<< Text Pages >> Medicinal Trail - Ancient Village or Settlement in Belize

Submitted by bat400 on Thursday, 21 November 2013  Page Views: 2031

Multi-periodSite Name: Medicinal Trail
Country: Belize Type: Ancient Village or Settlement
Nearest Town: Orange Walk
Latitude: 17.867800N  Longitude: 88.8876W
Condition:
5Perfect
4Almost Perfect
3Reasonable but with some damage
2Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site
1Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks
0No data.
-1Completely destroyed
 1 Ambience:
5Superb
4Good
3Ordinary
2Not Good
1Awful
0No data.
 no data Access:
5Can be driven to, probably with disabled access
4Short walk on a footpath
3Requiring a bit more of a walk
2A long walk
1In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find
0No data.
 1 Accuracy:
5co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates
4co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map
3co-ordinates scaled from a bad map
2co-ordinates of the nearest village
1co-ordinates of the nearest town
0no data
 3

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Ancient Settlement.
An isolated Classic Period (AD 250-900) Mayan farming community, probably associated with the densely populated La Milpa city-state. The Medicinal Trail archaeological site is part of the Program for Belize Archaeology Project (PfBAP.) It consists of several earthen platforms with the excavated features of individual homes surrounding small courtyards. There are also the remains of terraced slopes and man-made water catchment and control features.

Sources: The Programme for Belize Archaeological Project, University of Texas at Austin and the Institute of Archaeology of the Government of Belize.
S. Drake, "Excavation and preliminary analysis of a Maya Burial at the Medicinal Trail archaeological site, Belize, Central America," 2011.
J. Brewer, “Hinterland Hydrology: Mapping the Medicinal Trail Community, Northwest Belize,” 2013.

Note: New research holds fascinating revelations about Mayan water conservation and purification. See comment.
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New research holds fascinating revelations about Mayan water conservation by bat400 on Thursday, 21 November 2013
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University of Cincinnati research at the ancient Maya site of Medicinal Trail in northwestern Belize is revealing how populations in more remote areas – the hinterland societies – built reservoirs to conserve water and turned to nature to purify their water supply. Jeffrey Brewer, a doctoral student in the University of Cincinnati's Department of Geography, will present his findings on April 11, at the Association of American Geographers' annual meeting in Los Angeles.

Brewer's research, titled "Hinterland Hydrology: Mapping the Medicinal Trail Community, Northwest Belize," continues a UC exploration of the ancient Maya civilization that has spanned decades. The site for Brewer's research, which was primarily occupied during the Classic Period (AD 250-900), functioned as a rural architectural community on the periphery of the major ancient Maya site of La Milpa.

Brewer says this smaller, remote settlement lacks the monumental architecture and population density typically associated with the major Maya sites, but shows similar, smaller-scale slopes, artificial terraces and water reservoirs that would have been utilized for farming and water management.

Brewer 's discovery of artificial reservoirs – topographical depressions that were lined with clay to make a water-tight basin – addressed how the Maya conserved water from the heavy rainfall from December to spring, which got them through the region's extreme dry spells that stretched from summer to winter. "They also controlled the vegetation directly around these reservoirs at this hinterland settlement," says Brewer. "The types of lily pads and water-borne plants found within these basins helped naturally purify the water. They knew this, and they managed the vegetation by these water sources that were used for six months when there was virtually no rainfall."

Without that system, Brewer says the smaller, more remote settlement would have been more dependent on the larger Maya sites that ran a larger water conservation system.

Brewer has conducted research at the site since 2006, including spending two years of intensive surveying and mapping of the region. Future research on the project will involve the completion of computerized mapping of up to 2,000 points of topography – distances and elevations of the region in relation to water sources, population and structures. Brewer says he also wants to continue exploring the construction and management of these hinterland water systems and, if possible, gain a better understanding of what knowledge about them might have passed back and forth between settlements.

Thanks to coldrum for the link. Read more at: phys.org
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