The first of these three chapters on the archaeology of the Southern Belize Region (SBR) concentrates on the characteristics that define it, as well as evi- dence for the earliest human use of the region from the Paleoindian through Preclassic periods. The second chapter considers issues of initial settlement in permanent villages and traces the long histories of two of the major sites, Nim li Punit and Uxbenka, both settled in the Early Classic period. Along the way, I consider issues of foreign political alliances, warfare, economy, the nature of ancient cities, and identity. In this chapter, I continue these threads by turning to two major sites of the SBR that were founded in the Late Classic period: Pusilha and Lubaantun. I conclude by synthesizing what the major projects conducted in the inland SBR over the past 20 years have taught us about identity, politics, and warfare in this small corner of the Maya world. Pusilha: a Late Classic city and dynastic capital Archaeological fieldwork was first conducted at Pusilha from 1928 to 1930 by explorers from the British Museum (Gruning 1930; Joyce 1929; Joyce et al. 1928). They had previously worked at Lubaantun, but the discovery of a site with hieroglyphic monuments spurred them to move operations to remote Pusilha (Figures 4.1 and 6.1 ). Their excavations focused on the Stela Plaza, Big Tree Group, and especially within Pottery Cave. The last is a chultun-like feature in which large quantities of ceramics and other artifacts were deposited. The extreme soil conditions at Pusilha – indeed throughout most of the SBR – result in very poor preservation, but the ceramics from within Pottery Cave are a notable exception. Approximately 50 large wooden crates containing most of the polychrome sherds that were excavated were brought back to London and are now stored there. Monochrome and unslipped sherds were left piled in front of the collapsed side of the cave. The most important discoveries were the stelae. 6 THE SOUTHERN BELIZE REGION IN LATE TO TERMINAL CLASSIC PERIOD MESOAMERICA Pusilha, Lubaantun, and identity Geoffrey E. Braswell DOI: 10.4324/9781351268004-6