LAMANAI: SUBMERGED CROCODILE
This is one of Belize's largest ceremonial centers. In addition to its display of the more exotic features of the ancient Maya in art and architecture, Lamanai (corruption of "Lama'an/ayin", Maya) also had one of the longest occupation spans dating from 1500 B.C. to the 19th century, which includes the contact period. Historical occupation is represented in the remains of two Christian Churches and a sugar mill. The name of the site was recorded in historical accounts and is Maya for "submerged crocodile".
At present Lamanai can only be reached by road from San Felipe Village in a strong vehicle during the dry season. However, the more popular route is by the New River Lagoon, a waterway rich in the natural history of the country Boats can be hired from Guinea Grass or Shipyard.
There is no public transportation from Orange Walk Town to Guinea Grass or Shipyard but taxies and rental vehicles are available both in Belize City and Orange Walk Town. Hotel accomodations are also available in these two locations, the nearest being Orange Walk Town, some 30-45 minutes away.
Click here for photos.Click here for a rotating panorama of the view from the top of the largest temple at Lamanai.
Lamanai: A great place to visit
It's that time of year when nearly every airplane that leaves Belize City is packed full. And this year is no exception...but there is one difference. Where traditionally the passengers were mostly Belizeans headed for summer holidays in Miami, New York, L.A. or Chicago, the majority now seems to be foreign tourists returning from happy holidays in Belize. And what about the Belizeans? It seems that a growing number are beginning to discover what the tourists found out long ago: Belize is a great place for a vacation. We've been singing that song for almost a decade and over the next few months we'll be revisiting some of our favourite places that make great day or weekend getaways. Tonight we travel to the Orange Walk District and the magnificent Maya site of Lamanai. William Neal is our host and you can be the judge of whether his looks and talents have improved since this story first aired in 1993.
William Neal"There are two ways to get to Lamanai, one is by road through the village of San Felipe, the other is by boat up the New River from Tower Hill. With a chance to see bird, exotic plants and maybe a crocodile, I'll take the jungle cruise."
The trip up the river takes approximately one hour and the pristine environment adds to the mystique and adventure of Lamanai. The boat journey comes to an end as you enter into the New River Lagoon and the anticipation begins as the main temple can be seen towering above the forest.
Nazario Ku, Lamanai Curator"One of the things that really strikes me at Lamanai, is that it retained its original name from 1621 when the first historians wrote about the name. Not as well as in other city-states, where the names were given by archaeologists. Lamanai is probably one of the few that retained their original name."
Nazario Ku has been the curator at Lamanai for a year, but has worked at different sites around the country for over ten years.
Nazario Ku"Lamanai itself means the "Drowned Insect". What might have happened in the early periods of the Spanish arrival here, is that they were mispronouncing the word to say, and my missing the final end, they changed the name of what we believed to be Lamanai Yin. And by missing the final end, it also changed the meaning of the city states name."
"Maya here started as a settlement around 1500 B.C. and they flourished as a city state around the 2nd century B.C., which is a long time between. This is one of the uniqueness of Lamanai because it was inhabited for around 3,000 and over. The highest peak of the Lamanai was about the 6th to the 7th century A.D. even though at the 10th century A.D., they were performing sacrificial rites. There were still offerings to the Gods and what makes Lamanai unique, is that when other city states were falling into decline, Lamanai was still going on strong."
Lamanai is located on 950 acres of archeological reserve and features more than a hundred minor structures and over a dozen major ones. This ruin called the Temple of the Mask, houses a stucco mask of an Olmec God, which some believe to be of Kinich Ahau, the Sun God. The size of this temple seems impressive until you approach the one next door, which is one of the tallest buildings in the country, believed to be the temple of sacrifice at Lamanai.
William Neal"It's not an easy climb, but it's worth it, and once you get up here, you can see why the Maya built their temples so high...the view is breathtaking."
Although not half as fantastic as it must have been in ancient times, when men, women, and children crowded the market place exchanging exotic goods from all over the Maya world.
William Neal"A thousand years ago, Lamanai wasn't all covered in bush. In fact the place where I am standing was the centre of a ball court where the game Pokta Pok was played."
In the game, warriors competed to win the honour of being sacrificed on the high altar, so that their blood could renew the life of the Sun God. Life at Lamanai was highly organised and the people were self sufficient, though shells, jade and clay found in the area indicate plenty of outside contact.
William Neal"Some people like to say that "Spanish foot never cross the Hondo". But Spanish priests came up the New River to convert the Maya to Christianity and built this church over 300 years ago."
Nazario Ku"When the Spaniards passed by here, in 1544, two years after the conquest of the Aztecs, the happened to pass by here by accident. When the say a flourishing city state, probably that meant something to them. One of the things that probably made them return, was that the people that were inhabiting here, were much more than the other settlements and they started to Christianize the Maya here around 1570 and they also constructed a church and the Maya turned apostate against that church, because as you know, the Mayas were polytheistic, they had different Gods. One of the things that contributed to the anger of the Maya is that they destroyed one of the temples and on top of the fundamentals of that, the foundation of that temple, they constructed their first church. Most likely if somebody comes to your house and burns down your house and constructs another one, that will may you angry. The same thing happened with the Maya and Mayas destroyed this first construction and they burnt the nearby houses also. The stubbornness of the Spanish made way to a second church which was also burnt down by the Maya."
William Neal"By the middle of the 19th century, the Spanish and the Maya were nowhere to be found at Lamanai, but the Industrial Revolution was. English businessmen built this sugar mill around 1865, but it was soon to be reclaimed by the jungle."
In its own way, the ornate craftsmanship of the brick and ironwork is as much a wonder as the limestone and mortar ten centuries earlier. The English mill, the Spanish church and the Maya temples have created an attraction for tourists that is among Belize's best.
A number of companies operate tours to Lamanai. Most boats leave from the vicinity of the Tower Hill Bridge.
For lots of pictures, see:http://AmbergrisCaye.com/wallpaper/page3.html andhttp://AmbergrisCaye.com/tanisha/lamanai.htmlFor a list of tour guides for this trip, see:http://AmbergrisCaye.com/tours/
Historical context
Lamanai has a special place in Maya history because of its early greatness -structure NIO-43 is the largest Preclassic structure known in the Maya area- and because of its longevity: the site was occupied throughout the Postclassic until at least the mid- seventeenth century.
Lamanai is an ancient Maya center known to have been occupied continuously for two millennia (approximately 300 B.C. - AD. 1680). Narrowly stretched along the west bank of the New River Lagoon, Lamanai illustrates an unusual settlement pattern among Maya sites. Usually built as one or more ceremonial plazas encircled by residential clusters, Lamanai ceremonial areas are close to the river with residential areas to the north, west, and south. To date, only 5% of the site has been investigated (by Dr. David M. Pendergast of the Royal Ontario Museum). As most of these buildings are ceremonial structures, research is weighted on the side of the ritual. How ever, these structures are the foundations of social edifice and therefore tell us much about Maya society.
Because of the late occupation, the site's name - "Lamanay" or "Lamayna"- was recorded by Franciscan missionaries in the seventeenth century and is thus the original Maya name. In 1978 it was realized that Lama'an/ayin means "Submerged Crocodile", a fact which, as archaeologist David Pendergast points out, helps to explain the numerous crocodile representations at the site, including figurine headdresses, vessel decorations and the headdress of a four metre-high limestone mask on the platform of a 6th century temple. The site
The site centre occupies .75 sq. km. (.5 sq. mile) with residential and minor structures distributed over an area of 950 acres, the present-day extent of the official reserve. Pollen evidence shows that maize was being cultivated at the site c. 1500 B.C. but we know little of what happened between then and c. 500 B.C., the time from which the earliest pottery fragments found at the site derive.
From that time the story of the site has been revealed by archaeologists digging through the layers of the past to unearth early structures beneath later ones: buried deep within the 6th century masked temple mentioned before was a small, superbly preserved Late Preclassic temple dating from c. 100 B.C. with plaster masks resembling those from Cerros. The massive NIO-43 is of the same date but it too had been modified several times, the last being in the Late Classic, c. 600 A.D.
Late in the Classic Period the northern parts of the site appear to have been de-sacralized: areas of formerly ceremonial ground were converted for residential use, while the southern sector became the focus of ceremonial activity. In the southern sector, Classic structures were surmounted by Postclassic ceremonial buildings and new religious structures were erected. Plausibly the smaller, less spectacular nature of the Postclassic structures reflects a lessening supply of labour and a less hierarchical society than that of the Classic.
In addition to its Maya structures Lamanai also has historic archaeological remains including two 16th century Christian churches, a 19th century sugar mill intact with flywheel and boiler, and a sunken, bricklaid reservoir. Occupation of Lamanai over the centuries thus includes Maya of all periods, British sugar cane growers and sugar manufacturers, Spanish clergy and Chinese factory workers. European, North American and Maya materials were used here so that Lamanai artifacts are of stone, clay, wood, bone, shell, jade, gold, copper, glass, iron and even liquid mercury.
Generally, site occupation during the Protoclassic Period was developed and extensive. Residential and ceremonial concentration was in the northern precinct and the lagoon shore. The Protoclassic is characterized by diversity in architectural form in contrast to the rigidity of control shown in ceramics and the general nature of dedicatory offerings.
The Classic Period ceremonial constructions are concentrated more toward the central area; however, there was continued construction in the northern precinct and new construction in the southern area. The residential area in the northern precinct continued to be in use.
It appears that many were leaving these northern centers toward the end of the Late Classic Period, but there was continued Classic Construction in the southern precinct. Motifs developed here before the 12th century were later adopted at Mayapan, a large Yucatan Maya center occupied from 1200 - 1750 A.D.
The Postclassic Period was generally a time of gradual decline, however, the population at Lamanai was ceremonially active and in communication with other areas of the Maya lowlands. This indicates that the complete breakdown of Classic societies, as is characteristic of neighboring centers, was not the case here. Lamanai stability may be a result of strong community leaders or due to the resources of its location; such as food supplier and trade.
In the early 16th century, Spanish missionaries arrived and built a church south of the southern precinct. The community also moved south either before or after the Spanish came. Modem squatters live in scattered settlements along the lagoon.
N9-56, the dominant structure of the central ceremonial precinct, stands 56 feet high. This is the most thoroughly investigated of the larger buildings at Lamanai and spans a longer period of time than most. The primary structure, built during the Early Classic Period, is exceptionally well-preserved with architectural features such as corner stairs and molding free terraces. Dating is based on a vessel in the interment at the base of the structure, at the front of the stairs. Although not unique to Lamanai construction or grave content, it represents a major deviation from typical Maya tombs which usually consisted of a vaulted chamber with or without a bench on which the body was lain. A grave of similar construction was found at Cuello and was dated 200-300 A.D., much earlier than the 400700 A.D. date indicated at Lamanai.
The tomb at Lamanai was constructed on the floor atop a pile of burned wooden artifacts. The body was positioned upon the pile so that the hips rested in a larger redware basalridge dish, while stones and earth supported the upper body in the unburned area. A wall of stone and clay underlaid the burned material and surrounded the body to a height of 11 inches. A red pigment was applied to the corpse and then layered with clay. The area was then filled with such artifacts as wooden-backed jade ear ornaments carved with human faces, wooden figurines with jade ear ornaments, and platted and corded textiles. A wooden framework was built atop the foundation and covered with lime plaster bandages made of a course textile, creating a cocoon effect. Fine red textiles overlay the courser material. Mortar and stone was then built around the cocoon with a row of capstones, covered in a mass of chert chips, obsidian flake blades and cores.
It was customary to raze structures before modification. The two-chambered building that once stood atop this structure was destroyed, leaving only the building layout in black paint on the platform surface, a feature seen at Tikal but not previously encountered in the central lowlands.
When razed, certain parts of units were destroyed or left in place, often creating problems for engineers of the new structure. The remaining units, in this case, are large, unusual masks on the stairside outsets on the south side of the structure. Unfortunately, the upper mask was removed during construction, so only the back panel remains. The lower mask resembles Olmec (an influential Gulf Coast culture of the 1st millennium B.C.) iconography though the treatment of the mask is not in that style. Usually masks are made of stucco laid over a basic framework but this one is made of stone with a grey stucco coating of ash, charcoal and plaster. Lacking part of the frontal headdress which was removed to build the small stair, the mask originally had crocodilian features.
Masks partially excavated on the north side closely resemble those at Cerros. These features reinforce the theory that the correct name of the site is "Lama'an/ayin."
Crocodiles occupied an exalted place in the Maya pantheon and it is believed they were protected rather than offered in religious rites since no interment has included crocodilian remains.
Use of N9-56 during the Late Classic Period was inferred by Mayapan type figurine censers, broken and scattered over the front, sides and back of the mound in the customary ritual manner. This debris overflowed in front of this structure, onto a group of small low platforms (N9-56) built during the Late Classic Period. The platforms were faced with vertical stones and coated in stucco. The central platform was built to support a Classic Period stela (a dedicatory monolith), relocated here from an unknown location in the Late Classic Period. Its carved side once faced an uncarved, relocated stela to its south.
9-2 is an isolated major building on the lagoon north of the N9-56 group, and has expanded our information concerning Protoclassic use for the area. The platform contained two offerings resembling those from N9-56 platform and indicate a 1st century A.D. date. The P9-2 platform itself does not appear to have supported a chambered structure. similar to P9-2, in that there was no chambered building atop its center. Unlike P9-2 there was a building on the extension which overlooked the harbor.
P9-25 is the largest complex at the northern end of the site. A platform 297 x 363 x 59 feet supported buildings 30 feet high. Final modification occurred around 400 A.D. but earlier constructions are indicated; a project for future excavations.
The harbor is now seen as a large depression. The rational behind calling this a harbor rests partly on its shape and that it holds water during the rainy season. (Excavation is now, under consideration.) In areas bordering the harbor, there is ceramic evidence of Late Protoclassic construction.
N10-43 is the tallest structure at Lamanai. Reaching 33 meters, its building sequence is the most securely dated Preclassic structure in the Maya area. Plastered surfaces and hearths indicate residential use of N10-43 before it was chosen as a ceremonial site.
A second century B.C. construction offering from within the building contained a redware dish with flaring sides. Inside the vessel was a juvenile bird skeleton with its beak and frontal skull missing as well as the bones from one or more other birds. The bulk of construction was completed in the Protoclassic Period. An early version of the Lamanai building type is characterized by a large multi-terraced platform, without a chambered building at its summit. Masks flank the lower center and side stairs where there is a large landing that supported a platform which served as a base for a chambered structure. Three sets of stairs (referred to as a tripartite pattern) were built both at the lower and upper levels to scale the side of the building. Atop the upper stairs were two small chambered buildings built upon double terraced platforms which face inward toward a third unit. This unit also has a tripartite pattern of steps flanked by masks, but there is no structure at its summit. This upper structure arrangement is unique at Lamanai though the tripartite stairs are typical Classic innovations. An offering of ceramic vessels within the building suggests a date of 100 B.C.
During the Late Classic Period, N10-43 was drastically reconstructed. A long, single room building which spans the first landing replaced the small structure mentioned above. The tripartite stairs on all three levels were made one and the summit structure was removed.
An offering consisted of obsidian cores, thousands of blades and chips, jade, shells, and a large black on red bowl probably related to those found in N10-9. N10-43 continued to be used during the Postclassic Period as was most other parts of the southern ceremonial area. An offering in the debris at the base of the structure contained a vessel and a single jade bead over which is a fair amount of Postclassic ceramics.
The ball court lies south of N10-43 and. was built during the Late Classic Period, a time when the northern district reflects diminishing use. It is in poor condition and its open ended playing area is rather small. Underneath the gigantic marker disc which covers most of the floor surface was an offering of a lidded vessel. Inside were miniature vessels and small shell and jade objects. These latter objects rested upon a pool of mercury, an element previously known only from the Maya highlands. 10-7 The initial construction for N10-7 is a low platform built during the Middle Classic Period. Overlying a burial cut into the platform, the major construction was a single effort at the end of the Classic Period. Intrusive burials into the upper core indicate continued use to Middle Postclassic times. The building was in ruins by the end of the 14th century A.D., indicated by the age of the midden mound covering its south side.
N10-2 is a small ceremonial building located on the west side of the southern plaza and was the focal point of Postclassic construction. Two Early Classic structures are modified by a sequence of four buildings. Since razing was customary, most of the information is in reference to the second modification. This Postclassic effort resembles northern Yucatan structures in that the front looked like a columned portico, but the building materials are different. The building sat upon a platform faced with small, rough stones. The single room had a plaster floor and thin, wattle and daub walls. Two rows of wooden columns supported a roof of timber, matting and other materials. A small square altar was set in the center, toward the back of the room.
Fifty burials were found in the building core, 17 unaccompanied by artifacts. Twenty-six were typical Postclassic internments with one or more ceramic vessels smashed and strewn over the graves. In most cases, only one piece of each vessel was missing, suggesting that retention of fragments was of ceremonial value. There were 26 burials associated with the second building effort including a double-pit inhumation. An adult male was seated in the pit with a pyrite mirror, a copper bell and gold sheet coverings from perishable objects such as wooden disks or staffs. The copper objects associated with N10-2 burial include simple bells and strapwork rings which are likely clothing or ornaments with cruciform or single strap attachments. Two-bell headed pins to which cloth fragments adhered were found in situ indicating use as a fastener of a warrior's garment at the hip. Three censers were found in the upper pit, one containing a pair of chile-grinding vessels. The surface north of N10-2 was littered with Tulum (a Postclassic site on the Yucatan coast) shards.
N10-9 is the primary structure of the southern precinct and was probably built in the Early Classic Period. This is an estimate based on Late Classic ceramics found at higher stratigraphic levels and an absence of them at lower levels. A cache of jade and obsidian found within included large quadrangle-shaped jade earrings of Classic style which lends this estimate credibility.
In general, the form of a construction offering varies not only in size and content, but also in its location within the structure. They are commonly found beneath the stairs, inside the chambered buildings. Protoclassic and Early Classic offerings typically contained two vessels with objects inside. Obsidian and jade caches are typical of the Late Classic Period.
Late Classic building modifications, characteristic throughout this site, show a definite pattern of replacing a tripartite stair with a broad single stair. The strict following of architectural cannon is in contrast with the diversity of building types found at Altun Ha dating to this same period. Modification of N10-9 included new stairs and stairside outsets leaving the terraces of the primary structure exposed. The building followed architectural cannon with a new chambered building across the center of the stairs and it had no building at its summit. Within the new building was found offerings of a large dish with an animal motif, a large black on red bowl, and a mosaic jade mask.
During the Postclassic Period, Lamanai continued to flourish while other centers such as Altun Ha showed sharp decline. This is evidenced from the periodic repair of the exposed platform and stairs mentioned above, which indicate that ritual continued throughout this period.
Abandonment of N10-9 is signaled by the large amount of pottery deposited on the front stairs at the close of the Postclassic Period. Midden mound was begun in the plaza on the east side of N10-9 and eventually covered its base, the south side of N10-7 and overflowed along the rear side of N10-2.
N10-1 is a small platform in the center of the southern plaza. The primary structure contained two burials. The interned ceramics found here filled in gaps of the ceramic sequence for the 12th century A.D. Ceramics from the earlier internment included domestic wares and a Chicken (X) Fine Orange vase. The later internment included a large lidded censer which contained an adult male skeleton placed on a pile of 18 broken censers, bowls and jars. It is inferred that this was a person bearing high status since burial in No10-1 or N10-4 would have been prestigious. This is due to their proximity to N10-2, a focal point of Postclassic ceremony.
The ceramic style here and in N10-2 resembles those of Mayapan (1250 A.D.); i.e., serpent motifs and segmented basal flanges, commonly with border lines and vertical-line ornamentation or center notches. However, the radiocarbon dates (from N10-2) indicate an earlier date of 1140 A.D., pointing not only to a fully developed ceramic complex in Lamanai in the Early Postclassic Period, which effected change in ceramic styles at the important Late Classic centers.
N10-4 borders the plaza to the east. The primary structure is Classic. Razing demolished the building atop it, which was soon replaced by a single unit of Postclassic modification containing forty-seven burials, interned at varying times, all placed in a single unit. One of these is dated to the 15th or 16th century, a period not well evidenced elsewhere at the site. Grave goods included Tulum Red tripod dishes, carved redware censers and uniquely styled bowls, a large pierced stucco columnar censer, a copper bell and two carved bone tubes; one pictures a person in ornate dress complete with a bird headdress.
In the early 16th century the Spanish missionaries arrived and built a church one half mile south of the Postclassic district. Two mounds adjacent to the church may indicate the community had also moved south. A Postclassic ceremonial building was modified with front and back stairs and used as a burial mound for Christian converts over a period of 70 years. Though the bodies are interned haphazardly, it is a chance to observe for the first time in the Maya lowlands a population of a definite period. The statistics gleaned from such a find can answer many questions about mortality curves, sex ratios and pathologies. The major grave items were bone rosaries. The church itself was abandoned in 1640-41, known from the reports of Fathers Orbita and Fuensalida. The Maya took up residence in the building for approximately 50 years as indicated by midden refuse and a burial. The ceramics are indistinguishable from those of the Postclassic indicating that 16th to 17th century occupation at the other sites may also be indistinguishable. Archaeological work
Thomas Gann, the British medical officer and notorious amateur archaeologist was the first, in 1917, to visit the site in modern times; he excavated a stuccocovered and painted stela at the site of the 16th century church. J. Eric Thompson passed by the site in the mid-1930's and William Bullard Jr. explored it and made surface collections in the early 1960's. Thomas Lee of the New World Archaeological Foundation made another small surface collection in 1967.
Aside from looters and a few visiting archaeologists, no one did any substantial work at the site until David Pendergast of the Royal Ontario Museum, Canada, began a long-term programme of excavation in 1974. A four-year restoration and consolidation programme was expected to commence in 1988. Locale and access
Lamanai lies on New River Lagoon, suitable for swimming and water sports. The 950-acre Archaeological Reserve is now the only jungle for miles around the flora is once again of the primary rain forest typ with massive trees, forest canopy and humid atmosphere. As a result, wildlife is already on the increase in 1986 it was estimated that at least three families of howler monkeys were residing in the central portio of the reserve alone. Many species of water birds live along the lagoon and are easily viewed by those travelling from Shipyard to the site -a route of delight in itself. A second route, not accessible during the rainy season, is by road from Orange Walk Town via San Felipe.
Lamanai lies at the centre of the tourist zone in Orange Walk District and its links with the Crooked Tree Wildlife Sanctuary 8 miles east of the reserve, place it at the heart of Belize's natural history.
Lamanai has restrooms and a picnic area. There is no public transport from Orange Walk to Shipyard or Guinea Grass but taxis and rental vehicles are available in Belize City and Orange Walk Town. Hotel accommodation is also available in those locations, the nearest being Orange Walk Town, some 30-40 minutes away.
For an incredible on-line resource on Lamanai, CLICK HERE.
At present Lamanai can only be reached by road from San Felipe Village in a strong vehicle during the dry season. However, the more popular route is by the New River Lagoon, a waterway rich in the natural history of the country Boats can be hired from Guinea Grass or Shipyard.
There is no public transportation from Orange Walk Town to Guinea Grass or Shipyard but taxies and rental vehicles are available both in Belize City and Orange Walk Town. Hotel accomodations are also available in these two locations, the nearest being Orange Walk Town, some 30-45 minutes away.
Click here for photos.Click here for a rotating panorama of the view from the top of the largest temple at Lamanai.
Lamanai: A great place to visit
It's that time of year when nearly every airplane that leaves Belize City is packed full. And this year is no exception...but there is one difference. Where traditionally the passengers were mostly Belizeans headed for summer holidays in Miami, New York, L.A. or Chicago, the majority now seems to be foreign tourists returning from happy holidays in Belize. And what about the Belizeans? It seems that a growing number are beginning to discover what the tourists found out long ago: Belize is a great place for a vacation. We've been singing that song for almost a decade and over the next few months we'll be revisiting some of our favourite places that make great day or weekend getaways. Tonight we travel to the Orange Walk District and the magnificent Maya site of Lamanai. William Neal is our host and you can be the judge of whether his looks and talents have improved since this story first aired in 1993.
William Neal"There are two ways to get to Lamanai, one is by road through the village of San Felipe, the other is by boat up the New River from Tower Hill. With a chance to see bird, exotic plants and maybe a crocodile, I'll take the jungle cruise."
The trip up the river takes approximately one hour and the pristine environment adds to the mystique and adventure of Lamanai. The boat journey comes to an end as you enter into the New River Lagoon and the anticipation begins as the main temple can be seen towering above the forest.
Nazario Ku, Lamanai Curator"One of the things that really strikes me at Lamanai, is that it retained its original name from 1621 when the first historians wrote about the name. Not as well as in other city-states, where the names were given by archaeologists. Lamanai is probably one of the few that retained their original name."
Nazario Ku has been the curator at Lamanai for a year, but has worked at different sites around the country for over ten years.
Nazario Ku"Lamanai itself means the "Drowned Insect". What might have happened in the early periods of the Spanish arrival here, is that they were mispronouncing the word to say, and my missing the final end, they changed the name of what we believed to be Lamanai Yin. And by missing the final end, it also changed the meaning of the city states name."
"Maya here started as a settlement around 1500 B.C. and they flourished as a city state around the 2nd century B.C., which is a long time between. This is one of the uniqueness of Lamanai because it was inhabited for around 3,000 and over. The highest peak of the Lamanai was about the 6th to the 7th century A.D. even though at the 10th century A.D., they were performing sacrificial rites. There were still offerings to the Gods and what makes Lamanai unique, is that when other city states were falling into decline, Lamanai was still going on strong."
Lamanai is located on 950 acres of archeological reserve and features more than a hundred minor structures and over a dozen major ones. This ruin called the Temple of the Mask, houses a stucco mask of an Olmec God, which some believe to be of Kinich Ahau, the Sun God. The size of this temple seems impressive until you approach the one next door, which is one of the tallest buildings in the country, believed to be the temple of sacrifice at Lamanai.
William Neal"It's not an easy climb, but it's worth it, and once you get up here, you can see why the Maya built their temples so high...the view is breathtaking."
Although not half as fantastic as it must have been in ancient times, when men, women, and children crowded the market place exchanging exotic goods from all over the Maya world.
William Neal"A thousand years ago, Lamanai wasn't all covered in bush. In fact the place where I am standing was the centre of a ball court where the game Pokta Pok was played."
In the game, warriors competed to win the honour of being sacrificed on the high altar, so that their blood could renew the life of the Sun God. Life at Lamanai was highly organised and the people were self sufficient, though shells, jade and clay found in the area indicate plenty of outside contact.
William Neal"Some people like to say that "Spanish foot never cross the Hondo". But Spanish priests came up the New River to convert the Maya to Christianity and built this church over 300 years ago."
Nazario Ku"When the Spaniards passed by here, in 1544, two years after the conquest of the Aztecs, the happened to pass by here by accident. When the say a flourishing city state, probably that meant something to them. One of the things that probably made them return, was that the people that were inhabiting here, were much more than the other settlements and they started to Christianize the Maya here around 1570 and they also constructed a church and the Maya turned apostate against that church, because as you know, the Mayas were polytheistic, they had different Gods. One of the things that contributed to the anger of the Maya is that they destroyed one of the temples and on top of the fundamentals of that, the foundation of that temple, they constructed their first church. Most likely if somebody comes to your house and burns down your house and constructs another one, that will may you angry. The same thing happened with the Maya and Mayas destroyed this first construction and they burnt the nearby houses also. The stubbornness of the Spanish made way to a second church which was also burnt down by the Maya."
William Neal"By the middle of the 19th century, the Spanish and the Maya were nowhere to be found at Lamanai, but the Industrial Revolution was. English businessmen built this sugar mill around 1865, but it was soon to be reclaimed by the jungle."
In its own way, the ornate craftsmanship of the brick and ironwork is as much a wonder as the limestone and mortar ten centuries earlier. The English mill, the Spanish church and the Maya temples have created an attraction for tourists that is among Belize's best.
A number of companies operate tours to Lamanai. Most boats leave from the vicinity of the Tower Hill Bridge.
For lots of pictures, see:http://AmbergrisCaye.com/wallpaper/page3.html andhttp://AmbergrisCaye.com/tanisha/lamanai.htmlFor a list of tour guides for this trip, see:http://AmbergrisCaye.com/tours/
Historical context
Lamanai has a special place in Maya history because of its early greatness -structure NIO-43 is the largest Preclassic structure known in the Maya area- and because of its longevity: the site was occupied throughout the Postclassic until at least the mid- seventeenth century.
Lamanai is an ancient Maya center known to have been occupied continuously for two millennia (approximately 300 B.C. - AD. 1680). Narrowly stretched along the west bank of the New River Lagoon, Lamanai illustrates an unusual settlement pattern among Maya sites. Usually built as one or more ceremonial plazas encircled by residential clusters, Lamanai ceremonial areas are close to the river with residential areas to the north, west, and south. To date, only 5% of the site has been investigated (by Dr. David M. Pendergast of the Royal Ontario Museum). As most of these buildings are ceremonial structures, research is weighted on the side of the ritual. How ever, these structures are the foundations of social edifice and therefore tell us much about Maya society.
Because of the late occupation, the site's name - "Lamanay" or "Lamayna"- was recorded by Franciscan missionaries in the seventeenth century and is thus the original Maya name. In 1978 it was realized that Lama'an/ayin means "Submerged Crocodile", a fact which, as archaeologist David Pendergast points out, helps to explain the numerous crocodile representations at the site, including figurine headdresses, vessel decorations and the headdress of a four metre-high limestone mask on the platform of a 6th century temple. The site
The site centre occupies .75 sq. km. (.5 sq. mile) with residential and minor structures distributed over an area of 950 acres, the present-day extent of the official reserve. Pollen evidence shows that maize was being cultivated at the site c. 1500 B.C. but we know little of what happened between then and c. 500 B.C., the time from which the earliest pottery fragments found at the site derive.
From that time the story of the site has been revealed by archaeologists digging through the layers of the past to unearth early structures beneath later ones: buried deep within the 6th century masked temple mentioned before was a small, superbly preserved Late Preclassic temple dating from c. 100 B.C. with plaster masks resembling those from Cerros. The massive NIO-43 is of the same date but it too had been modified several times, the last being in the Late Classic, c. 600 A.D.
Late in the Classic Period the northern parts of the site appear to have been de-sacralized: areas of formerly ceremonial ground were converted for residential use, while the southern sector became the focus of ceremonial activity. In the southern sector, Classic structures were surmounted by Postclassic ceremonial buildings and new religious structures were erected. Plausibly the smaller, less spectacular nature of the Postclassic structures reflects a lessening supply of labour and a less hierarchical society than that of the Classic.
In addition to its Maya structures Lamanai also has historic archaeological remains including two 16th century Christian churches, a 19th century sugar mill intact with flywheel and boiler, and a sunken, bricklaid reservoir. Occupation of Lamanai over the centuries thus includes Maya of all periods, British sugar cane growers and sugar manufacturers, Spanish clergy and Chinese factory workers. European, North American and Maya materials were used here so that Lamanai artifacts are of stone, clay, wood, bone, shell, jade, gold, copper, glass, iron and even liquid mercury.
Generally, site occupation during the Protoclassic Period was developed and extensive. Residential and ceremonial concentration was in the northern precinct and the lagoon shore. The Protoclassic is characterized by diversity in architectural form in contrast to the rigidity of control shown in ceramics and the general nature of dedicatory offerings.
The Classic Period ceremonial constructions are concentrated more toward the central area; however, there was continued construction in the northern precinct and new construction in the southern area. The residential area in the northern precinct continued to be in use.
It appears that many were leaving these northern centers toward the end of the Late Classic Period, but there was continued Classic Construction in the southern precinct. Motifs developed here before the 12th century were later adopted at Mayapan, a large Yucatan Maya center occupied from 1200 - 1750 A.D.
The Postclassic Period was generally a time of gradual decline, however, the population at Lamanai was ceremonially active and in communication with other areas of the Maya lowlands. This indicates that the complete breakdown of Classic societies, as is characteristic of neighboring centers, was not the case here. Lamanai stability may be a result of strong community leaders or due to the resources of its location; such as food supplier and trade.
In the early 16th century, Spanish missionaries arrived and built a church south of the southern precinct. The community also moved south either before or after the Spanish came. Modem squatters live in scattered settlements along the lagoon.
N9-56, the dominant structure of the central ceremonial precinct, stands 56 feet high. This is the most thoroughly investigated of the larger buildings at Lamanai and spans a longer period of time than most. The primary structure, built during the Early Classic Period, is exceptionally well-preserved with architectural features such as corner stairs and molding free terraces. Dating is based on a vessel in the interment at the base of the structure, at the front of the stairs. Although not unique to Lamanai construction or grave content, it represents a major deviation from typical Maya tombs which usually consisted of a vaulted chamber with or without a bench on which the body was lain. A grave of similar construction was found at Cuello and was dated 200-300 A.D., much earlier than the 400700 A.D. date indicated at Lamanai.
The tomb at Lamanai was constructed on the floor atop a pile of burned wooden artifacts. The body was positioned upon the pile so that the hips rested in a larger redware basalridge dish, while stones and earth supported the upper body in the unburned area. A wall of stone and clay underlaid the burned material and surrounded the body to a height of 11 inches. A red pigment was applied to the corpse and then layered with clay. The area was then filled with such artifacts as wooden-backed jade ear ornaments carved with human faces, wooden figurines with jade ear ornaments, and platted and corded textiles. A wooden framework was built atop the foundation and covered with lime plaster bandages made of a course textile, creating a cocoon effect. Fine red textiles overlay the courser material. Mortar and stone was then built around the cocoon with a row of capstones, covered in a mass of chert chips, obsidian flake blades and cores.
It was customary to raze structures before modification. The two-chambered building that once stood atop this structure was destroyed, leaving only the building layout in black paint on the platform surface, a feature seen at Tikal but not previously encountered in the central lowlands.
When razed, certain parts of units were destroyed or left in place, often creating problems for engineers of the new structure. The remaining units, in this case, are large, unusual masks on the stairside outsets on the south side of the structure. Unfortunately, the upper mask was removed during construction, so only the back panel remains. The lower mask resembles Olmec (an influential Gulf Coast culture of the 1st millennium B.C.) iconography though the treatment of the mask is not in that style. Usually masks are made of stucco laid over a basic framework but this one is made of stone with a grey stucco coating of ash, charcoal and plaster. Lacking part of the frontal headdress which was removed to build the small stair, the mask originally had crocodilian features.
Masks partially excavated on the north side closely resemble those at Cerros. These features reinforce the theory that the correct name of the site is "Lama'an/ayin."
Crocodiles occupied an exalted place in the Maya pantheon and it is believed they were protected rather than offered in religious rites since no interment has included crocodilian remains.
Use of N9-56 during the Late Classic Period was inferred by Mayapan type figurine censers, broken and scattered over the front, sides and back of the mound in the customary ritual manner. This debris overflowed in front of this structure, onto a group of small low platforms (N9-56) built during the Late Classic Period. The platforms were faced with vertical stones and coated in stucco. The central platform was built to support a Classic Period stela (a dedicatory monolith), relocated here from an unknown location in the Late Classic Period. Its carved side once faced an uncarved, relocated stela to its south.
9-2 is an isolated major building on the lagoon north of the N9-56 group, and has expanded our information concerning Protoclassic use for the area. The platform contained two offerings resembling those from N9-56 platform and indicate a 1st century A.D. date. The P9-2 platform itself does not appear to have supported a chambered structure. similar to P9-2, in that there was no chambered building atop its center. Unlike P9-2 there was a building on the extension which overlooked the harbor.
P9-25 is the largest complex at the northern end of the site. A platform 297 x 363 x 59 feet supported buildings 30 feet high. Final modification occurred around 400 A.D. but earlier constructions are indicated; a project for future excavations.
The harbor is now seen as a large depression. The rational behind calling this a harbor rests partly on its shape and that it holds water during the rainy season. (Excavation is now, under consideration.) In areas bordering the harbor, there is ceramic evidence of Late Protoclassic construction.
N10-43 is the tallest structure at Lamanai. Reaching 33 meters, its building sequence is the most securely dated Preclassic structure in the Maya area. Plastered surfaces and hearths indicate residential use of N10-43 before it was chosen as a ceremonial site.
A second century B.C. construction offering from within the building contained a redware dish with flaring sides. Inside the vessel was a juvenile bird skeleton with its beak and frontal skull missing as well as the bones from one or more other birds. The bulk of construction was completed in the Protoclassic Period. An early version of the Lamanai building type is characterized by a large multi-terraced platform, without a chambered building at its summit. Masks flank the lower center and side stairs where there is a large landing that supported a platform which served as a base for a chambered structure. Three sets of stairs (referred to as a tripartite pattern) were built both at the lower and upper levels to scale the side of the building. Atop the upper stairs were two small chambered buildings built upon double terraced platforms which face inward toward a third unit. This unit also has a tripartite pattern of steps flanked by masks, but there is no structure at its summit. This upper structure arrangement is unique at Lamanai though the tripartite stairs are typical Classic innovations. An offering of ceramic vessels within the building suggests a date of 100 B.C.
During the Late Classic Period, N10-43 was drastically reconstructed. A long, single room building which spans the first landing replaced the small structure mentioned above. The tripartite stairs on all three levels were made one and the summit structure was removed.
An offering consisted of obsidian cores, thousands of blades and chips, jade, shells, and a large black on red bowl probably related to those found in N10-9. N10-43 continued to be used during the Postclassic Period as was most other parts of the southern ceremonial area. An offering in the debris at the base of the structure contained a vessel and a single jade bead over which is a fair amount of Postclassic ceramics.
The ball court lies south of N10-43 and. was built during the Late Classic Period, a time when the northern district reflects diminishing use. It is in poor condition and its open ended playing area is rather small. Underneath the gigantic marker disc which covers most of the floor surface was an offering of a lidded vessel. Inside were miniature vessels and small shell and jade objects. These latter objects rested upon a pool of mercury, an element previously known only from the Maya highlands. 10-7 The initial construction for N10-7 is a low platform built during the Middle Classic Period. Overlying a burial cut into the platform, the major construction was a single effort at the end of the Classic Period. Intrusive burials into the upper core indicate continued use to Middle Postclassic times. The building was in ruins by the end of the 14th century A.D., indicated by the age of the midden mound covering its south side.
N10-2 is a small ceremonial building located on the west side of the southern plaza and was the focal point of Postclassic construction. Two Early Classic structures are modified by a sequence of four buildings. Since razing was customary, most of the information is in reference to the second modification. This Postclassic effort resembles northern Yucatan structures in that the front looked like a columned portico, but the building materials are different. The building sat upon a platform faced with small, rough stones. The single room had a plaster floor and thin, wattle and daub walls. Two rows of wooden columns supported a roof of timber, matting and other materials. A small square altar was set in the center, toward the back of the room.
Fifty burials were found in the building core, 17 unaccompanied by artifacts. Twenty-six were typical Postclassic internments with one or more ceramic vessels smashed and strewn over the graves. In most cases, only one piece of each vessel was missing, suggesting that retention of fragments was of ceremonial value. There were 26 burials associated with the second building effort including a double-pit inhumation. An adult male was seated in the pit with a pyrite mirror, a copper bell and gold sheet coverings from perishable objects such as wooden disks or staffs. The copper objects associated with N10-2 burial include simple bells and strapwork rings which are likely clothing or ornaments with cruciform or single strap attachments. Two-bell headed pins to which cloth fragments adhered were found in situ indicating use as a fastener of a warrior's garment at the hip. Three censers were found in the upper pit, one containing a pair of chile-grinding vessels. The surface north of N10-2 was littered with Tulum (a Postclassic site on the Yucatan coast) shards.
N10-9 is the primary structure of the southern precinct and was probably built in the Early Classic Period. This is an estimate based on Late Classic ceramics found at higher stratigraphic levels and an absence of them at lower levels. A cache of jade and obsidian found within included large quadrangle-shaped jade earrings of Classic style which lends this estimate credibility.
In general, the form of a construction offering varies not only in size and content, but also in its location within the structure. They are commonly found beneath the stairs, inside the chambered buildings. Protoclassic and Early Classic offerings typically contained two vessels with objects inside. Obsidian and jade caches are typical of the Late Classic Period.
Late Classic building modifications, characteristic throughout this site, show a definite pattern of replacing a tripartite stair with a broad single stair. The strict following of architectural cannon is in contrast with the diversity of building types found at Altun Ha dating to this same period. Modification of N10-9 included new stairs and stairside outsets leaving the terraces of the primary structure exposed. The building followed architectural cannon with a new chambered building across the center of the stairs and it had no building at its summit. Within the new building was found offerings of a large dish with an animal motif, a large black on red bowl, and a mosaic jade mask.
During the Postclassic Period, Lamanai continued to flourish while other centers such as Altun Ha showed sharp decline. This is evidenced from the periodic repair of the exposed platform and stairs mentioned above, which indicate that ritual continued throughout this period.
Abandonment of N10-9 is signaled by the large amount of pottery deposited on the front stairs at the close of the Postclassic Period. Midden mound was begun in the plaza on the east side of N10-9 and eventually covered its base, the south side of N10-7 and overflowed along the rear side of N10-2.
N10-1 is a small platform in the center of the southern plaza. The primary structure contained two burials. The interned ceramics found here filled in gaps of the ceramic sequence for the 12th century A.D. Ceramics from the earlier internment included domestic wares and a Chicken (X) Fine Orange vase. The later internment included a large lidded censer which contained an adult male skeleton placed on a pile of 18 broken censers, bowls and jars. It is inferred that this was a person bearing high status since burial in No10-1 or N10-4 would have been prestigious. This is due to their proximity to N10-2, a focal point of Postclassic ceremony.
The ceramic style here and in N10-2 resembles those of Mayapan (1250 A.D.); i.e., serpent motifs and segmented basal flanges, commonly with border lines and vertical-line ornamentation or center notches. However, the radiocarbon dates (from N10-2) indicate an earlier date of 1140 A.D., pointing not only to a fully developed ceramic complex in Lamanai in the Early Postclassic Period, which effected change in ceramic styles at the important Late Classic centers.
N10-4 borders the plaza to the east. The primary structure is Classic. Razing demolished the building atop it, which was soon replaced by a single unit of Postclassic modification containing forty-seven burials, interned at varying times, all placed in a single unit. One of these is dated to the 15th or 16th century, a period not well evidenced elsewhere at the site. Grave goods included Tulum Red tripod dishes, carved redware censers and uniquely styled bowls, a large pierced stucco columnar censer, a copper bell and two carved bone tubes; one pictures a person in ornate dress complete with a bird headdress.
In the early 16th century the Spanish missionaries arrived and built a church one half mile south of the Postclassic district. Two mounds adjacent to the church may indicate the community had also moved south. A Postclassic ceremonial building was modified with front and back stairs and used as a burial mound for Christian converts over a period of 70 years. Though the bodies are interned haphazardly, it is a chance to observe for the first time in the Maya lowlands a population of a definite period. The statistics gleaned from such a find can answer many questions about mortality curves, sex ratios and pathologies. The major grave items were bone rosaries. The church itself was abandoned in 1640-41, known from the reports of Fathers Orbita and Fuensalida. The Maya took up residence in the building for approximately 50 years as indicated by midden refuse and a burial. The ceramics are indistinguishable from those of the Postclassic indicating that 16th to 17th century occupation at the other sites may also be indistinguishable. Archaeological work
Thomas Gann, the British medical officer and notorious amateur archaeologist was the first, in 1917, to visit the site in modern times; he excavated a stuccocovered and painted stela at the site of the 16th century church. J. Eric Thompson passed by the site in the mid-1930's and William Bullard Jr. explored it and made surface collections in the early 1960's. Thomas Lee of the New World Archaeological Foundation made another small surface collection in 1967.
Aside from looters and a few visiting archaeologists, no one did any substantial work at the site until David Pendergast of the Royal Ontario Museum, Canada, began a long-term programme of excavation in 1974. A four-year restoration and consolidation programme was expected to commence in 1988. Locale and access
Lamanai lies on New River Lagoon, suitable for swimming and water sports. The 950-acre Archaeological Reserve is now the only jungle for miles around the flora is once again of the primary rain forest typ with massive trees, forest canopy and humid atmosphere. As a result, wildlife is already on the increase in 1986 it was estimated that at least three families of howler monkeys were residing in the central portio of the reserve alone. Many species of water birds live along the lagoon and are easily viewed by those travelling from Shipyard to the site -a route of delight in itself. A second route, not accessible during the rainy season, is by road from Orange Walk Town via San Felipe.
Lamanai lies at the centre of the tourist zone in Orange Walk District and its links with the Crooked Tree Wildlife Sanctuary 8 miles east of the reserve, place it at the heart of Belize's natural history.
Lamanai has restrooms and a picnic area. There is no public transport from Orange Walk to Shipyard or Guinea Grass but taxis and rental vehicles are available in Belize City and Orange Walk Town. Hotel accommodation is also available in those locations, the nearest being Orange Walk Town, some 30-40 minutes away.
For an incredible on-line resource on Lamanai, CLICK HERE.
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