Catbirds and crabholes: the 2023 field season at Marco Gonzalez, Belize

Abstract

After lengthy delays owing to the Covid-19 pandemic, excavations at the Precolumbian Maya site of Marco Gonzalez in Belize resumed in summer 2023. This season represented the in-field commencement of a new multi-institutional collaboration. The implementation of novel approaches and methods included the incorporation of photogrammetry and 3D modelling as a first-line documentation method, a heightened emphasis on the importance of bioarchaeology as a source for constructing narratives about past life at Marco Gonzalez (through the ‘osteobiographical’ approach) and more extensive excavations than had been possible in previous seasons. These approaches and methods proved fruitful, with excavations uncovering seven new burials, as well as a particularly intriguing cache of what resembled grave goods without an associated individual. Moreover, excavations during this field season provided tantalising new evidence as to the scope of the extensive trade and exchange network within which Marco Gonzalez was a vital node, as well as new insights into the mechanics of the industrial-scale salt processing that was both central to life at the site for several centuries during the Late Classic period and seemingly integral to the formation of highly fertile anthropogenic soils (Maya Dark Earths) that are crucially important to a nuanced understanding of the long-term environmental impact of human activity.

Keywords

• Maya archaeology
• Mesoamerica
• Belize
• field archaeology
• photogrammetry, 3D modelling
• trade and exchange