Archaeologists Investigate Secrets of Maya Collapse in Belize

Tucked away under the tropical canopy of northwestern Belize lie the remains of a medium-sized monumental ceremonial Maya center known today as “Blue Creek”. Although significantly smaller than some of the better-known sites such as ancient Tikal, Calakmul and Copan, it also boasts a central precinct of monumental public buildings. But it is unique among most Maya centers in that its size belies the wealth of its ancient inhabitants. That wealth has been manifested, at least in part, through the discovery at Blue Creek of the Maya world’s fifth largest cache of jade, a tough, durable and beautiful translucent stone prized among the Maya elite as a prestige good. 

The researchers of the Maya Research Center (MRP), a U.S.-based non-profit research organization based in Tyler, Texas, have spent many years surveying, excavating, and otherwise researching the Blue Creek site to find answers to why such a wealthy polity thrived so well in what some scholars might describe at first blush as a comparatively modest setting.

“Deeper investigations revealed that Blue Creek’s wealth derived from two equally important factors”, says Dr. Thomas Guderjan, President of MRP and faculty member of the University of Texas at Tyler. “The first is the presence of some of the richest and most extensive agricultural soils in Central America……….the second factor for its economic success was its extraordinary access to other markets due to trade.” [1]  More than half of the Blue Creek area’s 150 square kilometers was cultivated, employing several kinds of agricultural systems, including large scale upland dry farming (non-irrigated), lowland drained field farming and small, household kitchen gardens. This combination and intensity produced a large surplus of agricultural products that could be used for trade. Moreover, the Blue Creek settlement was ideally located at a critical point along the canoe trade routes. SaidGuderjan: “We now believe that Maya trade canoes filled with food and other commodities virtually circumnavigated the Yucatan Peninsula and penetrated into the interior via rivers. Blue Creek is located at the terminus of the Rio Hondo, the northern-most river draining into the Caribbean Sea. Canoes filled with goods could reach the Caribbean in only three days. Then, goods could be loaded onto larger and deeper seagoing canoes bound for cities in the north that had less agricultural potential and higher risk of crop failure due to weather. Equally important, canoes coming from the Caribbean into the interior would have to stop at Blue Creek to off-load goods. From Blue Creek, these goods would be taken overland into the Petén sites such as Tikal and Uaxactun.”  A dock along with related facilities have been uncovered at Blue Creek . Similar facilities have also been uncovered at the site of Hohmul, further downstream. 

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Excavators hard at work at the Blue Creek site.  Courtesy Maya Research Program

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Pottery containing jade objects found at Blue Creek.  Courtesy Maya Research Program

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Above and below: Examples of the exquisite pottery found at Blue Creek.  Courtesy Maya Research Program

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Searching the keys to Blue Creek’s success has been only part of the MRP’s investigative efforts, however. Like other Maya centers, it evolved through a series of phases, including a rise from small beginnings, a significant expansion, and then a decline, becoming another chapter in the total Maya collapse phenomenon about which so much has been written in the literature on Maya civilization.  ”By the Terminal Classic [800 - 1000 CE]“, says Guderjan, “Blue Creek’s political structure had been dramatically and negatively transformed. Construction activities within the site core and adjacent residential areas, such as Kin Tan, had come to an abrupt halt. Ultimately, the Terminal Classic is marked by the abandonment and termination of sacred structures – both within the site core and within its most elite residences.”

Now, questions surrounding this collapse have been a central focus of the MRP’s research efforts. Researchers have explored, and will continue to investigate and excavate, a number of other sites in northwestern Belize into the foreseeable future. They are developing a large database that will be utilized, in part, to glean additional clues to the disappearance of the Classic Maya. Mapping and excavation of new monumental sites such as Nojol Nah, Xnoha and Grey Fox in areas west of Blue Creek, begun in 2008, will add to the database.  

“Thanks to the length of time and extent of our investigations”, reports the program leadership, “MRP is in a unique position to analyze a wealth of data that may provide critical insights into this mystery. This is the focus of research over the coming years, into which all of our new projects will feed.” [2]

Map showing sites across the area where the research team has permission to investigate. MRP will be exploring sites across the area into the foreseeable future.  Courtesy Maya Research Program

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The MRP conducts an annual field school for students and volunteers who wish to participate in the efforts.  More information about this, and about the MRP program and Blue Creek in general, can be obtained at the MRP website. 

A detailed article about the work and research results of the Blue Creek project can be read in theDecember 2011 issue of Popular Archaeology. In addition, for individuals interested in knowing what it is like to participate in a field school, see the article written for the March issue of Popular Archaeology by one of Blue Creek’s veteran excavators. 

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