ABSTRACT
Rio Hondo personnel undertook ceramic sampling guided by three primary objectives: to ascertain the occupational chronology of Albion Island; to determine the construction date of wetland fields in the San Antonio vicinity; and to obtain information about extra-local relationships and interactions. The San Antonio collections included some Late Preclassic Sierra Red and Sapote Striated sherds. Río Hondo Project ceramics provide evidence for occupation of Albion Island in the Middle Preclassic period contemporaneous with wetland cultivation. Population grew at the end of the Preclassic period and continued to expand through the Early and Middle Classic periods. Continuous and expanded occupation of Albion Island through the Early and into the Middle Classic was evinced by regular occurrence of types characteristic of the A.D. 250 to 650 interval in northern Belize. Traces of Middle Preclassic ceramics occurred in test excavations in Groups 11, 66, and 74, with possible traces also in Group 39.
