Cerros is an Eastern Lowland Maya archaeological site in northern Belize that functioned from the Late Preclassic to the Postclassic period.

As such, the site had access to and served as an intermediary link between the coastal trade route that circumnavigated the Yucatán Peninsula and inland communities.

The core of the site immediately abuts the bay and consists of several relatively large structures and stepped pyramids, an acropolis complex, and two ballcourts.

[2] From the time of its inception in the Late Preclassic Era, around 400BC, the site of Cerros was a small village of farmers, fishermen and traders.

Around 50 BC, as their economy grew and they began to experiment with the idea of kingship, the inhabitants of Cerros initiated a great urban renewal program, burying their homes to make way for a group of temples and plazas.

Aligned with its back at the edge of Chetumal Bay,[4] it marked the northernmost point of the sacred north–south axis of the site, which was complemented by a ballcourt (Str.

They contacted Ira R. Abrams, who was teaching in Dallas in the Anthropology Department of Southern Methodist University (SMU), and had extensive experience working with the Maya in that part of what was then the colony of British Honduras (it was renamed Belize in June 1973 and became an independent country in 1981).

In the 1990s, Debra Walker and a team of archaeologists began a series of new excavations to investigate the site's demise at the end of the Late Preclassic Era.

[8] Of importance are four huge painted plaster mask reliefs placed against the platform's stepped walls which flank either side of the stairway depicting the forces of the cosmos.

[6] Linda Schele and David Freidel have identified the two lower masks as representations of The Hero Twins of the Popol Vuh.

[10] In 2005, in his piece The Creation Mountains: Structure 5C-2nd and Late Preclassic Kingship, David Freidel offers yet another interpretation of the masks.

He now feels that the lower panels represent the bundled bones and funerary masks of the Maize God and his twin brother.

At 16 meters above the level of the surrounding surface, its height allowed the king more privacy to hold ceremonies, which could only be viewed by a select few.

Schele and Freidel[14] postulate that the existence of such a pyramid, with its differentiated viewing spaces, indicates a high degree of social stratification among the people of Cerros.

This theory is supported by the excavation of a burial cache beneath the structure 6B, which held objects believed to have belonged to the former ruler, including his Jester God diadem.

[19] Cerros has evidence of investments in water management which included the encircling canal where the Maya made use of several raised and channeled fields around the site.

[20] One such field lies west of the Structure 50 ballcourt and was located just inside the boundary of the main canal, which surrounded the community.

Inhabitants made use of the main canal, which was constructed during the C'oh Phase (200-50 BC) for crop irrigation year round.

Cocoyol palm (Acrocomia mexicana) fruit seeds, Ziricote (Cordia dodecandra) and Huano (Sabal spp.)

[23] A substantial amount of faunal remains have been recovered throughout the site, including various types of marine life, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals (both wild and domesticated).

[24] During the Late Preclassic long-distance trade contacts with volcanic areas were in existence as evidenced by the recovery of numerous pieces of jade and crystalline hematite and also visible in the monumental art of Cerros.

[25] For raw materials readily available in northern Belize, Cerros may have functioned as a redistribution conjuncture as well as a transshipment point for products to be shipped inland by way of the New River.

Access to the collection excavated in the 1970s is available through a digital catalogue compiled by the Florida Museum of Natural History with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities.