This volume summarizes many aspects of more than twenty years of field research at the ancient Maya city of Blue Creek in northwestern Belize. Blue Creek was a medium-sized Maya kingdom whose wealth was built upon access to large-scale and high-quality agricultural lands and its location at the headwaters of the Rio Hondo. The Rio Hondo is the northern-most river draining the Maya lowlands into the Caribbean Sea and provided access to markets and polities of northern Yucatan. The studies in the volume provide an overview of Blue Creek combined with detailed studies of aspects of production, trade, distribution, and the organization and functional interactions within the community.

AUTHOR
Thomas Guderjan directs the Blue Creek Archaeological Project, a large-scale, regional, multi-national and multi-disciplinary effort to better understand the Maya past. He is an Associate Professor of Anthropology and Director of the Center for Social Sciences Research at the University of Texas at Tyler, as well as the President of Maya Research Program, a non-profit research organization. Contributors: Jeff Baker, Michael D. Glascock, Thomas H. Guderjan, Helen R. Haines, Gail A. Hammond, Ruperto Magaña, Christina G. Marroquin, Dominick Van den Notelaer, Lyssabeth C. Pedersen, Colleen P. Popson, Norbert Stanchly, Kirsten Tripplett