| Location | Orange Walk District,  Belize |
|---|---|
| Region | Orange Walk District |
| History | |
| Founded | Possibility between 2600 BC to 1200 BC (Middle Preclassic) |
| Site notes | |
| Archaeologists | Norman Hammond |
| Architecture | |
| Architectural styles | Preclassic Maya |
| This article is part of a series on the |
| Maya civilization |
|---|
 |
| History |
| Spanish conquest of the Maya |
|
|
Cuello is a Maya archaeological site in northern Belize. The site is that of a farming village with a long occupational history. It was originally dated to 2000 BC, but these dates have now been corrected and updated to around 1200 BC.[1][2] Its inhabitants lived in pole-and-thatch houses that were built on top of low plaster-coated platforms. The site contains residential groups clustered around central patios. It also features the remains of a steam bath dating to approximately 900 BC, making it the oldest steam bath found to date in the Maya lowlands. Human burials have been associated with the residential structures; the oldest have no surviving burial relics, but from 900 BC onwards, they were accompanied by offerings of ceramic vessels.[3]
According to some sources, ceramics from the earliest phase of the settlement at Cuello already belonged to an established lowland Maya pottery tradition.[4] Other scholars disagree, and consider that the earliest Cuello pottery was of the Swasey type, starting at 1200 BC, with a lack of clear parallels.
Although Cuello appears to have been a typical, relatively unimportant rural village in the Preclassic era, it participated in regional trade networks with obsidian being imported from the Maya highlands from 800 BC onwards, and a small amount of jade arriving in the community a few centuries later.[5]