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.

Figure 1.

Location of the Maya Mountains and the Bladen Branch.

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 (Reference DunhamDunham 1996). This population was compressed into small creek valleys feeding into the Bladen Branch, the only areas sufficiently arable for sustaining human settlements (Reference AbramiukAbramiuk 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).

Figure 2.

Location of Quebrada de Oro and associated Bladen sites: the RHF site, Ek Xux and Muklebal Tzul.

It can be inferred, on exchange patterns, that the Bladen Branch centres constituted a regional interactive sphere (Reference AbramiukAbramiuk & Meurer 2006), which was probably incorporated into a much larger polity (Reference WanyerkaWanyerka 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.

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 (Reference MackinnonMacKinnon 1989; Reference DunhamDunham 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 3.

Quebrada de Oro site core (adapted from map drafted by P. Dunham).

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 (Reference Pesek T.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).

Figure 4.

Stela after it was cleared (facing east).

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 (Reference ChaseChase, Grube, and Chase 1991), Copan (Reference FashFash and Stuart 1991: 168-175) and Tikal (Reference MartinMartin 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 Reference JonesJones 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.