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The material plays a fundamental and active role in the social lives of people, from objects like containers or buildings to food and other consumables. In this paper, evidence from absorbed residues are used to explore the contents of an Ulúa-style marble vase found in a royal courtyard at the ancient Maya site of Pacbitun in west-central Belize. Those results indicate that the vase once held concoctions containing cacao, willow and possibly vanilla. Significantly, the results also confirm residues of the important Maya ritual drink balché, in an ancient container. By placing the vase and its contents in the history of Pacbitun, we demonstrate the important role of this object and its contents in dedicatory rituals practiced in this region; we argue that subsequent disturbance of the context and the vase in antiquity points to the fragmentation of kingship.

Powis and his colleagues have gathered significant information about the Middle Preclassic period at Pacbitun, data which speak to the broader subject of architectural monumentality. In Chapter 13, they present two specific case studies pertaining to Pacbitun’s Plaza A architecture. In the first case study, the authors’ discussion begins with the low residential/workshop platforms of Plaza B, an area well-recognized for its marine shell bead craft production, and the naturally elevated area to the east of Plaza B, where the large ceremonial structure of El Quemado was built on the highest point that would later become Plaza A. Unlike any structure previously built at Pacbitun, the presence of El Quemado implies an ability to organize a significant labor force and perhaps marks the beginning of institutionalized inequality. An apparent termination event in the form of chopped corners, extensive burning, and subsequent burial marks an important transition in the organization and ideology of Pacbitun’s society at the onset of the Late Preclassic period. Succinctly, the case studies in this chapter both demonstrate that monumentality refers to more than architectural scale. The labor force, energy, and resources needed to construct El Quemado and the E Group would have greatly surpassed what was needed to build contemporary domestic structures.

Over the past twenty years our understanding of the Middle Preclassic (900–300 BCE) period has become much clearer through archaeological investigations at a number of sites located in the Upper Belize River Valley region of the eastern Maya Lowlands. While the picture of Middle Preclassic Maya life, including their material culture, has sharpened, there are aspects that remain uninvestigated. One artifact type, identified as greenstone triangulates, has been found at several Belize Valley sites and in a variety of contexts. Although a number of these multi-faceted, polished groundstone items have been recovered, little research has focused on their distribution and function in the archaeological record. An evaluation of these items from primary contexts provides data for determining how they were used in daily social and/or ritual activities throughout the lowlands. Comparative data from other regions of Mesoamerica are also discussed. A detailed geological and petrographic pilot study of a sample of greenstone triangulates is provided, pointing conclusively to early, long-distance and complex exchange networks in exotic raw materials.

The discovery of carved marble fragments with a Late Classic-to-Terminal Classic period (550–900 CE) elite burial in the center of a courtyard at the ancient Maya site of Pacbitun, Belize adds to the corpus of Ulua Valley marble vases fragments found in the Maya lowlands. Confirmation of the vase's origins by both style and stable carbon and oxygen isotope analysis shows that the likely source of production is the archaeological site of Travesia in northwest Honduras. In addition to the implications for trade and political connections between the archaeological sites in Belize and Honduras, the direct association of the vase fragments to a potentially desecrated burial highlights some interesting questions about local politics at Pacbitun, Belize.

Ground penetrating radar (GPR) surveys provide distinct advantages for archaeological prospection in ancient, complex, urban Maya sites, particularly where dense foliage or modern debris may preclude other remote sensing or geophysical techniques. Unidirectional GPR surveys using a 500 MHz shielded antenna were performed at the Middle Preclassic Maya site of Pacbitun, Belize. The survey in 2012 identified numerous linear and circular anomalies between 1 m and 2 m deep. Based on these anomalies, one 1 m × 4 m unit and three smaller units were excavated in 2013. These test units revealed a curved plaster surface not previously found at Pacbitun. Post-excavation, GPR data were reprocessed to best match the true nature of excavated features. Additional GPR surveys oriented perpendicular to the original survey confirmed previously detected anomalies and identified new anomalies. The excavations provided information on the sediment layers in the survey area, which allowed better identification of weak radar reflections of the surfaces of a burnt, Middle Preclassic temple in the northern end of the survey area. Additional excavations of the area in 2014 and 2015 revealed it to be a large square structure, which was named El Quemado.