Salvage Excavation of the Alamilla/Gomez Property, San Pedro, Ambergris Caye, Belize

Discussion and Conclusions

The Alamilla/Gomez property consisted of occupation periods ranging from modern to Postclassic. The artifacts recovered were greatly mixed owing to modern and historic disturbance, as well as to the nature of sand matrices, which allow artifacts to move vertically and to some extent laterally. The deposit appears to share characteristics with the other lots of the Sands/Alijua block of the San Pedro site as regards occupation periods, types of artifacts recovered, and types of burials (Pendergast and Graham 1991).

Shovel testing aided in the identification of areas of high artifact density and provided stratigraphic controls for the site. The stratigraphy identified in this phase was consistent with that of the test units excavated later. The tests also showed a general sloping of the site’s subsoils which were found to be much more shallow progressing NW across the site.

Excavations of test units revealed one burial and two features of cultural significance, and will allow study of depositional processes and mixture in sand matrices once complete artifact inventories are produced. The test units also confirmed the sloping subsoils across the lot, with increasing depth as one moves towards the shoreline.

Burial 1 was a sub-adult burial in a ’frog’ position with both the hands and feet behind the back, perhaps bound. This type of burial is characteristic of portions of the Postclassic interment sample at Lamanai (Pendergast 1981), and a variant form is known at the Marco Gonzalez site on Ambergris Caye, but the type to our knowledge has not been reported elsewhere in the Maya area. Unfortunately the eight shell pendants and single obsidian blade fragment clearly associated with the burial do not provide a basis for dating.

The two features encountered proved to be post-moulds from either late historic or modern occupations. The late date of Feature 2 is indicated by the fact that the mould still contained a partially rotten post, as well as the morphology of the hole.

The artifacts recovered from the Alamilla/Gomez Property have not been analyzed at the time of writing. Some general conclusions can nevertheless be based on field artifact identifications.

Ceramics represent a variety of periods from Postclassic through modern. Identifiable forms include a number of distinctive feet from tripod vessels, one with a scrolled bottom, other pre-colonial rim and body sherds, whiteware, course earthenware, and modern ceramics. The excavations also recovered one possible ceramic effigy. Much of the ceramic sample recovered appears to be Late Postclassic in date (J. Awe, personal communication). The material was, however, recovered from throughout the occupation levels, and extensive mixing of contexts is indicated.

Lithic material recovered includes chipped chert and obsidian. The chert sample consists of a very small number of flakes, a few expedient tools, and one broken bifacial projectile point. The obsidian consists of a large number of obsidian blade fragments, but only a few pieces of debitage. Field observation indicated that all obsidian is likely to be the black-gray variety indicative of trade with areas in Guatemala.

A variety of faunal material was observed and recovered during the excavations. The sample includes many bone fragments unidentifiable in the field as well as a large amount of shell. A high density of conch shell was observed throughout the matrix, but the material was not collected.

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