Overview

Glass beads are surprisingly rare in Peten in pre-conquest (AD1697) contexts. Yet, we know from historical documents that pre-conquest Spanish visitors brought these objects into the area. We currently assume that they must have been deposited in contexts that have not yet been tested. We encountered a number of glass beads at the San Bernabe (Tayasal) and San Jeronimo (Nixtun-Ch’ich’) mission sites.