There are various noteworthy ruins along the stretch of Mexico’s Highway 186 that goes from Escárcega to Chetumal in southern Campeche, including Xpujil, Balamku, and Chicanna. Becan, nonetheless, is the largest of these. It is to this site that we now turn our attention in our ongoing attempt to provide digital access to essential (and…
Wetlands of Lower New and Hondo Rivers, Belize, with Pulltrouser Swamp
Mary E. D. Pohl and Kevin O. Pope The Maya formed a prime relationship with wetlands, but the dynamic of Maya engagement varied by place and time largely due to environmental change. Ground truthing each locale remains essential. We and our research team have conducted archaeological investigations along the lower courses of the Hondo and…
A Rural Sweat Bath at Piedras Negras, Guatemala
The great Maya center of Piedras Negras, Guatemala, is justly famous for its sweat baths, which are both numerous and monumental in scale. Eight are known from the site core, most located near palace structures, and Tatiana Proskouriakoff famously imagined how one of these was used (Fig. 1). Figure 1 Proskouriakoff's reconstruction (from Proskouriakoff 1978:29)…
Ancient Maya Settlement 