By D. Clark Wernecke

For the BRASS/El Pilar Project

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Introduction

The upper Belize River area of Belize has been shown to have been very important to the Lowland Maya. Research has shown that the Belize River Valley was occupied by the Lowland Maya, the valley served as a trade link between the Caribbean and the interior, also a route for population expansion into the Tikal area (Puleston and Puleston 1971; McKillop 1980; Healy, McKillop and Walsh 1984). To gain a better understanding of this region the Belize River Archaeological Settlement Survey (BRASS) began a regional survey followed by test excavations in 1983.

The first phase of fieldwork concentrated on local settlement patterns and was completed in 1989. It proved that local settlement was far less homogenous than previously assumed (Ford 1992). The three transect surveys that BRASS studied were designed to cover the range of environmental variability, ranging from the river bottom into the surrounding uplands, and to also sample a range of monumental architecture from four varied size area centers. The longest of the three transects ended at the monumental center of El Pilar, approximately 10 kilometers northeast of the Belize River Valley.

El Pilar is important to the area for several reasons. First, it is located amid dense settlement in the fertile uplands, and its large size compares favorably with other Lowland Maya regional centers. El Pilar has a large variety of monumental architecture, and the preliminary data has shown that the site has a long occupation history. Several factors strongly suggest that El Pilar is the largest center in the Belize River area and that it once reigned over the area, managing its resources and serving as the area's link to the other prominent centers in the Maya region.

The Project

El Pilar's location was recorded by the Department of Archaeology in the 1970's, but its full size and extent were then unknown. In 1984 the BRASS project, under the direction of Dr. Anabel Ford, developed a preliminary map of the site and salvaged some data from the existing looter's trenches on site. The combined BRASS/El Pilar project was initiated in 1993, under the field direction of D. Clark Wernecke. The project's initial goals were to develop and accurate map of the center and excavate test units to examine the nature of the varied structures, their alignment, and their state of preservation.

El Pilar's location is quite strategic (FIG. 1). The site is located amid fertile farmland and contains abundant water supplies. El Pilar is uniquely positioned to control the agricultural and trade resources of the upper Belize River are. Notably Tikal, the largest center in the Maya Lowlands, is 50 kilometers to the west while Naranjo, Tikal's regional administrative center, is just 30 kilometers to the SW. Additionally, the sheer size and architectural complexity of the site speak to its importance.