The Sword and the Olive Jar: Material Evidence of Seventeenth-Century Maya-European Interaction in Central Belize

Abstract

This article describes the recent discovery of a sword and olive jar of European origin in two separate cave sites in the Roaring Creek Valley in central Belize. Analysis of the sword and olive jar places their date of manufacture between the late sixteenth and the mid-seventeenth century. The sociopolitical environment that prevailed along the seventeenth-century colonial frontier in Belize suggests that the sword was acquired by the Maya by peaceful or bellicose interactions with Europeans, whereas the archaeological contexts in which the European-made objects were discovered provide evidence for native ritual continuity amid persistent proselytization efforts by the Spanish invaders.

Applying Regional, Contextual, Ethnohistoric, and Ethnographic Approaches for Understanding the Significance of Peri-Abandonment Deposits in Western Belize

“…Their deposition within the cenote, however, forces us to consider alternative functions for their final use. In the case of the cenote assemblage, that function is most likely ritual in nature, a situation similar to that noted by Awe and Helmke (2015, 2019) for a European sword deposited by the Maya in Rapier Cave in Western Belize, and by Stemp and Awe (2020) for the chert projectile points from the peri-abandonment deposits at Cahal Pech.…”

“…The discovery of the wooden spear is particularly interesting because these types of objects are often associated with militarism or hunting and not something one would expect to find within a sacred cave context. It also brings to mind the more recent discovery of a Spanish sword that was cached in Rapier Cave in the Roaring Creek Valley (Awe and Helmke 2015Helmke , 2019, and serves to demonstrate that objects normally associated with martial activities were also deposited in offerings at sacred landscapes by the ancient Maya (e.g., in the cenote at Chichen Itza).…”

Point Counter Point: Interpreting Chipped Chert Bifaces in Terminal Classic “Problematic” on-Floor Deposits From Structures A2 and A3 at Cahal Pech, Belize

“…The Zinacantecos and Lacandon, for example, will make pilgrimages to sacred landscapes during times of severe drought to petition rain deities and earth spirits to insure a productive harvest (McGee 1990; Palka 2014; Vogt 1969). The Chachac ceremony in the Yucatan is another example of these types of rituals, and so too are the many cave ceremonies that indigenous groups conducted and continue to conduct across the Maya world (Awe and Helmke 2015; Brady and Peterson 2008; Palka 2014; Peterson 2006). In current examples of these rituals, the Maya often make offerings of various types of food, alcohol, cigarettes and cigars, burn candles and incense, spread pine needles and flowers over the ritual ground, and sometimes sacrifice chickens.…”

The perduring Maya: new archaeology on early Colonial transitions

“…For example, Morandi (2010) excavated an elite Maya residence at the Cedar Bank site in the Sibun River Valley (Figure 1), which revealed a dense and varied deposit of Spanish artefacts. Spanish artefacts have been found cached in caves in western and central Belize; they include a sixteenth-century sword and whole and fragmented olive jars (Peterson 2006; Awe & Helmke 2015). These finds echo the use of Spanish artefacts in Maya rituals in northern Belize (Oland 2014, n.d.) and Petén (Pugh 2009).…”