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

Figure 3. Tri-dimensional map of the archaeological site of Buenavista-Nuevo San José, Petén,
Guatemala (Moriarty 2005).
Objectives
Archaeological investigations were directed toward the creation of a more complete
map of the epicenter of the site of Buenavista-Nuevo San José, as well as to pit-testing
three Middle-Preclassic substructures within the site's Structure 4, of relatively easy
access under the Late Classic surface, and to pit-testing other possible structures from
the Middle Preclassic under mounds 2, 7, 8 and 11, in order to obtain a bigger sample
of pottery and other cultural remains from the same time.
The Middle-Preclassic (800-400 B.C.) occupation in Buenavista-Nuevo San José will be
the main objective of this report, although it also includes a summary of the results of
pit-testing in some structures from the Late Classic.
Background
Although there is evidence of human activity based on pollen analysis, consisting of
forest clearing and exploitation of lake and river ecosystems in the lake region of Petén
from 2000 B.C. (Deevey et al. 1983; Pohl et al. 1996; Brenner et al. 2003), no cultural
artifacts have been reported of preceramic occupations near Lake Petén Itzá, like the
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