Dissertation Research: Rural Household and Community Development in the Xunantunich Hinterland During the Late and Terminal Classic

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Under the direction of Dr. Wendy Ashmore, MS Cynthia Robin will collect data for her doctoral dissertation. Building on prior research she will conduct an archaeological survey and excavation at the site of Xunantunich located in the Belize River Valley in a tropical lowland environment. Xunantunich is a Mayan site which was occupied during the Late to Terminal Classic periods (ca. 600-1000 AD) and thus spans both the height and early decline of the Mayan civilization. The site is unusual because in relation to its estimated population size it contains a relatively small ceremonial center and a dearth of monumental architecture. After the peak of Mayan development when most sites decline in size the opposite appears to have occurred at Xunantunich and the center grows larger rather than smaller. MS Robin wants to examine the relationship between `central` and `rural` areas and through this gain insight into how the polity was organized socially and politically and what forces held the entity together. While much work in the Mayan region has focused on site centers less is known about hinterland areas. MS Robin shall continue her fieldwork to locate household areas since these can shed the most light on social and economic organization. Using a methodology developed in prior seasons she will extract soil cores spaced at regular intervals in areas of likely habitation and through analysis of cultural remains thus recovered locate homesteads for extensive horizontal excavation. She will also excavate in mounds which result from longer term occupation by larger social groups. The ceramics, lithics and other materials recovered will permit her to date individual sites and to examine questions such as craft specialization and degree of hierarchical differentiation. While it is known that Mayan settlements at the height of the Classic period integrated large numbers of individuals into centrally controlled social groupings the mechanisms used to accomplish this end are not well understood and archaeologists disagree on the nature and strength of these bonds. It is only through large scale excavation and survey that answers are likely to emerge and MS Robin's research is directed towards this end. The data she produces will be of interest to many archaeologists. The project will also assist in the training of a promising young scientist.