Lamanai, Belize: Summary of Excavation Results, 1974-1980

Maya Metallurgical Technology in Late Postclassic-Spanish Colonial Times: The View from Lamanai, Belize

“…One of the largest precolumbian sites in Belize, Lamanai was continuously occupied from roughly 1500 BC through the Spanish and British Colonial eras (Pendergast, 1981(Pendergast, , 1986(Pendergast, , 1991(Pendergast, , 1993. Its setting on a major transportation route, the New River system, facilitated Maya participation in broad inter-and intra-regional interaction spheres throughout its long history.…”

“…Plain walled bells dominate the copper assemblage during this time ( Figure 3). As mentioned briely above, recent archaeological investigations at Lamanai have been conducted in the Spanish Church Zone, an area of the site where two Spanish mission churches were constructed in the 16th and 17th Centuries (Pendergast, 1981(Pendergast, , 1991(Pendergast, , 1993Simmons, 2004Simmons, , 2005aSimmons, , 2006Simmons and Howard, 2003). Located approximately 925 meters south of Structures N10-2 and N10-4, the irst of two churches was probably constructed sometime following the earliest recorded Spanish entrada (armed incursion) in AD 1544 (Pendergast, 1991).…”

“…his study elaborates on chemical compositional and metallographic analyses conducted roughly two decades ago on a sample of the Lamanai copper assemblage recovered during Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) investigations at Lamanai in the 1970's and 1980's (Hosler, 1994;Pendergast, 1981Pendergast, , 1991Pendergast, , 1993Williams, 1990). A total of 45 metal objects were analysed during this earlier study, which focused on metal artifacts from Early and Middle Postclassic as well as Historic Period archaeological contexts (Hosler, 1994: 209;Williams, 1990: 17).…”

The Spanish conquest and the Maya collapse: how ‘religious’ is change?

“…Information on Maya-Spanish interaction during this period comes largely from documentary sources (Jones 1989(Jones , 1998, but archaeology has also played a role, particularly in Belize, through the excavations of two Maya towns, Tipu and Lamanai (Fig. 1), sites that were occupied early in Maya history (Tipu from at least the Late Preclassic and Lamanai from the Middle Preclassic) to the time of Spanish contact in the sixteenth century (Table 1) (Graham 1987(Graham , 1991(Graham , 2004(Graham , 2007(Graham , 2008(Graham , 2009(Graham , 2011aGraham and Bennett 1989;Graham et al 1985Howie 2012;Pendergast 1981Pendergast , 1982aPendergast , 1986Pendergast , 1990Pendergast , 1991Pendergast , 1993Powis 2004;Simmons 1995Simmons , 2002Simmons et al 2009;White et al 1994). Lamanai went on to be occupied during the British colonial period (Mayfield 2010;Pendergast 1982b).…”

“…The events known as the Maya collapse occurred several centuries before Spanish contact, although they are generally recognized to have taken place during an extended period from about AD 750 to 1050 (Rice et al 2004: 2). Evidence from Lamanai (Graham 2004(Graham , 2006(Graham , 2007Pendergast 1981Pendergast , 1986 and from Marco Gonzalez, a site off the coast of northern Belize on Ambergris Caye Graham and Simmons 2011;Pendergast 1990; see also Guderjan and Garber 1995) (Fig. 1), demonstrates occupation through the time of collapse to a post-Classic period Figure 2 (a) Lamanai, crocodile-like effigy vessel cached at the base of a stela (Stela 4).…”