Summary

Research on the ancient Maya has traditionally focused on the development of centers. That body of research provides the necessary backdrop for continued investigation of the major center of El Pilar. Investigations at El Pilar will also be viewed in BRASS's decade-long residential and settlement pattern study. This combination provides a unique opportunity to develop and understanding of an important Maya center based also on the associations of the local communities that supported it.

Excavations at the community and center of El Pilar should provide data critical to interpretation of household organizational diversity in the western ridgelands in order to assess chronological shifts in investments for monumental constructions, and the regional links of El Pilar in the Maya Lowlands. Reconstructions of the building sequences at El Pilar will be an indicator of labor demands, which in turn provide a basis for appraising power relations from the evaluation of population catchments from the local area. Finally, stylistic affinities of the architecture, artifacts and the presence and diversity of trade goods should allow an examination of the regional connections between El Pilar and its wider interaction sphere in Mesoamerica.

The results of these investigations at El Pilar will provide a detailed map of the site and region, building consolidation and reconstruction for further interpretation of structure variation, and visitor appreciation, also a program of interpretations and education for both scholarly and public audiences. The BRASS/El Pilar project should serve as a model interdisciplinary project encouraging future work in joint archaeological preservation coupled with ecological park development. An appreciation of the monumental community center of El Pilar represents a major step in defining the scale of centralization of the ancient Maya.

Acknowledgments

The 1993 research at El Pilar was sponsored by the MesoAmerican Research Center of the University of California-Santa Barbara, the Government of Belize, and private donors. Our thanks go out to those members of the Government of Belize, particularly the Department of Archaeology, who made our stay easy and enjoyable. The monks of the Santa Familia Benedictine Monastery also have our gratitude for their patience and understanding.