Ambergris Caye Belize Resort Development - Department of ...

of the Yucatan Peninsula. To address this concern we believe that the
ancient Maya excavated the canal at the north end of Ambergris sometime
in the 7 th century A.D. The canal subsequently allowed them to move
goods along the calmer waters on the leeward side of the island.
Ambergris measures approximately 30 kilometers from the border with
Mexico to the southern tip of the island. At its widest point the caye is
slightly less than 4 kilometers wide; at its narrowest it is about 1.5
kilometers. Ambergris is also very low-lying, with few natural surfaces
higher than 3 meters above sea level. The windward side of the island,
particularly the area north of Rocky Point, has the most attractive beaches
on the caye. Like the rest of the island, however, mangrove swamps,
marches, and estuarine lagoons, dominate the leeward side. The latter
description certainly reflects the environment within the ABR property,
where sandy beaches are located on the eastern seaboard, 2 to 3 meter
sand dunes form a low ridge a short distance from the beaches, and the
large Laguna Cantena lies along the western boundary of the property.
Ambergris Caye has received considerable archaeological attention in the
past. In the latter half of the 1980’s Thomas Guderjan, James Garber and
Herman Smith conducted extensive survey and test excavations on the
northern half of the island. To the south, Elizabeth Graham and David
Pendergast excavated the large site of Marco Gonzales, and they salvaged
numerous settlements in and around the modern town of San Pedro.
Conjointly these investigations concluded the following:
1. That while they identified some 19 archaeological sites on the island
(see Fig. 3), it is likely that more intensive field work would identify
substantially more prehistoric settlements.
2. That the sea was important to the ancient Maya as an avenue of
transportation and that Ambergris Caye sites may have served as
transshipment points for exotic goods moving along the length of the
Yucatan Peninsula.
3. That Ambergris Caye was exploited for various marine resources,
including the production of salt by the “sal cocida” process (see
description below).
4. That geo-archaeological evidence indicates that there has been a
rise in sea levels from the Maya Postclassic period (1400 A.D.) to
modern times. This evidence has been recorded at mainland
coastal sites like Cerros in northern Belize (Freidel and Scarborough
1982; map 5.1), at Moho Caye and Wild Cane Caye (McKillop
2002:135) and at Marco Gonzalez on southern Ambergris Caye
(Graham 1994, Graham and Pendergast 1989).
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