MAYA ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITES IN BELIZE (PART V)

Cuello:the Maya Genesis

On the high ground between the Rio Hondo and New River, west of Orange Walk Town, lie the remains of one of the oldest settled societies in Mesoamerica. Cuello takes its name from the current landowners, the Cuello family. Cuello, with its clear stratigraphic sequences, reveals important information on the Formative Period Excavations by Dr. Norman Hammond of Rutgers University show an early transformation from a farming community to a ceremonial center. Developments in building, crafts, trade, maize agriculture (milpa), and human sacrifice indicate that the features of the Classic Maya civilization may have had their inception here in the lowlands rather than in Mexico or the highlands as previously believed. There are two adjacent plazas containing pyramids and platforms which date to the Classic Period. Earlier occupation is concentrated to the southwest underlying 26 centuries of expansion. The oldest platform is the earliest known example of plastering in the Maya area. At the lowest levels was found Swasey ceramics, a sophisticated complex, consisting of 25 varieties; the most abundant is known as Consejo red Swasey is the oldest pottery known in the Maya lowlands and one of the oldest ceramic traditions in Central America. This important discovery expands the known time span of the Maya culture to 2400 B.C.

Cuello is a small ceremonial center, but archaeologically important for the earliest Maya occupation dates which were recovered there. Occupation at Cuello was as early as 2500 B.C. and as late as A.D. 500. A Proto Classic temple has been excavated and consolidated and lying directly in front is a large excavation trench, partially backfilled, where the archaeologists were able to gather this historical information that revolutionized previous concepts of the antiquity of the ancient Maya. The site took the name of the people who own the land of its location.
The site occupies the compound of the local rum distillery of the same name. It is about 4 miles from Orange Walk Town on the Yo Creek Road. Taxies are available from Orange Walk Town.
PLEASE NOTE that permission must be obtained from the Cuello family at the distillery prior to or on entering their cattle pastures through which one must pass to reach the site.
Historical context

Cuello is part of the beginning: with occupation dating from 2500 B.C., it is one of the earliest known Maya sites. The site
Cuello, named after the people on whose land it lies, is a minor ceremonial centre. While scientific research has delved deep into Cuello's past through its stratified underground layers, above ground what is seen is the remains of the later ceremonial centre and settlement area.
The ceremonial precinct consists of two adjacent plazas. There is a main pyramid or temple in each plaza with small palace and civic structures flanking them. Two chultuns -undergound storage chambers- occupy the platform of the ceremonial precinct.
While Classic Period structures have been identified at the site and test excavated, the emphasis has been n the centre's early phases. Archaeological workOther than local inhabitants, Norman Hammond was the first, in 1973, to realize the site's existence, spotting it on an aerial photograph and later confirming its existence by examining pottery from a bulldozed mound.
In 1974 representatives of the Cuello Brothers Distillery, on whose land the site is located, reported the bulldozing of mounds there and the site was formally registered by Joseph Palacio, the Archaeological Commissioner.

In 1975 Duncan Pring and Michael Walton, students working with Hammond, excavated, collected burnt wood for radio-carbon dating and started mapping the site. Hammond carried out a six-week field season at Cuello in 1976, concentrating on the temple pyramid within the platform. Several burials and cache (offering) vessels were unearthed, all dating to the Preclassic or Formative Period and evidence was found of the destruction of ceremonial buildings by fire and demolition.

From 1978 to 1980 Hammond focused on obtaining information about the Early Formative community at the site. Deep stratified deposits buried by platform 34 were exposed and the surrounding area mapped and excavated to determine the extent and scale of the Early Formative settlement; microorganic material collected through flotation was sampled to get information on diet.
Using radio-carbon and stratigraphic methods Hammond confirmed the early dates he had postulated in 1973 and extended the calendar back from 1500 B.C. to 2500 B.C. Work was not resumed until 1987, when Hammond returned to investigate problems outstanding from previous seasons. Using new techniques he collected small carbon samples of maize for dating and excavated middens and some architecture to relate functions of some of the Middle and Early Formative structures. Again excavations focused on the once large platform, now called North Square. Complex Middle and Late Formative structures were encountered; excavations into earlier sequences have been left for future work. Locale and access
Cuello is in an intensively utilized land area, the major structures lying within a cattle pasture. To prevent further destruction, buildings have been left under vegetation until further excavation and consolidation can be done.

Cuello is very near to and easy to reach from Orange Walk Town. The site is in the compound of the local rum distillery of the same name, about 4 miles from Orange Walk on the Yo Creek road. Taxis are available in Orange Walk Town. Since Cuello is on privately owned land, permission is needed to enter the site: during the week you must call Cuello Distillery during normal business hours at 03-22141.