Bladen Legacy
Oscar Wilkinson graduated with an MSc Bioarchaeology: Zooarchaeology from the University of Exeter Department of Archaeology and History. His dissertation, titled “The Road to Belize: an Analysis of a Faunal Assemblage,” assessed the faunal material from a unit within the Mayahak Cab Pek rock shelter in the Bladen project area.
Mark, Sara, Harper, and Joe attended graduation to cheer for him and the other graduates. Congratulations Oscar!
Mark Robinson and project collaborator José Iriate, presented research at the Andrés Barbero Ethnographic Museum and Museo ITAIPU Tierra Guaranà in Paraguay. The Exeter based researchers, along with Yoshi Maezumi and Mike Ordemann (Max Planck), then joined Paraguayan archaeologist, Mirtha Alfonso, to assist with a new international fieldwork program that explores the cultural and environmental history of the country, including collecting palaeoenvironmental lake cores in Lago Ypacaraà and assessing stratigraphy at the rock art sites in the Parque Nacional Cerro Corá. A massive thanks is extended to Mirtha, Débora Soto Vera, Guillermo Lamenza, and Migue Torales Peña (and the wider group of Paraguayan researchers), for their warm welcome and for sharing the beautiful and interesting landscapes and history of the region. We hope this is the start of a wonderful long collaboration.
The Uchben’ kaj Kin Ajaw Association (UKAA) of Santa Cruz, southern Belize has a new website (ukaa-santacruz.com)! Daniel Mes, a local associate for the Bladen Legacy project, is the UKAA chairman. He joined the Bladen Legacy team for the 2025 field season and expressed the need for their organisation to have a website that conveys the cultural and environmental heritage of their Maya community. After the field season, Sara Eshleman and Mark Robinson met with the UKAA board and developed the site based on their feedback. Check it out!
The Bladen Legacy project directors and partners met last week in Exeter with the Exeter-based postdocs and virtual appearances from other project members. The multi-day meeting overviewed the existing datasets for the Bladen Legacy project and the current project trajectory and methods. As always, it was wonderful to gather as a group and bring our varied expertise together to shape this transformative project.
Dr. Mark Robinson presented a research update for the Bladen project as a research seminar for the Department of Archaeology at the University of Exeter. The presentation, titled “The human legacy on a Belizean tropical forest,” overviewed previous findings from the Bladen Nature Reserve, as well as the methodologies and preliminary results for the Bladen Legacy project.
Bladen Legacy is hiring a postdoctoral researcher in plant evolutionary genomics! This position is based at the University of Gothenburg with Dr. Christine Bacon. Find the full details in the job posting.
Members of the Bladen Legacy team, led by Dr. Christine Bacon, recently published “Human Legacies on Palms in Belize” in Palms, the Journal of the International Palm Society. They include initial results from the 2024 field season and a conceptual overview of how Bladen Legacy uses palms and other species to assess human legacies.
Drs. Mark Robinson, Sara Eshleman, and Keith Prufer co-authored an article titled “Rapid Lidar Assessment and Validation in the Bladen Nature Reserve” in Research Reports in Belizean Archaeology. This work is based on the lidar-based methods to guide Bladen Legacy’s survey efforts, as well as the survey results from the 2024 field season. Check out the publication below!
The first project phytolith identification is in! Dr. Harper Dine identified a spheroid echinate phytolith from Arecaceae (the palm family) after processing the first batch of Bladen Legacy sediments. A palm (Asytrocaryum mexicanum) was one of the most abundant trees in the 2024 botanical plots, including the botanical plot that this phytolith came from, so this identification goes hand-in-hand with ecological observations on the ground.
Phytoliths are produced by plants within and between their cells. Made up of biogenic silica, these structures can often survive in soils long after the plant that produced them has decayed.
Contributed by Dr. Harper Dine
Phytolith processing of soils collected during the 2024 field season has begun at the University of Exeter Chem Lab! To maximize phytolith visibility under the microscope, the soils must undergo an extensive sequence of steps including deflocculation (breaking up clumps), sieving, clay removal, and digestion of carbonates and organics. Here you can see the dramatic before-and-after from clay removal.
Phytolith datasets from these samples will contribute to our understanding of long-term ecology, plant management, and agriculture in the region. Keep an eye out for exciting updates!