La Milpa

_______The site of La Milpa is located approximately 4.9 km by a jeep trail west of the main Gallon Jug-Blue Creek road at c.ÿ6.9 km north of Cedar Crossing (Figure 2). The Loran coordinates, fixed during the air surveys by Mr. Barry Bowen and Javier's Flying Service, are 17049.16' latitude by 89003.21' longitude. Situated on a limestone promontory and following an approximate N-S direction, this ancient Maya center covers an area of about 500 m by 800 m (Figure 4). Notable features of the site include its enormous main plaza (c. 130x160m) surrounded by large pyramids (one over 25m high), at least 7 visible stela (one with carving), a ball court in the north, and a major acropolis complex to the south.

_______This is possibly the same site visited and reported by Thompson (1939), called La Milpa (Pendergast, personal communication 1988). The informal report by Thompson occurs in an inventory of archaeological sites in the appendix of his San Jose report (1939:278-282). The site is tersely described as one with "pyramids, mounds, nine sculptured and three plain stela, plain altars" (Thompson 1939:280). Thompson's 1938 field notes, on file at the British Museum, contain additional information on the site (L. Harrington, personal communication 1990) which we plan to review and develop.

_______We were only able to devote a day and a half to the review and sketch mapping of this large center. Our first visit to La Milpa afforded us with the time to get our bearings. We were accompanied by two workers assisting the Programme for Belize, Emiterio Cobo and Ambrosio Enriquena, who were stationed at the clearing where the La Milpa road takes off to the west. These workers guided us around the site and oriented us to features they had observed. It was clear on this first visit that looting was a serious problem and that evidence indicated some of it was relatively recent.

_______The next visit to La Milpa consumed an entire day. Separating into two teams, we made a series of sketch maps of the different parts of the site using the pace and compass method. The composite map was compiled the night after the initial mapping and the final map prepared in the U.S. The resultant map of the site is not accurate in matters of detail, but, as field checks in 1989 demonstrate, it provides an accurate visual impression of the site layout. The La Milpa map depicts the complexity of the site and one may use this map to orient themselves at the site as well as to locate features around the site. The map also can serve as a guide for the transit mapping, which would logically follow this phase of investigation.

Settlement Survey

_______During the course of the project, we performed formal and informal settlement surveys in the western section (Hills Subregion) of the Rio Bravo Conservation Area. Much of the informal survey included trail walking off the road, trail blazing to points of study, and observations along the La Milpa road which traverses the western uplands of the Hills Subregion, while formal surveys were positioned in different upland zones deemed representative of the landforms of the area (Figure 2).

_______General trail reconnaissance surveys were initiated to determine aspects of terrain and locations of ancient Maya settlement. Through this method, we were able to locate zones for the formal grid survey. Zones where no settlements were noted were not mapped. They included surveys of some slow-drained areas in the south of the study area between the Rio Bravo and the main escarpment.

_______The formal settlement surveys involved plotting ancient Maya structural remains with reference to a baseline within two 100 by 100 m (1 ha) grids (Figures 5 and 6). One of the grids was adjacent to and north of La Milpa, and the other was on a ridge 300 m east of a point 5.9 km north of Cedar Crossing in a hilly zone just west of the main Rio Bravo escarpment.

_______Air surveys assisted in the identification of potential relic field locations in the eastern section of the Rio Bravo Conservation Area. The most conspicuous features that are likely ancient Maya raised and/or channelized fields are located on the northern side of Irish Creek, just below a minor escarpment of uplands in the Lowlands Subregion (see location in Figure 2). This is the site of a probable field system larger than, but analogous to, the Pulltrouser field features (Turner and Harrison 1983). The Loran cooridinates of these features is 17037.99' latitude by 88049.17' longitude. The Irish Creek field site is within a riverine-associated swamp regime. Other potential riverine swamp locations were reviewed by air, but did not reveal any similar patterns. These swamps should be the subject of additional aerial reconnaissance during the dry season.

_______Another significant feature identified in the swamp zone was a canal associated with the historic logging enterprises that figured importantly in the last century. This canal runs from Booth's River Escarpment to Canal Bank at the New River Lagoon. There are likely other historic sites and features dating to the early logging days of the Belize Estates that ought to be researched and identified, such as those known to and described by Mr. Barry Bowen (personal communication August 1988).