Buenavista-Nuevo San José, Petén, Guatemala: Another ... - Famsi

Photo 27. Pretil technique, still used to build walls on stone platforms.
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Location
As was stated in the introduction, Buenavista-Nuevo San José is located half a
kilometer from the northwestern shore of Lake Petén Itzá, atop a high hill from which
one can see some five kilometers around, covered with mollisol soils that have been
used for agriculture since early times (Emery, personal communication 2005 [soil
analysis is currently underway]), apart from hills abundant in flint nodules for making
flakes and tools.
In other words, the surrounding terrain's agricultural potential, as well as the site's
closeness to food and flint sources, may have been the critical factors for the settling
and continued occupation of Buenavista-Nuevo San José, apart from the indisputable
preference of the settlers for fishing and other high-protein lake and river resources
such as jutes (small edible freshwater snails) and turtles. Large and medium-sized
mammals such as white-tailed deer, peccary and foxes were also hunted in the nearby
savannas, and lastly there is evidence for the presence of domesticated dogs (Thornton
2006).
It should be pointed out that occupations from the early Middle Preclassic and Middle
Preclassic located on high ground dominating a wide area with similar resources to
those of Buenavista-Nuevo San José, Petén, have also been reported for mounds 456
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