Punta Gorda, Belize - 13 August 2009

This June saw the start of a new excavation at the famous Lubaantun Mayan site in the Toledo district of Southern Belize.

The project is led by Geoffrey Braswell, professor of anthropology at the University of California, San Diego. Braswell has worked in Toledo since 2001, particularly at the Pusilha Mayan site.

The new project is called the Toledo Regional Interaction Project, or TRIPS, and is being
initially funded by seed grants from The National Geographic and UCSD Faculty Senate. It is hoped the project will last for 5 years, with work continuing at Lubaantun and starting in 2010 at Nim Li Punit as well. The aim of TRIPS is to find out more about how the various Toledo Mayan sites interacted with each other. According to Geoffrey Braswell, the questions they want to answer include “... were Lubaantun, Nim Li Punit, Pusilha and Uxbenka part of the same political unit or were they separate petty states? Did they share in a single unified economy or were they essentially independent? Were they settled by ethnically similar Maya peoples, or—like today– was ancient Toledo a cosmopolitan and multi-ethnic place?”

Together with eleven local men from Columbia village, the team began work on two
linked structures at the western edge of Plaza VII (known as the Butterfly Plaza).
Geoff says these stone structures supported a domestic dwelling made from perishable materials.
This is the first time a domestic household has been excavated at Lubaantun, rather than a temple,
ball court or specialized structure. They know the structures were domestic because of the
types of materials found: serving vessels, food and water storage containers and lots of “pur”
shells—the common river snails which are still eaten today. There were no incense burners or other
specialized religious pottery. The residents would have been elite members of the community, based on the dwelling’s location in the centre of the city. Their status is also reflected in the sheer quantity of stone work which would have represented a considerable investment.

The team is gathering information to help answer their questions through the recovery of artifacts
including pottery, tools, human bones and the architecture itself. They will also be studying hieroglyphic monuments, mainly from Pusilha and Nim Li Punit. Pottery styles and designs indicate
the extent to which different cities interacted with each other.

Also important is the way pottery was used at different sites, including the types of foods stored in
the pots. Diet is a good indicator of whether there was shared ethnicity between the cities. For example, the inhabitants of Pusilha mostly ate tortillas whereas the inhabitants of Lubaantun probably ate most of their maize in the form of tamales, atole or beer. The study of hieroglyphic texts also indicate connections between cities, since the ancient Maya mainly recorded political events such as royal marriages, battles and ambassadorial visits
between cities.

Although Lubaantun has revealed almost no texts, about 60 carved monuments have been found at
other local sites. Interestingly, and despite their physical closeness, none of these texts has so far made any mention of their neighbors in the area. Geoff says this could indicate total independence or simply mean they were so closely tied that they didn’t feel the need to mention each other. Geoff and his team hope to solve this mystery during the TRIPS project.

The domestic dwelling excavated this year has been dated to around 800 AD and was lived in for 100-150 years. Most of the information gleaned from the dwelling came from a very large trash dump beneath the structure. Lubaantun is famous for its figurines and the TRIPS team found many in the trash under the structure. However none were found on top or around the house platform which could mean they were from an earlier era.

Next year, the team plan to extend their excavation to the main plaza at Lubaantun. Some of the oldest structures in the site are here, though deeply buried beneath the present ground level. They hope to get a better idea of when Lubaantun was first inhabited. The current theory says the site was founded in the 8th century, which is oddly late for a Mayan city. It may be that a much earlier
foundation will be discovered. The team will also start excavating at Nim Li Punit, which they believe likely to be the major site of Toledo with the greatest number of secrets to reveal.

>>For more details:
contact Rob Hirons, Proprietor, The Lodge at Big Falls [Web: http://www.thelodgeatbigfalls.com] at rob[at]thelodgeatbigfalls[dot]com