The Maya sites of Marco Gonzalez and San Pedro are located on the southern end of Ambergris Caye, a limestone-based coral island off the coast of modern-day Belize. When combined, the archaeological settlements at these sites represent some of the longest occupations in coastal Belize. Evidence suggests the earliest occupation occurred at Marco Gonzalez in the Late Preclassic and extended into the Late Postclassic, while San Pedro's population thrived well into the Historic period. An analysis of the stone tools recovered from excavations at Marco Gonzalez and San Pedro and a study of the use-wear patterns on these artifacts has revealed that the Maya from both sites were primarily engaged in subsistence-based activities with a limited amount of small-scale craft production. Use-wear evidence suggests that the majority of these activities focused on the exploitation of local resources necessary in everyday Maya life. The activities included the acquisition of seafoods such as fish and molluscs, and the preservation and/or processing of fish and other marine by-products, such as shell, coral, and stingray spines for both local use and trade. As consumer sites, the Caye inhabitants offered many of these products in exchange for stone tools produced in mainland workshops, such as Colha, in the 'chert-bearing zone' of Northern Belize. In addition to the local and regional trade of marine resources and salt, the sites of Marco Gonzalez and San Pedro served as transshipment points for the long-distance exchange of valuable wealth or prestige goods along the coast. The large inland site of Lamanai likely served as ally and trade partner with these sites based on archaeological evidence for socioeconomic and sociopolitical ties between this mainland centre and the smaller Caye settlements. This relationship assisted the Maya from southern Ambergris Caye in surviving the breakdown in trade relations and depopulation that plagued other Maya centres in the Late to Terminal
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.36711 |
| Date | January 2000 |
| Creators | Stemp, William James. |
| Contributors | Bisson, Michael S. (advisor) |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Doctor of Philosophy (Department of Anthropology.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001762218, proquestno: NQ64672, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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