Editing Cahal Pech (section)

==Archaeology==
The earliest pottery in western [[Belize]] is found here.

<blockquote>
"Emerging information from western [[Belize]] suggests that ceramic-using populations may have been in place as early as ca. 1200 B.C. at Cahal Pech and perhaps elsewhere (Awe 1992; Clark and Cheetham 2002; Garber et al. 2004; Healy and Awe 1995). While these complexes, termed "Cunil" at Cahal Pech and "Kanocha" at [[Blackman Eddy]], remain to be broadly documented across the [[Belize River]] Valley, they are the earliest established ceramic technologies recorded in western [[Belize]]."<ref>{{cite journal |first=Jon C. |last=Lohse |first2=Jaime |last2=Awe |first3=Cameron |last3=Griffith |first4=Robert M. |last4=Rosenswig |first5=Fred |last5=Valdez, Jr. |display-authors=1 |title=Preceramic Occupations in Belize: Updating The Paleoindian and Archaic Record |journal=Latin American Antiquity |volume=17 |issue=2 |year=2006 |pages=209-226 |doi=10.2307/25063047 }}</ref>
</blockquote>

The name ''Cahal Pech'', meaning "Place of the Ticks" in the [[Yucatec Maya language]],<ref>Awe (2006)</ref> was given when the area was used as pasture during the first archaeological studies in the 1950s, led by [[Linton Satterthwaite]] from the [[University of Pennsylvania Museum]]. It is now an [[archaeological reserve]], and houses a small museum with artifacts from various ongoing excavations.

The primary excavation of the site began in 1988. Restoration was completed in 2000 under the leadership of Dr. [[Jaime Awe]], Director of the National Institute of Archaeology (NICH), [[Belize]].<ref>Awe (2006)</ref>

Other nearby Maya sites include [[Chaa Creek]], [[Xunantunich]], [[Baking Pot]], and [[Lower Dover]].