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Cahal Pech

Maya site in the Cayo District of Belize

Field	Value
name	Cahal Pech
image	Cahal_Pech_Jul_10_2015_49.jpg
image_size	250px
map	Cahal_Pech_Site_Map.png
map_type	Mesoamerica#Belize
map_caption	Location within Mesoamerica##Location within Belize
relief	1
location	San Ignacio, Cayo District, Belize
region	Cayo District
built	1200 BCE
abandoned	900 CE
epochs	Classic
cultures	Maya
excavations	1988 - 2000
archaeologists	Jaime Awe
architectural_styles	Classic

National Institute of Archaeology (NICH)

Responsible body: Belize Department of Archaeology

Cahal Pech is a Maya site located near the town of San Ignacio in the Cayo District of Belize. The site was a palatial, hilltop home for an elite Maya family, and though the most major construction dates to the Classic period, evidence of continuous habitation has been dated to as far back as 1200 BCE during the Early Middle Formative period (Early Middle Preclassic), making Cahal Pech one of the oldest recognizably Maya sites in Western Belize.

Location

The site rests high above the banks of the Macal River and is strategically located to overlook the confluence of the Macal River and the Mopan River. The site is a collection of 34 structures, with the tallest temple being about 25 meters in height, situated around a central acropolis. The site was abandoned in the 9th century CE for unknown reasons.

Archaeology

The earliest pottery in western Belize is found here.

"Emerging information from western Belize suggests that ceramic-using populations may have been in place as early as ca. 1200 B.C. at Cahal Pech and perhaps elsewhere (Awe 1992; Clark and Cheetham 2002; Garber et al. 2004; Healy and Awe 1995). While these complexes, termed "Cunil" at Cahal Pech and "Kanocha" at Blackman Eddy, remain to be broadly documented across the Belize River Valley, they are the earliest established ceramic technologies recorded in western Belize."

The name Cahal Pech, meaning "Place of the Ticks" in the Yucatec Maya language, was given when the area was used as pasture during the first archaeological studies in the 1950s, led by Linton Satterthwaite from the University of Pennsylvania Museum. It is now an archaeological reserve, and houses a small museum with artifacts from various ongoing excavations.

The primary excavation of the site began in 1988. Restoration was completed in 2000 under the leadership of Dr. Jaime Awe, Director of the National Institute of Archaeology (NICH), Belize.

Other nearby Maya sites include Chaa Creek, Xunantunich, Baking Pot, and Lower Dover.

Gallery

File:Cahal Pech Jul 10 2015 110.jpg|Aerial of Cahal Pech Image:Belize, Cahal Pech Laslovarga009.JPG|Main courtyard Image:Cahal Pech Jul 10 2015 107.jpg|Main courtyard Image:Cahal Pech Jul 10 2015 49.jpg|Main courtyard Image:Cahal Pech Jul 10 2015 16.jpg|Remains of a ball court Image:Cahal Pech Jul 10 2015 43.jpg|Another building

Notes

References

Awe ''et al.'' (1990)
Awe (2000)
Lohse, Jon C.. (2006). "Preceramic Occupations in Belize: Updating The Paleoindian and Archaic Record". Latin American Antiquity.
Awe (2006)
Awe (2006)

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

maya-sites-in-belize maya-preclassic-period cayo-district macal-river populated-places-established-in-the-2nd-millennium-bc former-populated-places-in-belize 13th-century-bc-establishments 2nd-millennium-bc-establishments-in-the-maya-civilization 9th-century-disestablishments-in-the-maya-civilization san-ignacio,-belize

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