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A review of the Benguela current system as well as the development of a simple upwelling model to determine long term and seasonal intensity changes in the Benguela current.
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... In this study, we examine the different identities and relations of these social actors and their shared and conflicting goals during the latter half of the nineteenth century in the less established parts of the colony in northern British Honduras. The study we present here is based on the results of two different archaeological research projects, which were carried out independently between 2011 and 2016 under the direction of Harrison-Buck (2011, 2015a, b, 2018 and Brett A. Houk (2012Houk ( , 2014Houk ( , 2015Houk ( , 2016. By combining our results, we are able to contextualize a complex period in colonial history and examine multiple perspectives through in depth archival research and archaeological testing of three very different historic sites in northern Belize: Qualm Hill, a British and largely Creole-occupied logging camp; the short lived ex-Confederate settlement of New Richmond and its associated McRae Estate; and Kaxil Uinic, a Maya Caste War village (Fig. 1). ...
Following the U.S. Civil War, groups of ex-Confederates arrived in Belize as clashes with Caste War Maya reached their peak, resulting in more frequent Maya raiding of British and Creole logging camps. Cross-examining ethnohistoric and archaeological data from Maya, ex-Confederate, Creole, and British sites in northern Belize, we aim to better understand the distinct identities and myriad relationships of these odd bedfellows. The colonizers (British and ex-Confederates) had divergent agendas, but each used limited supplies of Euro-American imports, namely guns and tobacco products, in the remote colonial frontier to form powerful economic dependencies with Maya and Creole groups.
... Ultimately, frustrated by competing designs for resource extraction in northwestern Belize, BEC relocated the residents of Kaxil Uinic to San José Yalbac in 1931. The village was a late addition to the San José Minor cluster (Jones 1977b), and, contrary to Jones' (1977b, p. 161) conclusion that it was located on the Rio Bravo, Kaxil Uinic sat approximately 3.4 km west of Chan Chich Creek, surrounding a small aguada (Houk 2012). The village is described in historical accounts as being located on a direct path from Icaiche in the north to San José Yalbac in the southeast (Jones 1977b), and connected to both Yaloche and the Petén region by a series of paths through the bush (Fig. 2.3), though Teobert Maler (1910) observed that these paths were seemingly untraveled and wholly overgrown in 1910. ...
... Kaxil Uinic village and its small aguada are 500 km south of the main plaza of a group of prehistoric ruins that now share the same name (Houk 2012). The Caste War Maya villages of San Pedro Sirís and Holotunich were also settled in relatively inconspicuous locations near reliable water sources (Dornan 2004;Ng 2007). ...
The binary model of acculturation and resistance conventionally used to describe indigenous experiences in colonial contexts dichotomizes historical periods into phases of cultural extinction or change versus cultural continuity or persistence that hardly explain the multifaceted nature of native responses to European colonization as they were experienced or enacted in the past. Such is the case of British–Maya relations in British Honduras during the late colonial period (ca. 1800–1900), a time period typically divided into four basic phases of indigenous resistance, avoidance, military conflict, and finally incorporation into the colonial superstructure of British Honduras. Conversely, data from Kaxil Uinic, a San Pedro Maya village in northwestern Belize, suggest that identities are fluid and constantly negotiated. Identity, therefore, is both strategic and positional, and, as evidence from Kaxil Uinic demonstrates, this deliberation is manifested in the archaeological record. This group chose to participate selectively in the colonial economy as it suited their needs, strategically interacting with logging firms, chicleros, and the colonial administration in British Honduras to gain access to imported goods and cash necessary to maintain their social, political, and economic autonomy. Our analysis of data from Kaxil Uinic shows that, as time went on, San Pedro Maya participation in the British colonial economy of Belize did increase, and certain imported goods largely replaced locally produced objects to perform similar functions in food preparation activities more efficiently. Prohibited from owning land, the San Pedro Maya needed to participate in the cash economy of the colony to pay rent for the land they inhabited. With less time to produce goods locally, they chose to participate selectively in the colonial economy of British Honduras as it suited their needs. The material record at Kaxil Uinic ultimately reflects an archaeological paradox, then, as most of the items purchased from colonial merchants were used in the perpetuation of local practices. The residents of Kaxil Uinic actively negotiated alliances with various groups in the face of restrictive colonial political and economic policies to better navigate the colonial landscape of British Honduras.
The accurate and precise collection of three-dimensional (3D) context and provenience data is of critical importance for archaeologists. Traditional square-hole methods are being augmented by new digital techniques to increase the accuracy and precision with which 3D data are collected. Structure from Motion (SfM) photogrammetry is an emerging digital technique that is becoming more widespread for collecting 3D data of archaeological sites and features. We are using handheld digital cameras and ground-based SfM to record accurate and precise 3D context and provenience data at the scale of the excavation unit and profile during rockshelter excavations in the Lower Pecos Canyonlands of Texas. By combining SfM with traditional excavation methods, we collect 3D data on excavation units, layers, features, and profiles without excavating in grid-bound square units. SfM provides a straightforward and flexible method to excavate based on the stratigraphy and logistical pragmatics, which further aids in assigning precise context and provenience to recovered artifacts and samples. This article describes how ground-based SfM serves as a basic recording tool during excavation and shows that, by applying ground-based SfM methods to excavation, archaeologists can collect more, and more accurate, data than with traditional square-hole methods.
