 Partially excavated mound at Pacbitun | |
  Location in Belize | |
| Location | Cayo District, Belize |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 17°05′31″N 88°59′42″W / 17.092°N 88.995°W |
| History | |
| Founded | c. 900 BCE |
| Abandoned | c. 900 CE |
| Cultures | Maya |
Pacbitun is a Maya archaeological site located near the town of San Ignacio, Belize, in the Cayo District of west central Belize.[1] The modern Maya name given to the site means “stone set in earth”, likely a reference to multiple fragments of stone monuments. The site, at about 240 m above sea level, is one of the earliest known from the southern Maya Lowlands, and was inhabited for almost 2000 years, from ca. 900 BCE to 900 CE. Strategically, it straddles a territory of rolling, hilly terrain between the Mountain Pine Ridge and the tropical forest covered lowlands of the Upper Belize River Valley.[2]
- ^ Healy, Paul F. (1990a), “The Excavations at Pacbitun, Belize: Preliminary Report on the 1986 and 1987 Investigations”, Journal of Field Archaeology 17(3):247-262.
- ^ Healy, Paul F., Bobbi Hohmann, and Terry G. Powis (2004), “The Ancient Maya Center of Pacbitun,” in The Ancient Maya of the Belize Valley: Half a Century of Archaeological Research, edited by J.F. Garber, pp. 207-227. University Press of Florida, Gainesville.