Antiquity Vol 83 Issue 319 March 2009
The discovery of a Maya stela at Quebrada de Oro, Toledo District, Belize
Marc A. Abramiuk, Phil Wanyerka & Todd Pesek
Figure 1. Location of the Maya Mountains and the Bladen Branch. Click to
enlarge.
Introduction
Deep in the Maya Mountains of southern Belize, a stela has been discovered
at the Classic Maya centre going by the modern site name of Quebrada de
Oro, a site previously believed to have had no stelae. Although the stela
has yet to be examined in detail, this article reports on the circumstances
of discovery and discusses the hypothetical sociopolitical scenarios it
suggests for the ancient community of Quebrada de Oro.
The Maya Mountains of southern Belize are one of the remotest regions on
earth and, logistically, one of the most difficult in which to conduct
archaeological operations (Figure 1). For this reason, relatively little is
known of the prehistory of the region.
Early investigations conducted by the Maya Mountains Archaeological Project
(MMAP) revealed that one valley in particular, the Bladen Branch, had a
Classic Maya population of impressive density (Dunham 1996). This
population was compressed into small creek valleys feeding into the Bladen
Branch, the only areas sufficiently arable for sustaining human settlements
(Abramiuk 1998). The Classic Maya populations in each of these alluvial
pockets constructed their own modestly sized centres. From east to west
along the Bladen Branch, these are: Quebrada de Oro, the RHF Site, Ek Xux,
and Muklebal Tzul (Figure 2).
It can be inferred, on exchange patterns, that the Bladen Branch centres
constituted a regional interactive sphere (Abramiuk & Meurer 2006), which
was probably incorporated into a much larger polity (Wanyerka 2008). That
is, the Bladen Branch centres exchanged goods extensively with each other,
but also brought in goods from abroad and exported goods to other
communities outside the Bladen Branch region. Both intra- and inter-
regional interactions probably facilitated the development of the Bladen
Branch centres and their rise to prominence on the economic stage.
Figure 2. Location of Quebrada de Oro and associated Bladen sites: the RHF
site, Ek Xux and Muklebal Tzul.
Click to enlarge.
Figure 3. Quebrada de Oro site core (adapted from map drafted by P.
Dunham).
Click to enlarge.
With the exception of Quebrada de Oro (Figure 3), the Bladen Branch sites
contain elite residential complexes and stelae within their site cores,
suggesting that authority at each of the centres was centralised. Until the
discovery of the Quebrada de Oro stela, Quebrada de Oro was seen as an
anomaly, since it was the only site within the Bladen region without
stelae. This early assessment of Quebrada de Oro was based on complete
surveys of the site core (MacKinnon 1989; Dunham et al. 1992), but
incomplete surveys of the surrounding settlement. The discovery of a stela
in the surrounding settlement of Quebrada de Oro challenges this premature
assessment, and the presence of this stela makes for some interesting
speculation.
Figure 4. Stela after it was cleared (facing east).
Click to enlarge.
Circumstances of discovery and context
The Quebrada de Oro stela was found in the vicinity of a series of large
house-mounds, roughly 300m east of the site core on the final day of the
2007 Maya Mountains Ethnobotany and Ecology Project (MMEEP) field
expedition (Pesek et al. 2008). The stela was discovered with its foot
still mounted in the ground, and it lay obliquely with one of its faces
virtually flush with the ground (Figure 4).
The upward facing surface of the stela was cleared of humus and vegetation,
so that photographs could be taken. The exposed portion of the stela
measured 1.83m in length. How much more of the stela lies beneath the soil
is unknown and it may be considerably longer. The width of the stela
measures 1.22m and its thickness 0.46m. Whether the stela is carved is
unclear. A cursory examination of the upward exposed face revealed no
carvings and the underside of the stela was not investigated. From its
angle, it was obvious that the stela had in fact been erected, and at a
later date had tipped in an easterly direction. A tree fall was observed
directly west of the stela which might have caused the stela's oblique
positioning.
Possible interpretations and implications
Currently, we can only speculate as to the parties who commissioned the
construction and erection of this Classic Maya stela. The stela might have
been commissioned by the central authority of the polity who oversaw
activities at Quebrada de Oro. Or the erection of the stela might have been
the sole responsibility of the central authority or marginalised elite
lineage head living at Quebrada de Oro.
As for function, the impression received from the stela's location is that
it may have served as a commemorative monument as well as a 'sign' as one
entered the community of Quebrada de Oro from the east. We see this at
larger sites, such as Copan, where Stelae 12, 13, and 23 mark the eastern
approach, and Stelae 10 and 19 the western approach to the core of that
site.
Another possibility is that the monument functioned to legitimize a shift
of authority to the outskirts of the site core, a phenomenon observed at
Caracol (Chase, Grube, and Chase 1991), Copan (Fash and Stuart 1991:168-
175) and Tikal (Martin 2000) during the Terminal Classic period. If such is
the case, the Quebrada de Oro stela might have been commissioned and
erected by an elite family living on the periphery. Equally plausible is
that the stela was originally located in the site core and then dragged to
the outskirts, as Jones et al. (1983:19-20) purport was done with Monument
10 (Stela S) at Quirigua.
Whatever the case may be, the discovery of the Quebrada de Oro stela
suggests that there is more to the Classic Maya centre of Quebrada de Oro
than was initially presumed. Quebrada de Oro undoubtedly had a dynamic
political side which we are only now beginning to apprehend. Previous
investigations focused on the site core and its reconnaissance. The fact
that this stela was discovered in the marginal areas of Quebrada de Oro
suggests that there may be much about this Classic Maya center that we have
not yet seen. Future work on the MMEEP will focus on investigating this
stela more thoroughly as well as surveying the peripheral regions around
the site core.
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank the Institute of Archaeology (IOA) in Belize for
providing us with the permission to carry out archaeological operations at
Quebrada de Oro.
References
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Authors
(* Author for correspondence)
Marc A. Abramiuk*
Department of Anthropology, Case Western Reserve University, 11220
Bellflower Road, Cleveland, Ohio 44106-7125, USA (Email:
[email protected])
Phil Wanyerka
Department of Anthropology, Cleveland State University, 2121 Euclid
Avenue, CB 120, Cleveland, Ohio 44115-2214, USA (Email:
[email protected])
Todd Pesek
Department of Health Sciences, Cleveland State University, 2121 Euclid
Avenue, HS 101, Cleveland, Ohio 44115-2214, USA (Email:
[email protected])
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