Belize | XIII Baktun, Fin del Calendario Maya 2012

Belize is a country blessed with a diversity of peoples and cultures that have
come together to form a nation.

Altun Ha, Belize

Structure B4

Altun Ha Site Map

High Temple at Lamanai (Late Preclassic)

The Hunchback, Lamanai, Belize 

Twenty-five Years of Research at Caracol, Belize:

Department of Archaeology Belize

1985: Initial Camp at Caracol

1984: Second Preliminary Trip to Caracol

1988: Caracol Access Road

2007
there is no “i” in “archaeology”

1983

1986 1992

2004

K’aan II

Caana
Caana
jaguar throne

“the” Late Classic royal residence

A.D. 400
Dynastic Founding

9.18.8.3.9 9 Muluc 7 Muan
[-] 1.3.19.11.5
8.14.8.10.4 10 Kan 7 Kankin

Caracol Ballcourt Marker 3

top of Caracol Stela 20 A.D. 330 A.D. 798

B2 ISIG for the month K’ayab
A3 9 pi-ki, (bolon pik) “9Bak’tun”
B3 18 WINIK-HAAB’ “18 K’atun
A4 9 HAAB’, “9 Tun”
B4 5 WINAL-la, “5 Winal
B5 9 K’IN-ni, “9 K’in”
C1 6 Muluk 8 [Tzolkin day]
D1 2 K’AN-a-si “2 K’ayab” [month]
C2 CHUM-la ti-AJAW-le (chumlaj ti ajawlel)
“he was seated into kingship
D2 K’IN-ni-chi (k’inich) “sun-faced”
C3 JOY-K’AWIIL-li (Joy K’awil)
D3 K’UHUL-K’AN-tu-ma-ki, (k’uhul k’antu maak)
“divine man from Caracol” [this is the Caracol emblem]
C4 u-TZ’AK-aj, “it was changed” [D N Introductory Glyph]
D4 11 (K’in) 12 WINAL-ya “11 days and 12 winal”
C5 u-ti-ya (uhtiiy) “it had happened”
D5 i-u-ti (I-uht) “and then it came to pass”
C6 10 Ajaw [Tzolkin day]
D6 8 SAK-SIHOM (8Sak) [month name]
E2 u K’AL TUUN-ni (u k’al tuun) “he binds the stone”
E3 ti-LAM-wa (ti lamaw) “for the half [K’atun]”
F3 14 (K’in) 10 Winal-ji “14 days and 10 winal”
E4 2 HAAB’-ya “and two years”
F4 u-ti-ya (uhtiiy) “it had happened”
D5 i-u-ti (i uht) “and then it came to pass……..”

Free Translation of Caracol Ball Court B Marker
Clause 1: On the 12th of December, AD 799, K’inich Joy K’Awil sat into kingship.
Clause 2: The stacking of 251 days had come to pass and then the 19 th August (AD 800
happened) it is the ‘stone-binding’ at the ‘half-period ending’
Clause 3: Two years and 214 days had come to pass, and then (the 24 th of January AD798 or
7th of March AD 803) it happened…

Lord Water K’aan II

9.5.19.1.2 9.9.4.16.2.
A.D. 553 A.D. 618
accession accession

Caracol Altar 21
“Star-War” at Tikal in A.D. 562

Polity Size and Warfare
- 60 kilometer rule for territoriality
- using modern theory in a past context
- seeing prosperity and cohesion in the
population

Tikal
Naranjo

Caracol

“finger caches”

Ritual Items in Residences: Late Classic caches

“face caches”

CARACOL, BELIZE
Caana from Air

2004
1986

Temple of the Wooden Lintel

Establishment of A Group at onset of the 8th Cycle
(ca AD 70)

The A Group Architectural Complex

The Xnaheb

Southern
Belize
Region
(Leventhal 1991)

Nim li Punit, Str.
7
(West Side)

During Initial
Liberation & Final
Consolidation

Structure 8 Construction Stages
Stage 1

Stage 5 Stage 2

Nim li Punit, Structures 7 and 8

Acropolis-Style Palace, Lubaantun

Stucco Mask
Structure N9-56
Lamanai

Before and
after
conservation

Group
CARACOL Barrio North Group before consolidation

CARACOL Group after excavation and consolidation.

Inspection of Looting, Mound Destruction and
Archaeological Impact Assessments

Cahal Pech Hill

1988

2012

Excavation in Str.A4 revealed a child burial cut into a bench. Ceramic
vessels in the grave were similar to vessels found in a Terminal Classic
tomb in Plaza H.

Worked along with the contractor & use the excavator but just going
down roughly 10-15cm at a time.

9 bowls lip to lip position “Hewlett Bank Unslipped”

Distribution of Cultural remains on Burns
Ave

Actun Tunichil Muknal
Cave of the Stone Sepulcher

Caves
Branch

Caves

Actun Tunichil
Muknal

East Frieze, Str. A6,Xunantunich

Kin = 1 día
Uinal = 20 días (20 kin)
Tun = 360 días (18 uinales)
Katun = 7,200 días (20 tun)
Baktun = 144,000 días (20 katun)

Cada periodo de 13 baktunes
se considera un gran ciclo,
el más importante, equivale
a 5,128 años solares.
El actual ciclo de 13 baktunes
termina el día
21 de diciembre del año 2,012

2012 As Prophecy
The 2012 Industr

2012: Predictability & Control

Socio-Ecological Cycles:
Degeneration vs Progress

The Past?

The Future?

Sustainability
• “…the use of environment and resources to meet
the needs of the present without compromising
the ability of future generations to meet their
own needs... Sustainability is a process, rather
than an end-product…” (Berkes et al. 2003:2-4);
• “achieved in a long-term trial and error process
and maintained by constant adjustment”
(Winiwater 2003:93).

Resilience
• “the capacity of a system to absorb
disturbance; to undergo change and still
retain essentially the same function,
structure, and feedbacks” (Walker and Salt
2006:32).
• given archaeology’s “insight[s] into tens of
thousands of years of human activities in all
parts of the globe, [it] is a tantalizing source
of information on human-environmental
relations” (Redman 1999:3-4).

We need to craft detailed, integrated histories for
specific coupled socio-ecological systems

Key Issue: Communities are Internally
segmented

Key Issue: Historical Contingency

Integrated History and future Of
People on Earth (IHOPE)
•IHOPE-MAYA
• (1) T’isil and Yalahau;
•(2) Sayil and the Puuc;
•(3) Calakmul and Campeche;
•(4) Tikal and East-Central
Peten;
•(5) La Milpa and Northern
Belize;
•(6) Caracol and the Vaca
Plateau;
•(7) Palenque and Sierra de
Chiapas foothills;
•8) Seibal and the Rio Pasion
•(9) Uxbenka and the Toledo
foothills;
•(10) Chichen Itza and Yucatan.

CONTEMPORARY, UNSUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE
IN THE VACA PLATEAU

GRB

Caracol: epicenter and surrounding settlement

Structures/Groups
archaeologically
investigated at
Caracol, Belize

(144 Discreet Groups)

- more than 100,000
people at A.D. 650

- prosperity at the site
due to successful warfare
- Tikal, A.D. 562
- Naranjo, A.D. 631

- causeways integrate the
settlement

- thousands of kilometers
of stone terraces were
Caracol Str. B20
constructed to maximize
A.D. 537
the agricultural potential
of the landscape

Caracol Str. B20
A.D. 537
S.D. C1H-3

LiDAR

(Light Detection And Ranging)

1. Laser fires 1000s of pulses per second at the target.
- Photons reflect off the target and return to the receiver.
- Based on speed of light, the distance from the sensor to the target is
calculated.
2. GPS records aircraft latitude, longitude, and altitude.
3. Inertial navigation unit records the aircraft’s orientation (roll, pitch,
and yaw).
4. On-board computer converts locations of target surfaces into 3-
dimensional data called point clouds.

LiDAR-based Mapping Efforts at Caracol, Belize

Mexico

Belize

Guatemala
Caribbean
Sea
April 26-30, 2009

Total Passes – 122 Flying Height – 800 m
Total Length – 1587 km Total Flight Time – 13.7 hrs
Swath Width – 519.9 m Scan Frequency – 40 Hz
Total Swath Area – 199.7 km2 Scan Angle – +/- 21⁰
2.38 billion laser pulses were fired
yielding 4.28 billion measurements
~20 shots/m2; vertical accuracy 5-30 cm
Cost for flights and processing - $171.1 K or $855/km 2

Detection of Maya Structures
100 m

Caracol
Epicenter

“2.5D” LiDAR Photograph

Caana

-11 new causeways
-5 new “formal” termini
- massive terracing

2000 2009

2003

Caracol Causeways
Hatzcap Ceel
Terminus

1 km Cahal Pichik
Terminus

Caracol
Epicenter 100 m

Thompson 1931

Cahal Pichik Morris 2004
Hatzcap Ceel

Detection of Maya Structures: Retiro Terminus

100 m

market

market
reservoirs
residential Puchituk
groups Terminus

terracing
roadway

Caracol constructed
reservoirs visually
identified through
LiDAR

Caracol, Belize
courtesy of:
Adrian S.Z. Chase

CARACOL Comparing Scale and Urban Development ANGKOR

after Evans and Pottier

2013 Belize LiDAR Campaign

Alphawood Foundation grant: $360,295.
LiDAR Acquisition in Western Belize:
Answering Socio-Political Questions in Maya
Archaeology. A.F. Chase, D.Z. Chase, J. Awe,
J.F. Weishampel, G. Iannone, H. Moyes, J.
Yaeger, and M.K. Brown.

Caracol DEM = 200 sq km

A. Upper Vaca Plateau
355 sq km

B. Eastern Vaca Plateau
195 sq km

C. Belize Valley
500 sq km

The Vanishing
Canopy:
the missing 12%

Deforestation
and Illegal Logging …….

Belize | XIII Baktun, Fin del Calendario Maya 2012

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Belize | XIII Baktun, Fin del Calendario Maya 2012

Editor's Notes