Cuello

Cuello is an archeological Maya Preclassic Period of the located in the district of Orange Walk to Belize , on a ridge between the Rio Hondo and New River. Its importance stems from both its age and thoroughness of the searches conducted by Norman Hammond in the years 1970 to 1980, making it one of the best documented sites Mayan Preclassic to the former ^{The site}

The site occupies an area of 1.4 km2. It was mapped in 1980 and has approximately two hundred platforms and structures. It has a small ceremonial center consists of two squares, each with a pyramid of about 9 m high .

His occupation has a long sequence divided into several phases: Swasey (1200-900 BC.) Bladen phase (900-650 BC.) Mamom Lopez-phase (650 -400 BC. JC), Cocos phase (400 BC. - 250 AD.). The occupation of the site continues to Classic and Postclassic. At the beginning of the Classical period, its population was about 3000 inhabitants.

The excavations focused on the platform 34, a height of 4 m south of the ceremonial center. The excavations have revealed houses circular or apsidal perishable materials, the oldest of which date back to 1200 BC. AD. A phase Bladen, graves of children, whose wealth is considered a good indicator of social differentiation within a community, have yielded jade objects imported. During this period, size of house floor stuccoed , grouped around a courtyard, increases.

Around 400 BC. BC, the court was the subject of a destruction ritual: the existing structures were burned, then the court was filled with rubble, so as to raise a platform half a hectare. At the center of this mass of rubble archaeologists discovered a burial ground with 32 males: around a central motif consisting of central bodies of two individuals on whom we had arranged bundles containing the mutilated remains of nine other men, lay a further 21 skeletons . For archaeologists, it is a human sacrifice on a large scale, whose victims were perhaps outside Cuello. Among the objects accompanying the body were carved bone six tubes which contained a pattern of woven mat ("pop" in Mayan), which is the ultimate symbol of power among the Maya of the Classic Period as well as in other Cultures Mesoamerican.

The flooring of the platform was rebuilt several times over the centuries that followed. Circa 100 AD. AD erection of a monument is a contemporary new burial ground with twelve males . At the same time, we built the structure 351, which is the first release to levels of the pyramid known as Structure 35.

Bibliography

• (In) Norman Hammond, Cuello: An Early Maya Community in Belize, Cambridge University Press, 1991 .
• (In) Norman Hammond, "The Genesis of Hierarchy: Mortuary and Offertory Ritual in the Pre-Classic at Cuello, Belize," Social Patterns in Pre-Classic Mesoamerica, Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, 1999.
• (By) David C. Grove & Rosemary A. Joyce (ed.), Social Patterns in Pre-Classic Mesoamerica, Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, 1999

References

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