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The 2012 Season of the Chan Chich Archaeological Project
Houk’s [this volume] discussion of the historic
village and chicle camp). However, when
the camp was closed and the workers moved
prior to his arrival in March 1931, he decided
not to do any excavations at Kaxil Uinic and
instead conducted excavations near the village
of San José (Thompson 1963). In the San José
report, Thompson (1939:280) published a brief
description of Kaxil Uinic and the structures
associated with it: “[m]ounds, sculptured
stela, plain altar. Second group on west bank
of R. Holmul (Bravo) one league southeast.”
Thompson (1963:233) later published his
description of the chicle camp of Kaxil Uinic
in Maya Archaeologist as “…huts scattered
around a dirty water hole…”
After Thompson’s departure from British
Honduras, archaeologists would not study the
area for over 50 years. The land where Kaxil
Uinic is located was once owned by the Belize
Estates Land Produce Company. In the 1980s a
Belizean named Barry Bowen purchased part of
the former holdings, including the land where
the ruins of Kaxil Uinic are located. Today, this
property is known as Gallon Jug Ranch. The
archaeological site of Chan Chich, also situated
on the property, was chosen as the location of a
jungle lodge (Houk 2011a:5). During the 1987,
1988, and 1990 field seasons of the Rio Bravo
Archaeological Project, Thomas Guderjan
(1991:35) and his teams conducted mapping of
the ruins at Chan Chich.
Guderjan et al. (1991:59) also recorded a site
called E’kenha, which Houk (this volume) has
concluded is actually the site Thompson referred
to as Kaxil Uinic. Guderjan’s crews mapped 12
structures and “a very badly damaged carved
stela and altar” at the site, but conducted no
excavations (Guderjan et al. 1991:59).
Following the Rio Bravo Archaeological
Project, Brett A. Houk conducted formal
archaeological investigations at Chan Chich in
1996–1999, 2001, and again in 2012. During
the 1996 CCAP field season Houk (2011b:13):
…discovered a sacbe running west
from Chan Chich, but the length of
the sacbe was never determined. It is
hypothesized that it connects Chan
Chich to Kaxil Uinic. If confirmed, this
would be an important discovery; thus
far no sacbe terminus group has been
documented in the eastern half of the
Three Rivers Region.
The site of Kaxil Uinic is 2.6 km west of Chan
Chich, with a bajo located between the two
sites. The aguada and the associated historic
chicle camp described by Thompson (1963)
are about 500 m south of Kaxil Uinic ruins,
on what is today Yalbac Ranch. The La Lucha
Escarpment is about 900 m west of the ruins.
Kaxil Uinic is on a small rise west of the bajo.
RESEARCH DESIGN
As discussed below, due to the condition of
the vegetation at the prehistoric site we were
unable to completely follow through with
our original research design. The vegetation
was very thick and there were many felled
trees as a result of a hurricane that struck the
area in 2010. Therefore, the original research
design had to be almost completely revised
to conduct investigations at the site. Below is
an explanation of the original and modified
versions of the research design.
Original Research Design
We had planned to clear the vegetation in the
two courtyards at Kaxil Uinic to enable better
visibility of the structures, monuments, and
features. A datum was to be established in the
western courtyard (southwest of Structure 3),
and an east-west oriented baseline was to be cut
extending about 200 m in both directions. At
25-m intervals along the baseline, we planned
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