowlands of southern Mexico, Guatemala, and Belize. Some researchers have asserted that the Maya attained a lesser cultural development, only reaching the stage of an advanced chiefdom. Similarly, major Maya centers have sometimes been described as nonurban or even as vacant ceremonial centers. these views are compatible with archeological database; rather, ethnocentric beliefs about the tropical lowlands and the evolution of civilization and urbanism. Yaeger (2003: 122) echoed this position with the statement that “we cannot ignore the countryside in Mesoamerica if we are to understand ancient urbanism there, or the social and political relationships that linked city and hinterland.” As Fletcher’s (2009: 11) recent paper on agrarian-based, low-density, urbanism concludes, “it is hard to see how any other position could have been sustained.” A few years earlier, Braswell (2003: 5) commented that it was astonishing how “…after more than thirty years of demographic research, there are still some who deny that the Maya had true cities.” Recent studies have stressed the broad realm of variability in the nature of early cities, particularly in the case of societies in tropical lowland areas. Fletcher and his colleagues’ research (Fletcher et al. 2008; Fletcher has shed considerable light on the nature of urbanism in lowland tropical regions, focusing on models of low-density urbanism around Angkor and Sri Lanka, as well as examining similar patterns throughout the world. Similar patterns have been identified in other tropical lowland areas, including low-density settlement plaza communities in the Amazon (Heckenberger et al. 2008), Nupe efu and Addis Adela serfu settlements in Africa (Smith 2011: 60-65) among other examples. In addition to these, modern examples of low-density urbanism have been suggested along the modern eastern seaboard of the United States (Gottman 1961; Fletcher 2009: 3) focusing on the concept of the megalopolis, or broad continuous low-density settlement spread across a large area, with urban centres blending into the dispersed rural areas. These recent discussions continue to be relevant in the broader discussion of urbanism, and like what we see in tropical lowland areas, they also serve 266 Fig. 1. Map of the eastern Central greater Belize Valley, including the the dominant sites of Caracol, Naranjo major centres are represented (rendered depicted. The inset map shows the entirety within the map outlines the more detailed are indicated (after Helmke and Awe corresponding presence of large polities, such as Caracol, Naranjo and Lamanai on the southern, western and northern boundaries respectively, conveniently serve to frame the Belize Valley cultural sub-region. For the purposes of this paper, our coverage and discussion will only focus attention on the central section of the upper Belize valley (Figure 2). This area extends approximately 30 kilometres eastward and downriver from Xunantunich and terminates at the site of Blackman Eddy. Modern Population and Land Use in the Belize Valley In Modern times, the upper Belize valley has witnessed the development of several of Belize’s largest communities. From west to east, these include Benque Viejo Town, the twin towns of San Ignacio and Santa Elena, Spanish Lookout and Belmopan City. A 2009 census recorded by the Statistical Institute of Belize indicates that close to 80% of the Prehistoric Settlement Patterns in the Fig. 2. Map of the greater Belize are rendered larger than ‘minor project (BVAR) (after Helmke and Awe Settlement Pattern Studies in the Upper Belize River Valley The upper Belize Valley has one of the longest histories of settlement patterns studies in the Maya lowlands. Indeed, it was actually here that in the 1950s Gordon Willey and colleagues (Willey et al. 1965) first launched their pioneering and groundbreaking introduction of settlement pattern studies to the Maya area. As part of their investigations, Willey et al. (1965) were also the first to address questions of settlement size, distribution and configuration in the upper Belize River valley. At the end of their survey, Willey and colleagues (1965) proposed a three-tiered model of organization that was sub-divided, in ascending order, into housemounds, small plazuela groups, and major centres (Driver and Garber 2004: 287-293; Iannone 2004; Helmke and Awe 2008a). In the 50 plus years after Willey et al. conducted their seminal study, numerous other Belize valley projects have followed, each incorporating some degree of settlement analyses to their research programs. Results of these more recent investigations have 268 Minor centres are spatially and architecturally smaller than major centres and include some, but not all, of the latter’s characteristics. Particularly rare, if not almost absent, are carved or uncarved monuments at minor centres. Plazuela groups are settlements with four or more mounds and are generally assumed to represent extended family compounds. The lowest tier, housemounds, generally includes solitary structures with no visibly related ancillary buildings. A comprehensive list of all the major centres in the Belize Valley sub-region is provided by Helmke and Awe (2008a, 2013). The major centres located in the area covered by this study include, from west to east, Xunantunich, Actuncan, Buena Vista, Cahal Pech, Baking Pot, Lower Dover and Blackman Eddy. Due to limitations of space and access to data, however, this paper will focus specific attention on Xunantunich, Cahal Pech and Baking Pot. It is also important to note that while we categorize these sites as “major centres”, they are smaller in size than such regional polities as Caracol, Naranjo and Lamanai on their southern, western and northern boundaries respectively. In spite of this size difference, there are many indications that the major centres in the valley operated in a manner not unlike their larger regional neighbours. As Helmke and Awe (2013: 63) note: “The epigraphic data from the Belize Valley provide some tantalizing evidence to suggest that the ancient Maya lords inhabiting these (Belize Valley) sites indeed wished to be seen – at least nominally – as equals in a network of city-states”. Archaeological Investigations in the Belize Valley Within the last two decades almost all the major centres in the upper Belize valley have been the focus of some level of archaeological research. When combined, the results of these investigations represent one of the most substantial archaeological data bases for any sub-region of the Maya area, affording us a unique opportunity to adequately address questions relating to ancient Maya settlement and their diachronic development. History of Occupation of Belize Valley Sites As we previously noted, archaeological investigations have established that the Belize Prehistoric Settlement Patterns in the architecture here may have been constructed during the Late and Terminal Classic periods (Guerra 2011). It is possible that this late rise to prominence may have come at the expense of Blackman Eddy. But even if this was the case, the latter site shows no evidence that it was abandoned as a result of this political reorganization. In spite of their historical trajectories, however, most sites in the valley eventually begin to reflect symptoms associated with the Terminal Classic decline in the Maya lowlands. By the end of the 10th century A.D., there is evidence for major depopulation in the valley. By the start of the 11th century A.D., only a few sites, such as Baking Pot, provide evidence for ephemeral occupation, and by 1250 A.D., it appears that the entire valley had been abandoned (Audet 2007). Some two centuries later, immigrants from the north reoccupy the valley and begin to establish several small communities in and adjacent to some of the earlier, Classic period, centres (Graham et al. 1989; Jones 1989). These are also the same communities that Spanish missionaries subsequently encounter in their missionizing trips upriver in the 16th and 17th centuries. Settlement Density of Major Centres in the Upper Belize Valley As we indicated above, seven major centres (Xunantunich, Actuncan, Buena Vista, Cahal Pech, Baking Pot, Lower Dover and Blackman Eddy) have been identified in the 30 long by 5 kilometres wide section of the valley covered by this study (see Figure 2). An eighth centre, Aguacate, lies between Baking Pot and Cahal Pech, but is just north of the alluvial valley and thus is not included in our count. For the sake of brevity, and because of access to data, we will also limit our discussion on settlement density to the sites of Xunantunich, Cahal Pech and Baking Pot. Xunantunich is located along the Guatemala border, approximately eight kilometres southwest of Cahal Pech, and approximately 1 and 5 kilometres south of Actuncan and Buena Vista respectively. The site’s epicenter (Figure 3) is situated at the summit of a large hill overlooking the Mopan, or western branch, of the Belize River. To the southeast, south and west of the site core, its hinterlands extend across an area composed primarily of limestone hills that gradually rise 270 Area Mounds surveyed (ha) Xunantunich 47.1 79 (500 m) Xunantunich 140.4 146 (1000 m) Cahal Pech 33.1 58 (500 m) Cahal Pech 84.9 101 (1000 m) Baking Pot 78.5 96 (500 m) Baking Pot 314.2 251 (1000 m) Table 1. Mound density and population of Baking Pot where survey represents are based on a sample of the area. order to be comparable with the other alluvial bottomlands to the north and northeast of the core area (Awe 1992: 51). During the last century, much of Cahal Pech’s northern and north-eastern hinterlands were destroyed by the expansion of San Ignacio Town. Continued growth in recent years has also resulted with the destruction of some settlements to the south, southwest and southeast of the core area, and with complete encirclement of the site core by the modern town. During the last 20 years, Cahal Pech has been the focus of considerable research attention by the Belize Valley Archaeological Reconnaissance Project (BVAR), directed by the senior author (Awe 1992; Healy and Awe 1995, 1996; Awe 2008; Garber and Awe 2009). In addition to extensive excavations in the site core, BVAR intensively surveyed a 600 m radius around the epicentre, and a 500 m wide by 2 km long southern transect that originated in the site core and terminated at the minor centre of Zubin (Iannone 2003). This survey recorded mound densities of 145 mounds per km2 within a 500 m radius of the site core, and 99 mounds per km2 within a 1000 m radius (Tables 1 & 2). Given the almost complete coverage of the area within the 500 m radius, the mound density for that area of Cahal Pech is relatively accurate. Based on mound density within the 500 m radius we estimated a population density of about 616 people within this area. For the 1000 m radius, population Prehistoric Settlement Patterns in the Fig. 3. Map of the site core of about 454 (Tables 1 and 2). Mound density within 1000 m of the core area contains 251 mounds with about 70 mounds per km2 and a population of around 1188 people. Like at Cahal Pech and Xunantunich, this estimate is based on a ratio of 5.4 individuals per mound but does not include the residential areas associated with the palace complex in Baking Pot’s monumental epicentre. It should be noted that the actual settlement around Baking Pot’s centre extends approximately 1.5 km from the site core, and that the estimates included in this study have only considered the settlement 272 Fig. 4. Map of the site Xunantunich. Similarities include the fact that the three site cores contain between 36 and 40 large structures, they all have eastern, inline, triadic temples, at least two ballcourts, range-type palaces and administrative buildings, several carved and uncarved stelae, and causeways. Furthermore, all three centres were initially settled by at least the Middle Preclassic period (800 B.C.) and they all had access to both hilly limestone terrain as well as very fertile alluvial bottomlands. Settlement (mound and population) densities for the three sites are also comparable and we strongly suspect that 100% coverage of the three site cores would yield almost identical settlement densities. We further estimate that if each of these polities controlled an area of about 70 km2, they would have supported a population of approximately 30,000 each (see Table 2 and Yaeger 2003:129). Prehistoric Settlement Patterns in the Fig. 5. Map of the site core of Baking Bevan). Gridlines measure 1 km on a side. 38). For Buenavista del Cayo, we have evidence for a workshop that focused on the production of polychrome ceramics (Reents-Budet et al. 2000). Comparison of Belize Valley Sites with Central Mexican Sites When we compare the major Belize Valley Maya sites with the major Valley of Mexico centre of Teotihuacan considerable differences in scale and nucleation, if not in function, become readily apparent (see Chase et al. 2009: 177-178). The “metropolitan” core of Teotihuacan, for example, covered an area of some 20km squared, encompassing a monumental site core encircled by densely 274 Surveys within Teotihuacan have also identified “More than 500 concentrations of raw materials and debris” that are associated with specialized craft production (Manzanilla 2004: 126-127). These workshops produced a variety of objects, including “pottery, figurines, lapidary, polished stone and slate objects” plus obsidian prismatic blades and bifacial tools (Manzanilla 2004: 126-127). Western style urbanism, with nucleated settlements that also served as production centres, is thus clearly reflected at Teotihuacan, and what is particularly interesting is the fact that this scale of nucleation and specialization was attained by a polity whose rise, apogee and demise lasted a little more than 600 years (Sugiyama 2004: 99). Like the differences in scale, nucleation, monumentality and economic centralization, this limited longevity differs dramatically with the extensive life-spans of the Belize Valley centres. Given these obvious differences, there is no question whatsoever that the type of urbanism evident at Teotihuacan is diametrically different from the dispersed, low-density, settlements that are typical of Belize Valley centres. But why is this so, and what were the factors that encouraged and perpetuated the low-density urban nature of settlements in the Belize Valley? Below we attempt to address this very question. Potential Causal Factors for the Development and Perpetuation of Low-Density Urbanism in the Belize River Valley Following Fletcher’s (2009) application models of low-density urbanism for understanding Angkorian and Mesoamerican settlement systems, a growing number of archaeologists have begun to explore the applicability of this model to the study of Maya settlement patterns. Whereas the applicability of the model has had considerable success, it is interesting that, with very few exceptions, hardly anyone has attempted to address why low-density urban settlements developed in the first place, and then persisted over long periods of time in several tropical environments. In order to address these very questions, we examine here the following possible causal factors: 1) limited evolutionary time, 2) population control mechanisms, 3) limited distribution of fertile soils, 4) limited water supply, 5) tropical diseases, and, 6) socio-economic organization. Prehistoric Settlement Patterns in the architecture in the core area is present by at least 500 B.C. that the community continued to develop and grow throughout the Classic period, and that the centre is eventually abandoned by around A.D. 900. In contrast, Teotihuacan was a small village around 200 B.C., the settlement literally explodes in the first five centuries A.D., and its decline is apparent by 600 A.D. Clearly, if we applied the unilineal concept of evolutionary time then two thousand years of occupation in the Belize River Valley, and approximately 1500 years of occupation at non-valley sites such as Caracol, should have been sufficiently long enough for western-style urban centres to develop in western Belize. This certainly did not happen, thus occupational longevity does not appear to have a direct correlation with in the development of western style urbanism. As Scarborough and Lucero note, “Today, most scholars assess the appearance of the earliest states as a highly nonlinear process”. We can also conclude that the evidence from the Belize River Valley strongly supports this contention. Population Control Studies of contemporary hunter-gatherer societies across continents (e.g. the Yanomamö [Chagnon 1968], or !Kung [Lee 1975]) have noted that these cultures generally employ various methods for maintaining sustainable population levels. Two of the most commonly applied population control methods are fissioning and warfare. Both responses are predominantly influenced by limitations to the overall resources in a region, as well as by fluctuations in resource availability associated with seasonal climatic patterns (for example, dry and rainy seasons). In both cases, however, these are responses associated with carrying capacity challenges in non-agrarian societies, and an important question here is whether we can apply similar principles to agricultural communities. To some degree we believe this is possible. As we noted earlier, present chronological data for the Belize Valley suggest that the earliest settlements were established at the end of the second millennia B.C. at Cahal Pech, Xunantunich and Blackman Eddy. By 800 B.C. several new communities, such as Actuncan, Buena Vista and Baking Pot, were settled. By 300 B.C. population then starts moving into several of the smaller valleys along tributaries 276 elimination of males (who make up the great percentage of those killed in battle), has limited effect on actual population levels. On the other hand, various studies have demonstrated that nucleation for protection is often one of the most common responses to warfare. Miksik (1999: 25), for example, argues that, Rather than desiring to live in cities, it is likely that many people in ancient times avoided them as far as possible. In many early societies, cities formed out of necessity, often for purposes of collective defense, rather than as a result of a desire to live in close proximity with one’s fellow human beings. Given the evidence for warfare that has been recorded in the Belize Valley, one should then expect that there would have been a defensive motivation for people to form the type of cities suggested by Miksik. There is, however, no evidence for nucleation in the valley, not even during the Late Classic which is the time frame for which we have the greatest evidence for conflicts (see Helmke et al. 2010; Helmke and Awe 2013). In summary, we can only conclude that while there is evidence for both warfare and fissioning in the Belize River Valley, none of these responses appear to have played a significant role in the establishment or perpetuation of dispersed urban centres in this sub-region of the Maya lowlands. Limited Distribution of Good Soils In a recent paper that focuses on non-hierarchical development of complexity in the semi-tropics, Scarborough and Lucero (2010:185) suggested that the dispersed of good agricultural soils and other critical resources, coupled with “Seasonality and unpredictable rainfall patterns” were factors that likely influenced the developmen and maintenance of low-density urban centres in the tropics and semi-tropics. (Scarborough and Lucero 2010: 199) add that cultures that are rainfall dependent for agriculture, with limited reliance on for production of staples and surplus, more land to produce the kinds of surplus necessary to support large populations. they argue, are features that favour settlement patterns”. They (Scarborough and Lucero (2010:189) further posit that Prehistoric Settlement Patterns in the Limited Water Supply and Water Quality In his very thought provoking paper that addresses the late adoption of western-style urbanism in the tropics, John Miksic (1999: 25) commented that: The explanation for the relatively long hiatus between the appearance of monuments and complex settlement patterning in the tropics can partially be explained by reference to certain environmental factors which differ quantitatively between temperate and equatorial regions: energy costs for transport, environmental diversity, and water quality. While ecological factors alone do not explain the complex relationship between the evolutionary trajectories of monument building and urbanization in Indonesia (other topographic and historic variables would also have to be introduced), the unique problems connected with maintaining healthy drinking water supplies in a tropical environment help to explain early urbanization in Indonesia, and in the tropical areas of the world in general, is relatively rare. Miksic (1999:26) further argues that Javanese communities likely resisted living in western-style urban centres or nucleated populations as a conscious response to “major environmental obstacles posed by the tropical environment…” Primary among these obstacles were adequate and reliable water supply and the prevalence of water-borne diseases. He notes that people who live in temperate zones have a misconception that water is in great tropical environs. This may be true for a part of the year, but during the dry season water becomes very scarce and considerable effort is required to collect and store limited supplies during the dry season. A good example of these types of efforts in the Maya area has been documented in the seasonally arid Puuc region where just about every plazuela, or household, group have associated subterranean holding tanks called chultunob (McAnany 1990). The reliance on water, and the latter’s the distribution of settlement, is also apparent in the Yucatan where settlement tends to concentrate around cenotes (e.g. Chichen Itza and Dzibilchaltun). At Cahal Pech we have found more than a dozen chultunob situated 278 between the tropics and temperate zones, a fact that has been scientifically recorded by World Health Organization specialists across the developed and developing world. Water borne diseases, such as diarrhoea, cholera, dengue, malaria, to name a few, are particularly common in warm humid tropical environments that have been modified by humans. High temperatures in the tropics also affect water quality (Miksic 1999: 26). In contrast, “In temperate zones ….the quality of water usually improves with storage, because bacteria eventually die. In tropical areas, however, coliforms in water stored in vessels may actually increase due to the combination of high temperature and organic material in the water” (Miksic 1999: 34). Another related challenge noted by Scarborough and Lucero (2010: 188) “was in organic storage, in that high humidity and temperature conspire to accelerate decay. Several strategies were used to offset this condition, inclusive of harvesting resources quickly and consuming them soon thereafter.” Miksik (1999: 25) suggests that because of concerns for water quality and water borne diseases, that are considerably more prevalent in densely populated communities, ancient tropical people purposely and consciously avoided living in cities. In spite of this, “tropical civilizations managed to obtain the benefits of complex social organization without the physical manifestation of the city as a settlement type” and this adaptation “is a testament to their people’s creativity” (Mikisik 199: 25). In sum, Miksik concludes that dispersed settlement patterns, or low-density urbanism, may have been a conscious response and successful adaptive strategy by civilizations that developed within the humid tropics. If this is true, it could certainly account, in part, for differences in population densities evident between some non-tropical highland and tropical lowland Mesoamerican polities (e.g. Teotihuacan and the Belize Valley sites). Socio-Economic Organization A key characteristic of western-style centres is that they were major nodes of production and distribution (Fox 1977). From Sanders and Webster’s (1988) perspective, only three Mesoamerican communities come close to reflecting this type of mercantile city, the highland sties of Teotihuacan, Tula and Prehistoric Settlement Patterns in the colleagues (Hester et al. 1982, 1983; Hester and Schafer 1984; King 2000; Buttles 2004) established that Colha was “the locus of intensive chert tool production for more than 1000 years” (Hester and Schafer 1984: 157). Hester and Schafer (1984: 157) further note that, “The intensity of stone tool production at this site is evidenced by the more than 100 stone tool workshop mounds, coupled with the wide distribution of its products exported from Colha to Maya consumers in the northern Belize region.” Of particular interest to our discussion is the fact that throughout the Classic period, the majority of Colha’s workshops were located in the site’s hinterlands (Buttles 2004: 286) and that production appears to have been organized at the family level, rather than controlled at the city or state level (King 2000). This type of decentralized production in lowland Maya cities led Ashmore (2004: 177) to remark that, “Not only did [lowland Maya] farmers create food, they often doubled as artisans who created items for exchange.” She further implied that this pattern of production provided considerable autonomy to hinterland populations, that when the “governance capacities” regional polities declined (e.g. Xunantunich) “peasants simply moved away”. This self-dependency and relative autonomy of hinterland farmers is something that today among traditional Maya communities in Belize. The same situation appears to have been the case among conquest period communities in the Yucatan. As Farris’ (1982) of Maya society under colonial rule noted: for all their basic needs the were essentially self-sufficient. barter may have existed, and during the colonial period a small minority of Indians specialized in the manufacture of simple household articles for sale to the Spanish, but colonial evidence indicates that the basic skills of weaving, pottery making, leather working (for deerhide sandals), and simple carpentry were universal among the macehuales and that each family supplied its own clothing and household furnishings. (Farris 1984:124). She (Farris 1984: 124) also concluded that, “There is no reason to suppose that the ordinary Maya farmer did not make do with the local produce in pre-Columbian times as they did after the conquest.” Our excavations of housemounds at Cahal Pech and Baking Pot 280 centres be subdivided into two subtypes, at least within the context of the Maya lowlands. The first subtype would include the larger, more socio-economically and politically complex, regional capitals such as Caracol and Tikal, but also Calakmul, and Chichen Itza to name a few. The second subtype would include those smaller polities that are similar in size, configuration and socio-political complexity to the Belize valley sites. These sub-divisions would more accurately reflect the diversity and complexity inherent in Maya settlements that Chase et al. (1990) and several other colleagues agree actually exists across the Mesoamerican landscape. Another interesting observation resulting from our investigations in the greater Belize River Valley is that the inhabitants of this lowland Maya sub-region never developed the type of densely populated and nucleated urban cities that are typical of several early western and Middle Eastern societies. Why is this the case? Does it reflect an apparent failure of the political and socio-economic system of the Belize Valley Maya, or does it represent a purposeful decision by the inhabitants to eschew the establishment of urban centres with all their concomitant problems and challenges. The latter position has recently received strong support from studies conducted on Javanese communities. As Miksic (1999: 34) argues, the “Javanese (and perhaps most Southeast Asians) successfully avoided having to adopt the urban form of settlement, and its associated dangers and inconveniences, longer than people in most parts of the world.” He also posits that, “There is no evidence that change in a single variable such as incidence of warfare, religious conversion, economic development, or foreign contact stimulated the Javanese to construct densely nucleated settlements” (Miksic 199: 34). Our data indicate that the same holds true for settlements in the Belize River further suggests that in spite of their occupation by agrarian societies over nearly two millennia, settlements in the valley remained dispersed in a manner that conforms to patterns of low-density urbanism. Evolutionary time does not, therefore, seem to be a major factor in the rise of urban centres. In contrast, it is possible that the limited distribution of good agricultural soils, adequate water supply, and disease prevention may have had some influence on settlement patterns in the valley, but the degree to which they limited this development remains difficult to measure or ascertain. Prehistoric Settlement Patterns in the more and were characteristic of their cultures. Low-density urbanism cannot therefore be regarded as a transient anomaly and we must look at the future of industrial urbanism accordingly. Conclusion The Belize River Valley, with its long history of settlement pattern studies, and extensive archaeological research attention, makes it one of the best lowland Maya sub-regions for studying concepts of low-density agrarian urbanism. Settlement survey indicates that during the thousand before and after the Christian era, a relatively large number of medium-size cities developed, prospered and eventually declined in this section of central Belize. The analysis of the valley’s rich data base further indicates that in spite of two millennia of continuous the occupants of this lowland Maya sub-region never developed the types of nucleated settlements that some of their less highland, Mesoamerican neighbours did. Instead, their settlements remained relatively dispersed in a manner that is consistent with models of low-density urbanism. It is argued here that while access to water, fertile agricultural land, and concerns for tropical diseases may have been factors that influenced this settlement pattern, the key reasons for this different historical trajectory may be found in the relationships that existed between site centres and their hinterlands. We believe that hinterland populations in the Belize perhaps the lowland Maya area in general, may have enjoyed greater levels of economic and political autonomy than populations who resided in nucleated, urban centres. This type of independence, coupled with relatively successful strategies for sustainable management of their resources, may have ultimately allowed them to develop, and then perpetuate, low-density, agrarian based, settlements across the lowland Maya landscape. 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In: The Ancient Maya of the Belize Valley: Half a Century of Archaeological Research, edited by James F. Garber: 25-47. Gainesville: University Press of Florida. Garber, James F., M. Kathryn Brown, W. David Brown, David M. Glassman, Christopher J. Hartman, F. Kent Reilly III and Lauren A. Sullivan 2004b Archaeological Investigations at Blackman Eddy. In The Ancient Maya Half a Century of Archaeological Research, edited by James F. Garber: 48-69. Gainesville: University Press of Florida. Gillespie, Susan D. 2000 Rethinking Ancient Maya Social Organization: Replacing “Lineage” Anthropologist, 102(3): 467-484. Gottman, J. 1961 Megalopolis: the Urbanised Northeastern Seaboard of the United States. New York: Twentieth Century Fund. Graham, Elizabeth 1996 Maya Cities and the Character of a Tropical Urbanism. In: The Development of Urbanism from a Global Perspective, edited by P. Sinclair. Uppsala: Uppsala University. Graham, Elizabeth, David M. 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Awe, Eva Jobbová and Christopher Sims 2010 Beyond the Baking Pot Polity: Continuing Settlement Research in the Upper Belize River Valley. Research Reports in Belizean Archaeology, 7: 171-182. Hoggarth, Julie A., Eva Jobbová, Christophe Helmke & Andrew Bevan 2008 Settlement Survey at Baking Pot, Belize: Results of the 2007 Season. The Belize Archaeological Reconnaissance Project: A Report of the 2007 Field Season, Vol. 13: 157-187. Houston, Stephen D. 1993 Hieroglyphs and History at Dos Pilas: Dynastic Politics of the Classic Maya. of Texas Press. Iannone, Gyles 2004 Problems in the Definition and Interpretation of ‘Minor Centers’ in Maya Archaeology with Reference to the Upper Belize Ancient Maya of the Belize Valley: Half a Century of Archaeological Research, edited by James F. Garber: 273-286. University Press of Florida. 2003 Rural Complexity in the Cahal Pech Microregion. Perspectives on Ancient Maya Rural Complexity, edited by Samuel V. Connell: 13-26. 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LeCount, Lisa J. and John H. Blitz 2001 Actuncan Early Classic Maya Project: Report of the First Season. Belmopan: to the Institute of Archaeology. Prehistoric Settlement Patterns in the 1981 Teotihuacan: City, State and Civilization. In: Supplement to the Handbook of Middle American Indians, Vol. 1: Archaeology, edited by Victoria Bricker and Jeremy 198-243. Austin: University of Texas Press. 1988 The Last Years of Teotihuacan Dominance. In: The Collapse of Ancient States edited by Norman Yoffee and George Cowgill: 102-164. Tucson: University of Arizona Press. Piehl, Jennifer C. 2005 Performing Identity in an Ancient Maya City: The Archaeology of Houses, Health and Social Differentiation at the Site Unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation. New Orleans: Tulane University. Piehl, Jennifer C. and Jaime J. Awe 2010 Scalping as a Component of Terminus Structure Ritual at the Site of Baking Pot, Belize. Research Reports in Belizean Archaeology, 7: 55-64. Ricketson, Oliver G. 1931 Excavations at Baking Pot, British Honduras. Contributions to American Archaeology, No. 1. Washington D.C.: Carnegie Institution of Washington. Reents-Budet, Dorie, Joseph Ball, Jennifer Ronald L. Bishop 2000 Out of the Palace Dumps: Ceramic Production and Use at Buenavista del Cayo, Belize. Ancient Mesoamerica, 11(1): 99-121. Sanders, William T., and David Webster 1988 The Mesoamerican Urban Tradition. American Anthropologist, 90: 521- 546. Scarborough, Vern L.; Fred Valdez Jr. Dunning 2003 Heterarchy, Political Economy, Maya : The Three Rivers Region East-Central Yucatán Peninsula. University of Arizona Press. Scarborough, Vern L. and Lisa J. Lucero 2010 The Non-Hierarchical Development of Complexity in the Semitropics: Water and Cooperation. Water History, 2: 185-205. Smith, Michael E. 1989 Cities, towns, and urbanism: comment on Sanders and Webster. American Anthropologist, 91: 454-461. 2011 Classic Maya Settlement Clusters as Urban Neighborhoods: A Comparative Perspective on Low-Density Urbanism. Journal de la Société des Américanistes, 97(1): 51-73. Sugiyama, Saburo 2004 Governance and Polity at Classic In: Mesoamerican Archaeology, A. Hendon and Rosemary A. Joyce: Malden: Blackwell Publishing. Villagutierre Soto-Mayor, Juan de 1983 History of the Conquest of the Itza. Culver City: Labyrinthos. 286 Jaime J. Awe, Julie A. Hoggarth Implications tradition is characterized … by complexity and variety preindustrial Old World, albeit within very different parameters.” Arlen F. Chase & William A. Haviland (1990: 499) countryside in Mesoamerica if we are to understand ancient urbanism political relationships that linked city and hinterland.” 122) today, after more than thirty years of demographic research, there are the Maya had true cities.” (2003: 5) pattern study at Barton Ramie more than half a century ago, Belize River Valley makes this area one of the most intensively studied analysis of this rich database now indicates that in spite of location, and general configuration, none of the major centers in the the size or socio-political stature of their other neighbors. Our investigations sites were occupied for more than a thousand years, settlements around in a manner that is consistent with models of low-density urbanism. landscape of the upper Belize River Valley, this paper also addresses the persistence of this settlement type over time. Willey sobre el patrón de asentamiento de Barton Ramie hace más de de los asentamientos arqueológicos en el Valle del Río Belice ha hecho más estudiadas de las tierras bajas mayas. El análisis reciente de esta rica de los centros principales del valle, a pesar de los diferentes desarrollos generales, jamás había excedido el límite territorial o el estatus investigaciones también demuestran que aunque algunos sitios fueron los asentamientos alrededor de estos centros permanecieron relativamente con modelos de urbanismo de baja densidad. Además de describir el paisaje estudio también tematiza los factores causales que puedan explicar la a través del tiempo. Jaime J. Awe, Julie A. Hoggarth & Christophe Helmke true urban cities, noting that Classic Maya settlements did not seem to display the traditional demographic and density aspects of formal urban centres, thus labelling the Classic Maya a “civilization without cities.” (Willey 1962: 96). Discussions on urbanism began to question the rigid requirements and typology of characteristics that have been suggested to mark urbanism in ancient times. Early discussions on the topic, such as V. Gordon Childe’s (1950) seminal work which proposed ten characteristics to define early urbanism, were later refuted due to the strict definitions proposed for urbanism. Blanton’s review of major contributions in anthropology to the discussion of ancient cities noted that “traditional theories of cities utilized by anthropologists fail because they cannot adequately account for the cross-cultural variability in the nature of cities, and because they are inadequate for dealing with the dynamic properties of cities and the societies of which they are a part” (Blanton 1976: 261). Mesoamerican scholars have been particularly adamant against strict definitions of urbanism. With regard to the issue of whether Maya sites can, or should, be classified as cities, Yaeger convincingly argued that previous definitions of cities (e.g. Wirth 1938) as places with a large number of people, “living in a densely nucleated settlement with a high degree of social and economic heterogeneity” is a very city-centred perspective that has been criticized for its failure to incorporate the “complex network of social, political and economic relationships that connect city and hinterlands.” (Yaeger 2003: 122). This position reflects a similar perspective held by Joyce Marcus (1983: 208) who previously commented that “distinguishing the Mesoamerican city from its politically controlled territory creates a division that would have seemed artificial to the people we seek to understand…” (Yaeger 2003: 122). Chase and Chase (1996: 805) also posit that Classic period Maya communities “varied substantially in their spatial extent, populations the 1950s, and composition”, and that “large Maya cities by Childe were centers of population, power, trade and administration”. With respect to Mesoamerican urbanism, Chase et al. (1990: 499) have noted that: 2004) urban centres There has been much speculation about the levels of cultural complexity and degrees of urbanism achieved in ancient Mesoamerica. Upper Belize River Valley 265 to reflect the various manifestations of urban patterns across the world. While we strongly support the foregoing arguments, however, and in spite of our concurrence with these colleagues, we still cannot escape the fact that settlement data strongly suggests that there are very obvious differences between the prehistoric settlement patterns evident at some central Mexican sites None of (e.g. Teotihuacan), and those of lowland Maya the Maya polities. Indeed, and as our review of the Belize they reflect nature of Valley data below will show, settlements in this sub-region of the Maya lowlands simply do not reflect population densities and nucleation akin to that of Teotihuacan. Rather, they are compatible with patterns typical of the agrarian-based, low-density urban centres described by Fletcher and his colleagues (Fletcher et al. 2008; Fletcher 2009). An equally important, but still relatively ignored, question in the study of low-density urbanism, are the causal factors that led to the establishment, and perpetuation, of this settlement pattern in the Maya lowlands. Besides presenting data which we believe establishes the low-density urban nature of Belize valley sites, this paper will also attempt to address the question of why this settlement type persisted throughout the occupation history of the upper Belize River valley. Geographic Boundaries of the Belize Valley Cultural Sub-Region 2009) The Belize River Valley is located in the western Cayo District of Belize (Figure 1), and represents a relatively small cultural sub-region of the eastern Maya lowlands (Helmke and Awe 2008a, 2013). At the centre of this sub-region is the Belize River which is fed by several tributaries that flow into the main waterway from the south, southwest and northwest. Bordering the alluvial valley to the north are the Yalbac Hills and a series of limestone escarpments that extend into northern Belize. The eastern border of the valley is delimited by the Caribbean Sea, and the southern border is defined by the granitic Mountain Pine Ridge. As Helmke and Awe (2008a, 2013) note, the valley’s western border is not as easily defined, but they suggest that it could be extended to the confluence of the Chiquibul and Mopan Rivers to the west of the modern Belize – Guatemala border. Helmke and Awe (2008a, 2013) further note that the Jaime J. Awe, Julie A. Hoggarth & Christophe Helmke Maya Lowlands, indicating major physiographic features that frame the Maya Mountains, the Yalbac Hills and the Caribbean coastline. Note how and Lamanai define the cultural boundaries of the research area. Only as dots), and only the fluvial system pertaining to central Belize are of the Maya area and other sites mentioned in the text. The frame view of central Belize provided in Figure 2. Modern national borders 2013: Fig. 1). approximately 80,800 inhabitants of the Cayo District live along this section of the Belize River. This same area represents one of the country’s major breadbaskets, producing diverse crops like corn, beans, citrus, rice and vegetables, and most of Belize’s beef, poultry, pork and dairy products. As late as the 1950s, and like it did in the past, the navigable Belize River served as the major transportation route into western Belize and eastern Guatemala. Colourful descriptions of journeys upriver are immortalized in the writings of 17th century Spanish missionaries (see Villagutierre Soto Mayor 1983) seeking to convert contact period Maya communities along the river, and in early 20th century publications by Thomas Gann (1925) and J. Eric S. Thompson (1970) who were among the first to report on the archaeology of the region. In recent times, canoe travel on the river has been rekindled, particularly for recreational purposes such as the 175-mile long, annual, international canoe race classic known as “La Ruta Maya Challenge”. Upper Belize River Valley 267 Valley showing sites discussed in the presentation. Note that ‘major centres’ centres’ (map courtesy of the Belize Valley Archaeological Reconnaissance 2013: Fig. 2). significantly increased the number of settlements in the valley. They have also established a long and continuous history of early human occupation that extends for several millennia (10,000 B.C. to 1700 A.D), beginning in Preceramic times and culminating in the Colonial period (Graham et al. 1989; Ball and Taschek 1991; Awe 1992; LeCount et al. 2002; Yaeger 2002; Awe and Helmke 2005; Lohse et al. 2006). Other important contributions by recent projects include the introduction of a “minor centre” category to Willey’s original three-tiered settlement model (Iannone 2003; Driver and Garber 2004; Iannone 2004; Helmke and Awe 2008a). Major centres, that represent the top tier of this model, include sites with the following characteristics: residential 1) nucleated monumental epicentres, 2) pyramidal temple structures, 3) eastern triadic temples (such as E-Group-like configurations), 4) royal palatial groups, 5) ballcourts, 6) monuments such as stelae and altars (some of which were carved), 7) intrasite processional sacbeob (causeways) or ‘vias’, 8) sacbe termini groups, and 9) in some cases royal tombs” (Helmke and Awe 2013: 60-62). Jaime J. Awe, Julie A. Hoggarth & Christophe Helmke River Valley has one of the longest continuous sequence of human occupation in the eastern Maya lowlands. Following its colonization in the Preceramic period (10,000 – 1500 B.C.), the first permanent farming settlements were established towards the end of the Early Preclassic period, roughly between 1200 and 900 B.C. Evidence for these early Maya communities was first identified at Cahal Pech (Awe 1992; Healy and Awe 1995, 1996; Garber and Awe 2008), then subsequently at Blackman Eddy (Garber et al. 2004a, 2004b) and Xunantunich (LeCount and Yaeger 2008). Most other major centres in the valley, with the exception, perhaps, of Lower Dover, have produced evidence of initial occupation starting around ca. 800-600 B.C. By the third century B.C., several sites, such as Cahal Pech, Blackman Eddy and Actuncan, had attained the status of small regional centres. Around this same time, several new communities were established along the upper reaches of some of the smaller southern tributaries of the Belize River (e.g. Roaring Creek). In the ensuing Early Classic period (300-600 A.D.) several sites, such as Baking Pot, Buena Vista, and Pacbitun began to display features typical of major valley centres, suggesting that they had also attained the political stature and regional importance of the older valley centres (Helmke et al. 2006; Helmke and Awe 2013). By the end of the 8th century A.D., population began to peak in the greater Belize Valley. Indeed, almost every site investigated has produced evidence for construction activity at this time. This period also witnesses major developments in the Xunantunich site core, reflecting this site’s rise to major centre status (LeCount et al. 2002). It has been suggested that Xunantunich’s Terminal Classic development likely resulted at the expense and decline of its north-eastern neighbours Actuncan and Buenavista del Cayo (LeCount et al. 2002; Helmke et al. 2010). Recent investigations (LeCount and Blitz 2001; Yaeger et al. 2008) at the two latter sites have, however, produced evidence of continued occupation into the latter part of the Late Classic periods (800-900 A.D.), suggesting that occupation of these communities continued in spite of their possible loss in stature. A similar situation appears to have unfolded to the east of the Baking Pot polity (Conlin and Ehret 1999; Hoggarth 2009). In this section of the valley, preliminary investigations within the site core of Lower Dover indicate that most of the monumental Upper Belize River Valley 269 in elevation towards the direction of the Maya mountains. The northern and north-eastern hinterlands cover an area of undulating terrain and sections of the flat alluvial valley. In spite of the fact that Xunantunich has been the focus of numerous archaeological projects during the last 50 years, the most extensive settlement data for this site was recorded by the Xunantunich Archaeological Project (XAP) directed by Richard Leventhal and Wendy Ashmore in the 1990s (Leventhal and Ashmore 2004). In addition to complete coverage of the core area, and of settlements around the minor centre of San Lorenzo to the northeast of the site core, the XAP survey included three 400 meter wide transects (Yaeger 2000, 2003). Transect 1 extended approximately 8 km to the southeast of the site core, Transect 2 extended approximately 4 km north of the core, terminating at the minor centre of Calla Creek, and Transect 3 was approximately 3.5 km, extending northward from the end of Transect 1 towards the minor centre of Chaa Creek. The total area covered by the survey was 5.9 km2. Using data produced by the XAP survey we calculated that within a 500 m radius of the site core, Xunantunich has a density of approximately 140 mounds per km2. Within a radius of 1000 m the density is about 88 mounds per km2 (Tables 1 & 2). Yaeger (2003: 130) also estimates that about 1,384 people lived within this 1000 m radius of the Xunantunich site core. Polity Area of Polity Population kilometres 2 Xunantunich 61.08 km 29,025 2 Cahal Pech 85.78 km 37,698 2 Baking Pot 99.73 km 45,858 Table 2. Population estimates for selected sites in the upper Belize River Valley. Note that polity size is based on estimated region covered by each centre, and that the estimate for Xunantunich does not include the extent of this site within Guatemala. Belize – Cahal Pech (Figure 4) is located within the modern town of San Ignacio, almost equidistant from Xunantunich and Baking Pot. The site core sits on the crest of a steep hill overlooking the eastern, Macal, branch of the Belize River, about two kilometres upstream from the confluence of the Macal and Mopan. Like Xunantunich, the Cahal Pech hinterland comprises hilly limestone terrain to the west, south and southeast of the site core, and rich Jaime J. Awe, Julie A. Hoggarth & Christophe Helmke Adjusted Mound Adjusted Adjusted Mounds density Mound Population density 66 168/km2 140/km2 553 123 104/km2 88/km2 1384 48 175/km2 145/km2 616 84 119/km2 99/km2 1679 84 122/km2 107/km2 454 220 80/km2 70/km2 1188 estimates for selected Belize Valley sites. Note that, with the exception 100% coverage of the area, estimates for Cahal Pech and Xunantunich Estimates for Baking Pot do not include the full extent of its settlement, in examples. density was calculated at around 1679. Baking Pot (Figure 5) is located on the southern bank of the Belize River, about 8 kilometres northeast of Cahal Pech, approximately 7 kilometres upstream from Lower Dover and Barton Ramie (Figure 1), and 10 kilometres from Blackman Eddy. Unlike Cahal Pech and Xunantunich, the site core of Baking Pot, and most of its hinterlands, is located on a wide expanse of the alluvial valley. Hilly, limestone terrain is located about 2 kilometres to the south of the site core. During the 1920s, 1950s and 1960s limited archaeological work was conducted at Baking Pot by the Ricketsons (1931), by Willey et al. (1965) and by Bullard and Bullard (1965). Since the 1990s, all major investigations of the site have been conducted by the BVAR project (Ferguson 1999; Conlon and Powis 2004; Audet and Awe 2004, 2005; Piehl 2005; Audet 2007; Helmke 2008; Helmke and Awe 2008b; Helmke et al. 2008; Hoggarth et al. 2008; Hoggarth 2009; Piehl and Awe 2010). In addition to extensive excavations in the site core, BVAR archaeologists have successfully conducted a 9 km2 block survey (100 % coverage) around the monumental epicentre, and excavated a 20% sample of all the mounds within this section of the site. Results of this research indicate that mound density within a 500 m radius of the site core is approximately 96 mounds per km2 with a population density of Upper Belize River Valley 271 Xunantunich, showing location of Transects 1 and 2 (after Yaeger 2003). within 500 and 1000 m from the site core to make the Baking Pot data comparable with the Xunantunich and Cahal Pech data. Settlement survey at Baking Pot, Cahal Pech and Xunantunich indicates that except for a few minor differences, all three major centres share considerable similarities. Differences are apparent in the east-west orientation of the Cahal Pech site core versus the north-south orientations of Baking Pot and Xunantunich (Awe 2008). The location of Baking Pot’s site core within the alluvial valley also contrasts with the hilltop location of Cahal Pech and Jaime J. Awe, Julie A. Hoggarth & Christophe Helmke core of Cahal Pech and surrounding settlement (after Awe 1992). Another interesting feature that surveys at the sites noted was limited evidence for craft specialization within the core areas of the three centres. At Xunantunich, for example, there is some evidence for a slate workshop in Group D (Braswell 1998), Cahal Pech has evidence for shell bead production (Lee and Awe 1995), and Baking Pot has one, possibly two, lithic workshops in its hinterland. It has also been suggested that part of Baking Pot’s economy may have relied on the cash-cropping of cacao (Willey et al. 1965, Audet and Awe 2002). A similar paucity in specialized workshops has been noted at other Belize Valley sites. At El Pilar, for example, investigators recorded evidence for stone tool (Michaels 1993) and axe (Whitaker et al. 2009) workshops near the site core, and an obsidian workshop about 4.5 km southeast of the centre (Ford and Fedick 1992: Upper Belize River Valley 273 Pot and surrounding settlement (Map by Christophe Helmke and Andrew nucleated and well-organized settlements. Within Teotihuacan’s metropolitan area lived an estimated 150,000 to 200,000 inhabitants (Millon 1973; Cowgill 1974; Millon 1981, 1988). Sugiyama (2004: 99) further notes that, Strong political and ideological control over the inhabitants is connoted… by the city’s cohesive layout, consistent orientation, standardized architectural style, residential complexes designed for multiple families, and conventional art forms. In fact, no independent single-family house breaking these architectural rules has been discovered in Classic period Teotihuacan. Jaime J. Awe, Julie A. Hoggarth & Christophe Helmke Limited Evolutionary Time Although few researchers have explicitly suggested that “evolutionary time” may have been a factor that limited the development of western-style urbanism in the Maya area, the possibility that it may have played such a role has certainly been implied. This is clearly highlighted by Yaeger (2003: 129) who, in rationalizing his broad application of the term “city” to Xunantunich, notes that: … this [broad] usage avoids the implicit logic that politically important settlements with non-nucleated populations or with a low level of centrally located economic production “lack” some key characteristic that would take them over the threshold to city-ness, or that they ran out of evolutionary steam before becoming a city … In his critique of Davis (2006), Fletcher (2009:11) added that, “…urban researchers today debate whether low-density dispersed urbanism is a unique and a mere transitional phase (Davis, 2006).” More recently, in their discussion of the rise of cultural complexity in the Near East, Scarborough and Lucero (2010: 187) also noted that, The catalyst for the ‘‘urban revolution’’ was neither singular nor clearly predictable, though perhaps inevitable given a similar set of primary civilizations—states— developed within a thousand years of this Near Eastern city-scape florescence. of It is, therefore, very apparent that there are some researchers who would argue that with time, most, if not all, prehistoric settlements should eventually develop into large, nucleated, western-style, urban communities. But this is obviously not the case. Consider, for example, that Cahal Pech and Xunantunich were occupied from ca. 1200 B.C. to A.D. 900, and Baking Pot from about 800 B.C. to A.D. 1000. Occupation extending for a millennia and a half also holds true for several other sites just outside of the Belize Valley (e.g. Caracol and El Pilar). Going back to Cahal Pech, we know that this valley site was established by the start of the first millennia B.C., that its inhabitants were acquiring exotics by way of long distance exchange networks by 900 B.C., that construction of non-domestic monumental Upper Belize River Valley 275 of the Belize River. The Late Preclassic colonization and subsequent development of the Roaring Creek valley provides a good example of the latter (Awe and Helmke 2007; Helmke 2009). By the start of the Early Classic period (A.D. 300), few, if any, of the valleys along the tributaries of the Belize River remained unoccupied and population maximums were likely attained by the middle of the eighth century A.D. Thereafter, there is a gradual abandonment of polities across the greater Belize valley with only a few, very depopulated, communities persisting beyond the end of the first millennia A.D. The foregoing historical trajectory indicates that population growth within the earliest Preclassic communities may have initially been limited by opportunities for fissioning to other nearby, resource rich, valley environments. Fissioning from early established communities likely continued up to the start of the Early Classic period (A.D. 300) but thereafter there was simply no more available valley land to be had. Assuming continued population growth, one would then expect to see evidence for increasing urbanism, particularly in those communities that were first established at the end of the Early Preclassic period (1200 – 900 B.C.). Settlement data, however, provides little, if any, support for this type of trajectory. Indeed, settlement studies of sites throughout the valley demonstrate that, in spite of their age differences or occupation history, all major sites in the Belize Valley retained their low-density and dispersed settlement character right through to the time of their abandonment. In other words, even though some sites in the valley were occupied for almost two millennia, none ever developed into Teotihuacan-like urban centres. When we examine the warfare factor, we find that there is substantial evidence of conflicts involving Belize Valley centres. Evidence for warfare is recorded on carved monuments, it is indicated by the defensive location of some sites, it is depicted on ceramic art, and is implied by various offerings involving sacrificial victims (Helmke et al. 2010; Piehl and Awe 2010). In spite of this, we see warfare as a double-edged “explanatory sword”. On the one hand, we would assume that the elimination of soldiers during war should contribute to the maintenance of low population levels. But this is not necessarily the case for as most demographic studies have shown (see Havilland et al. 2008), the Jaime J. Awe, Julie A. Hoggarth & Christophe Helmke limited resources likely encouraged the establishment of heterarchical communities that “shared similar population dispersion patterns with urban-like centers concentrating no more that 600–700 people per square kilometer”. Studies of soils in western Belize have established the presence of two major soil groups: well-drained uplands and slow-drained lowlands (Birchall and Jenkin 1979; Fedick and Ford 1990). The former is comprised primarily of very fertile, but shallow, mollisols. The latter, which is also quite fertile, grades between Mollisols, and Vertisols. In western Belize, the well-drained alluvial soils of the Belize River Valley are among the deepest and most fertile in the region and annual flooding serves to replenish soil fertility. Like the upland soils of the flanking limestone hills, alluvial valley soils are limited in their distribution, and are found only along the banks of the major waterways. So what is the distribution of major centers vis a vis the two major soil groups in the valley? Interestingly, Baking Pot is situated directly on the valley bottoms, on one of the widest expanses of the river valley. Buena Vista is also located on rolling terrain, just above the floodplain of the Mopan River. In contrast to these sites, Cahal Pech, Xunantunich and Blackman Eddy are located at the summit of limestone hills that overlook the river valley. Given their locations, it is obvious that all of the major centres controlled sections of bottomlands and hilly terrain, but that Baking Pot and Buenavista del Cayo likely controlled considerably larger expanses of the rich alluvial bottomlands. Control of a larger share of either hilly land or bottomland, however, does not seem to have had any major or significant impact on settlement densities at any of the major sites (Hoggarth et al. 2010; Ford and nature Fedick 1992). Indeed, the only readily observable differences in the settlement patterns between valley bottom sites and hilltop crucial sites are that the former (e.g. Baking Pot) t appear to have a greater number of solitary mounds than the hilltop sites and that the latter They tend to have more settlements that cluster around formal patio groups than is evident at valley bottom sites. In spite of these general technology settlement pattern differences, sites that require developed in both locations consistently reflect patterns of dispersed, low-density, urbanism. These, “dispersed access to Upper Belize River Valley 277 within or around settlement groups in the limestone hills (Dorenbush 2012); this despite the presence of several dry creek beds in the area. To the west of the site core, we also recorded two large reservoirs at different elevations that were purposely located in this manner so that the overflow of the topmost one would drain into the lower reservoir. The overflow from a third reservoir fed into a presently perennial creek that the Cahal Pech Maya dammed in an effort to increase their water supply. Numerous chultuob have also been recorded in and around hilltop settlements at Xunantunich. At Baking Pot, chultunob are absent in the bottomlands, but present within settlements located in the limestone hills to the south (Hickey 2012). Regardless of these water management efforts, the Belize Valley Maya all had access to water in several fast flowing rivers. Water storage facilities like those described for Cahal Pech were therefore more likely for convenience than out of dire necessity. These facilities were certainly not as crucial a factor to them as it may have been to populations living why in non-riverine sites such as Caracol or Tikal where the only water sources may have been in water tanks and reservoirs. Interestingly, Scarborough and Lucero (2010: 187) suggest that, As populations did indeed increase, a growing need for more predictable water access positioned communities near perennial running sources—streams and rivers. Because of the seasonal rise and fall of these rivers, however, sedentary communities were not placed in proximity of floodplains and frequently depended on flows from much smaller distributaries. supply in While this may hold true for Xunantunich and Cahal Pech, it certainly is not the case for Baking Pot, Buena Vista, and Lower Dover for all these sites are next to, or in close proximity, to the banks of the Belize River. In spite of this, access to dependable and good quality water supply is most certainly a concern for settlements in any location and there is little doubt that access to water influenced settlement patterns across various landscapes. influence on Tropical Diseases (especially those spread by waterborne vectors) Miksic (1999:26) argues that there are significant differences in health conditions Jaime J. Awe, Julie A. Hoggarth & Christophe Helmke Tenochtitlan. In contrast, years of intensive archaeological investigations within the site cores of the major Belize Valley sites provide clear evidence that none of them can be described as major centres of economic production. This is true for both utilitarian and prestige goods. At Xunantunich, for example, there is some evidence for a slate workshop in Group D, El Pilar has evidence for a couple stone tool workshops near the site core, the Cahal Pech core area has evidence for shell bead production, and Buena Vista has a polychrome ceramic workshop. These production areas, however, are limited in size and scope, and are a far cry from the widespread occurrence of specialized workshops in nucleated “urban” centres such as Teotihuacan and those at major Near Eastern sites. At Teotihuacan, for example, archaeological investigations recorded more than 500 workshops within the city (Manzanilla 2004: 126-127). This contrasts dramatically with Xunanantunich, Cahal Pech, Baking Pot and other Belize Valley centres, where less than three workshops per site have been recorded. Interestingly, there also appears to be a far greater number of craft production sites in the hinterlands of Belize valley centres than is present in the site cores. This pattern of distribution has been recorded at Xunantunich and at El Pilar (Ford and Fedick 1992). In his study of Xunantunich, this situation led Yeager (2003: 130) to comment that Belize valley sites, like most lowland Maya cities, had a “low level of centrally located economic production”. The primary role of site cores in the valley, he suggests, was to solidify and maintain “cosmic and socio-political order”, and that the ties that bound centres with their hinterlands “was built in part on shared quotidian experiences” that were reinforced through celebratory events. Chase et al 1999: 503) support this view with their comment that: Maya producers were not located solely in proximity to elite households … There are workshop and production loci in varying locations and situations within a Maya urban setting. urban Outside of the valley, the northern Belize site of Colha, with its numerous flint workshops, provides one of the best examples for the apparent decentralized distribution of production nodes in lowland Maya cities. Investigations by Tom Hester and his Upper Belize River Valley 279 strongly support this contention. Indeed, artifacts recovered in household excavations at these sites overwhelmingly represent objects produced from local materials. Objects made from exotics such as obsidian, jade, and marine shell occur in relatively low frequency, often representing less than five percent of total household assemblages. This contrast significantly with material remains recovered from elite contexts which generally include far greater quantities of imported goods (see Audet 2007). The hinterland populations of Belize Valley sites, with their access to water and aquatic resources from the numerous rivers in the region, with access to fertile land, and their ability to produce, or acquire, those basic stone tools that were necessary for subsistence related activities, may have therefore enjoyed a relatively high level of independence and autonomy. This, in turn, may have provided no impetus for moving into a nucleated urban environment that encouraged greater specialization and dependence on goods and food produced outside of the household. so much so of major , Discussion type of In their 1988 paper that focused on urbanism, Sanders and Webster (1988) argued that continues settlement pattern studies suggest the presence of a dichotomous urban tradition in Mesoamerica. On one side of this dichotomous spectrum they grouped cities such as study Teotihuacan, Tula and Tenochititlan under the category of “Administrative cities”. At the other end of the spectrum they included all other Mesoamerican centres under the category Maya masses of Richard Fox’s (1977) “Regal Ritual Cities”. Some local Several Mayanists (see especially Chase et al. 1990: 503) have argued, that “the kind of ”Mesoamerican urban tradition” described by Sanders and Webster does not exist”, that it is overly simplistic, and that it fails to account for the considerable diversity and complexity evident at Mesoamerican sites. In the case of urban centres, it is, nevertheless, apparent that we can identify at least two major types of urban settlements in Mesoamerica. The first, which approximates patterns associated with early industrial cities, is typical of some sites such as Teotihuacan, Tula and Tenochtitlan in central Mexico. The second confirms to models of low-density urbanism as described by Fletcher (2009). On the basis of data from western Belize, we would, however, like to propose that dispersed, low-density, urban Jaime J. Awe, Julie A. Hoggarth & Christophe Helmke On the basis of the data we have presented on the Belize Valley, we would argue that, at least for settlements in similar riverine environments, the key to understanding what factors were primarily responsible for the establishment and perpetuation of low-density urbanism lies in the relationships that existed between sites cores and their hinterlands. Our data strongly suggest that hinterland populations in the Belize Valley enjoyed a relatively high level of economic autonomy from their site cores. As Yaeger (2003) previously noted in his study of Xunantunich, “The city was not a venue for intensive craft production but instead was structured primarily by concerns revolving around politically important celebrations and, to a lesser degree, administrative activities.” Maya cities in the Belize Valley, he adds, were venues “for socially generative practices such as regional market exchanges, polity-wide judicial hearings, and politically charged ritual performances…”. Hinterland populations in the Belize valley all had some access to a variety of fertile agricultural land, access to good water supply, and, “Not only did [they] create food, they often doubled as artisans who created items for exchange…” (Ashmore 2004:177). In essence, the prehistoric Belize Valley Maya enjoyed considerable economic independence from their site cores. This independence, we believe, resulted with considerable autonomy among hinterland populations, and this may have acted as a centrifugal force that discouraged the types of nucleation and centralization apparent in western-style urbanism. It is our hope that some of these ideas will stimulate future investigations that focus on the causal factors that led some prehistoric societies to successfully resist the move toward the establishment of nucleated urban centres. As Fletcher (2009:15) previously commented: Valley. It We need to know more about low-density agrarian urbanism – where did it occur on the planet, when did it exist and for how long, how extensive could such cities become and how and why did they cease to function? These are vital pieces of information for historical enquiry in its own right but they are also essential for a perspective on contemporary and future paths of urbanism, one of which will certainly be towards low-density dispersal. 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