about 600 BCE, and was a religious and ritual focus of the site at this early date. The platform, presumably for a temple, appears to have been burned and then abandoned by the Maya before covering it with successive, later plaza floors. Based on preliminary investigations, the temple measures 16.5 meters east-west x 3 meters north-south x 1.5 meters high. It has five steps which face eastward. Nearby, below Plaza B, excavations have revealed a series of low, quadrangular, earth-and-stone platforms, presumably the elevated bases for perishable pole-and-thatch roofed residential superstructures. These early buildings in Plaza B show signs of multiple, superimposed construction, and evidence (shell detritus, chert drills, beads in various stages of completion) for the concentrated manufacturing of thousands of small, shell, disk beads, perhaps as part of a very early Maya cottage industry. The site, by this date, was importing obsidian from the Guatemalan highlands, and marine shell from the Caribbean Sea. Site population was low, likely no more than several dozen villagers, representing a low-level chiefly society. Late preclassic and terminal preclassic (300 BCE-300 CE) In the succeeding Puc and Ku phases, respectively, of the Late/Terminal Preclassic periods, Pacbitun underwent a major site transformation, with large-scale architectural renovations and plaza expansion. The first formal site planning occurred during this time, and most of the smaller Middle Preclassic residential architecture was intentionally built over, and covered, and new monumental constructions were begun atop these earlier structures. Structure 23 (and probably several other, adjacent range structures) of the Plaza B palace complex, Structures 14 and 15 (the ballcourt) in Plaza E, and Structures 1, 2, 4 and 5, the E-Group (Eastern Shrine) architectural complex on Plaza A, were begun at this time. The site population had risen to about 500-600 persons by the end of the Terminal Preclassic. The presence of such planning, and monumental architecture, suggests growing social stratification, and site prominence within the Belize River valley. The initial stage of construction for the ballcourt at Pacbitun represents some of the earliest architectural evidence for the ballgame being played in the Southern Maya Lowlands. Classic period The Classic period represents a time of growth and fluorescence at Pacbitun. Three phases are represented at the site: Early Classic, Late Classic and Terminal Classic. Each phase has associated ceramics (monochrome and polychrome), and a suite of radiocarbon dates. The site appears to have been abandoned at the end of