2006 Archaeology Field School

Lamanai, Belize

    The 2006 archaeology field school at Lamanai, Belize took place over two four-week sessions.  The first session was held between March 27 and April 20 while the second took place from May 16 to June 14.  The Lamanai field schools in archaeology operated under Permit Number IA/H/2/1/06(05) issued by the Belize Institute of Archaeology, National Institute of Culture and History.  Our most sincere thanks go to Drs. Jaime Awe and John Morris, of the Belize IoA, for their continued support of the Lamanai Archaeological Project.

    The archaeology field schools at Lamanai are an integral component of the both the Lamanai Archaeological Project (LAP) as well as the Maya Archaeometallurgy Project (MAP).  Co-Principal Investigators of the LAP are Dr. Elizabeth A. Graham of University College London and Dr. Scott E. Simmons of the University of North Carolina Wilmington.  Dr. Graham directed the archaeology field school at Lamanai from 1997-2000 and Dr. Simmons has directed the archaeology field school since 2001.

    Participants in Session I of the archaeology field school at Lamanai included Michael Marino, Charlotte Knappe, Sirja Moilanen, Michael Pendergast, Richard Luckyn-Malone and Ed Scott-Clarke, all from University College London; Bridget O'Brien from Boston University, David Hemphill from the University of Nottingham, and recently graduated students Peggy Donnelly, from the University of Manitoba and Will Trimble from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.

    Session II participants were all students from the University of North Carolina Wilmington.  They included Adrianne Wells, Melanie Fann, Morgan Pereira, Jessica Pittard, Lucy Stortors, Erin West and Jessica Drew.  Dr. Simmons was assisted at Lamanai by Ms. Laura J. Howard, M.S. during both archaeology field school sessions.

Summary of Research

    The research goals of the 2006 field season at Lamanai revolved around both the specific goals of the Maya Archaeometallurgy Project as well as the broader research issues related to the ways in which the household and political economies of this important lowland Maya site were articulated during the centuries just prior to and during Spanish contact.  The Spanish Church Zone has been the focus of archaeological research at Lamanai in recent years as it has been demonstrated to have been used rather intensively by Lamanai's residents during the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries.

    Archaeological investigations during the spring and summer of 2006 took place in an area situated immediately east of Lamanai's second Spanish church, Structure N12-13.  Previous investigations conducted in this particular area of the site by Dr. David Pendergast revealed the presence of contact period structural and other features.  In 2004 Darcy Weiwall conducted preliminary investigations in this area, finding additional evidence of on-site copper metallurgy in the form of two waste pieces of copper, as well as several copper axe fragments, all in an extensive midden deposit bordering the New River Lagoon.  A single 1x4 m trench was excavated east, toward the lagoon edge, from what appears to be an eroded lagoon terrace face that was likely modified by the Maya who added moderate to large pieces of unmodified limestone to the rock face itself.  Our research in 2006 suggests that this midden was likely used by a number of the Contact Period Maya residents of the Spanish Church Zone.  Based on stylistic elements of the ceramic artifacts as well as a Spanish Nueva Cadiz glass bead encountered at the base of the midden, i.e., directly above sterile subsoil, it is very likely that Maya trash deposits at the edge of the lagoon accumulated fairly short period, over the course of perhaps only two generations.  Excavations in the Subop 3 trench also revealed the presence of a seated human burial.  Stratigraphic data indicate that the Maya dug through the midden deposit and partially into the underlying sterile subsoil to inter the individual, a behaviour we have recorded during excavations elsewhere in the Spanish Church Zone.

    Archaeological investigations on the relatively flat lagoon terrace in an area located 50-60 meters east of the second church, revealed the presence of contact period Maya domestic remains, also typical of those encountered elsewhere in the Spanish Church Zone.  Unmodified limestone cobbles, mostly fist-sized and slightly larger, were encountered in discrete areas on the lagoon terrace just east of the church.  Due to time constraints we could not extend our excavations horizontally to an extent where we could confidently delineate the edges of these contact period structures.  But the hard work of archaeology field school students in Subop 2 and in Subop 4 paid off.  We now know that Maya residences existed fairly close to the shore of the New River Lagoon, and these were likely fairly ephemeral in terms of the nature of their construction.  Platforms made of unmodified limestone rocks and packed earth were probably covered by pole and thatch superstructures.  In some areas of the Spanish Church Zone, such as at Structure N11-18, we have found these platform edges were delineated by nicely shaped limestone blocks that were fairly uniform in size.  In other cases, as at nearby Structure N11-27, we have found that the contact period Maya used unmodified limestone rocks of varying size to create edges for their packed earth and stone platforms.

    In an area very close (ca 5 meters) to the lagoon edge we encountered relatively high concentrations of Spanish pottery, including majolica and olive jar fragments.  During the 1980's, when Dr. David Pendergast was testing the midden deposits he recorded along the lagoon shore he also noted the relatively large numbers of Spanish ceramic artifacts.  Also, a fairly enigmatic feature, designated Feature N25 E50 by Darcy Wiewall in 2004, was cleared and photographed, but not excavated, in 2006.  The construction style of this feature, with vertically set (set on edge) worked limestone rocks is typical of other terminal Postclassic-Spanish contact period architecture in the Spanish Church Zone.  Other such features likely exist in this particular area of the site, just below the existing ground surface.

    In 2006 we encountered a series of three roughly north-south oriented lines of limestone in the southern portion of our excavation area.  We had time for only limited investigation of these, but they certainly appear to be Maya construction features of some kind.  Excavations south of the easternmost of these lines of limestone block revealed the highest densities of Spanish ceramic artifacts, along with very late Yglesias phase Maya ceramic vessel fragments, ceramic net sinkers, faunal material, and abundant lithic artifacts as well.  This area was located only 5 meters or so west of the lagoon edge, and may represent midden material used to create a flat surface for a perishable house platform.  All of these structures were located in an area east of the second Spanish church and its associated Christian cemetery and south of a rather substantial Late Postclassic-Spanish Colonial Period structure, Str. N11-17, that was re-occupied during the last half of the nineteenth century by British sugarcane workers.

Selected Images from the 2006 Field Season at Lamanai, Belize