List of FiguresList of TablesAbstractEpigraphA Note on Orthography1. An Introduction to the Archaeology of Central Belize and our Focus of Study1.1. A Word of Caution1.2. Primary Question1.3. Introduction to the Regions and Cultures Discussed in this Work1.
4. Summary of Previous Work in the Region1.5. The Central Belize Archaeological Survey ProjectSection One2. The Study of Ritual2.1. Homo ritus2.2.
What Does Ritual Do?2.3. How Does Ritual Do It?3. The Cave as a Concept: The Epigraphic and Iconographic Corpus3.1. Ancient Maya Cosmology3.2. Our Sources of Information3.
3. The Cave as a Concept3.4. Discussion and Summary4. The Cave as a Concept: The Ethnographic and Indigenous Historic Study of Maya Cave Use4.1. Identity in the Ethnographic and Indigenous Historic Records4.2.
The Indigenous Historic Record4.3. The Ethnographic Record4.4. Discussion5. The Archaeology of Maya Cave Use5.1. Caves and Water Collection: A Northern Concern?5.
2. Caves as Locations for Burials, Ossuaries, and Cremations5.3. Caves as Locations for Other Religious Rites5.4. Art Galleries5.5. Places of Refuge5.
6. Other Uses5.7. Discussion5.8. Field Methods Employed in the Course of this Investigation5.9. Cave Archaeology in Context: Expanding Thompson's ListSection Two6.
Hinterland Cave Sites, Part I: Caves Branch Rockshelter Cave, AC Cave, Actun Neko6.1. Caves Branch Rockshelter Cave6.2. AC Cave6.3. Actun Neko6.4.
Closing Remarks7. Hinterland Cave Sites, Part II: Actun Lubul Ha7.1. Actun Lubul Ha7.2. Hinterland Cave Use: Summary8. Cave Sites in the Core: Mark's Cave, Junction Cave, TCU s.21, TCU s.
11 (Str. 8), TCU s.05, and TCU s.088.1. Mark's Cave8.2. Junction Cave8.
3. TCU s.218.4. TCU s.118.5. Structure 88.
6 TCU s.058.7. TCU s.088.8. Core Cave Use: Summary8.9.
Local Patterns of Cave Use: Discussion9. Beyond the Cave Mouth: Polity Growth and Development between the Roaring Creek and Caves Branch River Valleys9.1. A View of the Ancient Maya in Central Belize from the Cave Mouth9.2. Summary and Conclusions9.3. Future DirectionsBibliographyThe following appendices are available as an accompanying download:Appendix I: Ceramic Summary and CatalogueAppendix II: Lithics CatalogueAppendix III: Faunal CatalogueAppendix IV: Radiocarbon Assessment.