The Mountain Pine Ridge Forest Reserve in central Belize is a unique landscape in the Maya lowlands. It is largely defined by a series of granitic upwellings that produce nutrient leached soils that are poor for farming, but the region is bordered by cave-filled limestone hills. Because of the poor soils, the ancient Maya were thought to have never lived there, but it was the source of many important economic resources, especially granite for making grinding stones. Research in 1928 demonstrated that the ancient Maya used at least some of the caves for ritual purposes, but where the participants came from remains unknown. In 2018, Dr. Jon Spenard initiated his Rio Frio Regional Archaeological Project (RiFRAP) to address that question. Either the caves were long-distance pilgrimage destinations, or there were here-to-fore yet undocumented Maya sites in the region. The answer is the latter. In this talk, Spenard presents on the recently documented ancient Maya site of Nohoch Batsó and the nearby Buffalo Hill quarries, a multi-component granitic rock quarry and ground stone tool manufactory. This event will be held on Zoom. About the Speaker Jon Spenard is Associate Professor of Anthropology at California State University San Marcos. He earned his Ph.D. from University of California Riverside and his M.A. from Florida State University. He has conducted social landscape archaeological research in Belize, Guatemala, and Mexico where he has largely focused on ancient Maya cave ritual practices. In 2018, he started his Rio Frio Regional Archaeological Project, or RiFRAP, the first long-term study of the Mountain Pine Ridge in Belize. The initial focus of that project was several cave sites in the Rio Frio valley that were documented 90 years earlier but not studied since. Since its inception, the scope of the project has expanded to a broader study of the many ways past Maya people interacted and lived in a landscape unique in the Maya lowlands. Follow on social media! Facebook + Instagram
