Cuello is a

Maya Maya may refer to: Ethnic groups * Maya peoples, of southern Mexico and northern Central America ** Maya civilization, the historical civilization of the Maya peoples ** Mayan languages, the languages of the Maya peoples * Maya (East Africa), a p ...

archaeological site in northern

Belize Belize is a country on the north-eastern coast of Central America. It is bordered by Mexico to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and Guatemala to the west and south. It also shares a maritime boundary with Honduras to the southeast. P ...

. The site is that of a farming village with a long occupational history. It was originally dated to 2000 BC, but these dates have now been corrected and updated to around 1200 BC. Its inhabitants lived in pole-and-thatch houses that were built on top of low plaster-coated platforms. The site contains residential groups clustered around central patios. It also features the remains of a steam bath dating to approximately 900 BC, making it the oldest steam bath found to date in the Maya lowlands. Human burials have been associated with the residential structures; the oldest have no surviving burial relics, but from 900 BC onwards, they were accompanied by offerings of ceramic vessels. According to some sources, ceramics from the earliest phase of the settlement at Cuello already belonged to an established lowland Maya pottery tradition. Other scholars disagree, and consider that the earliest Cuello pottery was of the Swasey type, starting at 1200 BC, with a lack of clear parallels. Although Cuello appears to have been a typical, relatively unimportant rural village in the Preclassic era, it participated in regional trade networks with

obsidian Obsidian ( ) is a naturally occurring volcanic glass formed when lava extrusive rock, extruded from a volcano cools rapidly with minimal crystal growth. It is an igneous rock. Produced from felsic lava, obsidian is rich in the lighter element ...

being imported from the Maya highlands from 800 BC onwards, and a small amount of

jade Jade is an umbrella term for two different types of decorative rocks used for jewelry or Ornament (art), ornaments. Jade is often referred to by either of two different silicate mineral names: nephrite (a silicate of calcium and magnesium in t ...

arriving in the community a few centuries later.

Location

Cuello is located two miles Yo Creek Road in the Orange Walk District. It sits on the private land of the Cuello Family but permissions are granted to visit the site.

Archaeology

Uncorrected radiocarbon dates from the lowest stratigraphic levels of the site returned dates as far back as 2600 BC, although these were viewed as controversial. The site was investigated in the 1970s and 1980s by archaeologist Norman Hammond. Structure 326 was excavated in 1980 and measures . The walls of the building were made of thin poles tied together with vines. This was then coated in a smoothed layer of clay and finished with a white lime wash. Archaeological investigation has revealed that the diet of the Preclassic occupants of Cuello consisted of less than 30%

maize Maize (; ''Zea mays''), also known as corn in North American English, is a tall stout grass that produces cereal grain. It was domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 9,000 years ago from wild teosinte. Native American ...

, compared with up to 75% for the modern Maya.

White-tailed deer The white-tailed deer (''Odocoileus virginianus''), also known Common name, commonly as the whitetail and the Virginia deer, is a medium-sized species of deer native to North America, North, Central America, Central and South America. It is the ...

made up over half the meat in their diet, followed by freshwater turtles and domestic dogs, the last of which represents 7% of the animal remains found at the site.

Burials

Two Late Preclassic mass burial areas have been uncovered at Cuello, one of which contained 26 or more males who had been sacrificed. Healed fractures on the bones suggest that they may have been captured warriors. Further evidence of local

warfare War is an armed conflict between the armed forces of State (polity), states, or between governmental forces and armed groups that are organized under a certain command structure and have the capacity to sustain military operations, or betwe ...

comes from evidence of burnt buildings at the site. A number of elite burials have been excavated at Cuello. The earliest phases of the Middle Classic included both adults and children accompanied by offerings of

and shell ornaments, indicating social differentiation.Estrada-Belli 2011, p.62. High-status burials tended to be associated with specific locations throughout the history of the site. Burial 160 is an elite burial that has been dated to 500–400 BC. It consists of an individual interred in a

cist In archeology, a cist (; also kist ; ultimately from ; cognate to ) or cist grave is a small stone-built coffin-like box or ossuary used to hold the bodies of the dead. In some ways, it is similar to the deeper shaft tomb. Examples occur ac ...

, accompanied by two ceramic vessels and ornaments that included tubes fashioned from deer bones and engraved with a mat design that in later times became associated with royalty. There was also the upper portion of a human skull that had been fashioned into a plaque. Due to these distinguishing features of the burial, the excavators concluded that it was that of a Middle Classic ruler of the settlement. The site of this burial remained important in later times, with the residential patio being converted into a ceremonial platform upon which was built a small

pyramid A pyramid () is a structure whose visible surfaces are triangular in broad outline and converge toward the top, making the appearance roughly a pyramid in the geometric sense. The base of a pyramid can be of any polygon shape, such as trian ...

temple.

Ceramic chronology

The earliest pottery found in Belize is in the western part of the country, in places like Cahal Pech and Blackman Eddy. At the northern sites, the pottery is now believed to have come somewhat later. The earliest Cuello pottery found is of the Swasey type, starting at about 1200 BC. While the known ''Xe ceramics'' of the Pasion River drainage date from the similar time period, there are significant differences between these and the Swasey/Bladen ceramics.Laura Kosakowsky
''The Ceramics of Cuello, Belize''.
Cambridge Univ Press, 1998 - www.academia.edu

Notes

References

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