Orange Walk Town

This morning we left San Ignacio by bus and headed north. We are now in Orange Walk Town, which is a gritty little city of about 20,000 people situated in a predominately agricultural region -- sugar cane, mostly. The town sits on the banks of the New River, which was aptly named by the English because it was new to them. It was not, however, new for the Maya who have lived in these parts since at least about 1000 BCE. They called the river the Dzuluinicob, which means "foreign men." Perhaps they named it this because the river is a deep water channel and a means by which foreigners can navigate up it.

This part of Belize has an interesting history which can be compressed into distinct periods of time. There is evidence of human habitation going back at least as far as 7000 BCE. Then between about 7000-1200 BCE there is evidence of a kind of formative pre-ceramic people. Neither of these two groups are considered to be Maya.

Some time around 1200-900 BCE we find evidence of a ceramic society. These are people thought to be the earliest Maya in the region. They are constructing waddle and daub structures which is essentially plaster stuck between and on top of small wooden poles. What's really cool about this is that very tiny fragments of cotton with textile weave have been found pressed into the plaster.

So picture this: some man is building his house around 1000 BCE. It's hot so he takes a little break to wipe his brow and catch his breath. He leans back against the wet plaster that he just laid and it creates an imprint that dries in the form of the weave of his clothes.

Three thousand years later, we are finding that imprint. And what it tells us, along with the the type of construction of the house, is that weaving and textile making were in place by 1000 BCE. It also suggests that cotton production is already in place by this time because surely whoever this man is, he's not the only one around wearing cotton textiles. Furthermore, agricultural production suggests a sedentary, rather than a nomadic, form of society.  We have all the ingredients for a settlement.

This era from 1200-900 BCE is known as the Cunil Phase. Beyond the agriculture, textiles and housing construction other items have been found that are associated with these people. Those items include small ceramic figurines, carved jade objects, obsidian blades and some slate carvings. Since some of these materials are not from the Upper Belize River Valley, scholars suggest that by 1000 BCE extensive trade networks had been established between Honduras in the south, Guatemala in the west and the coastal plains of Tabasco and Veracruz in the north. It is what Jaime Awe calls a "pan-Mesoamerican" network. Furthermore, early motifs associated with both the Olmec and the Maya are beginning to appear in the artifacts. These are also considered "pan-Mesoamerican motifs" and include a slate crocodilian effigy. This last item is important because it relates to one of the oldest temple sites in the region known as Lamanai.

Lamanai was recorded by the Spanish when they arrived in the early 16th century as Lamanay or Lamayna. This is a twist on the Maya word Lama'anayin, which means "submerged crocodile." Apparently the crocodile was symbolically important to the people of the region as far back as 1000 BCE, and it continued to be important to them when they began constructing a portion of the temple complex known as the Mask Temple in 200 BCE.

Perhaps most important for our discussion here is the fact that the Mask Temple at Lamanai not only is "clearly related to characteristics of Olmec iconography" -- which supports that pan-Mesoamerican motif theory, but that the masks on the temple appear with an "up-turned upper lip and broad nose. The masks are each adorned with a headdress representing a crocodile. This symbol validated the ancient site name recorded by the Spaniards as Lamanay, 'place of the crocodile.'" All of the quotes come from Jaime Awe's book entitled Maya Cities and Sacred Caves: A Guide to the Maya Sites of Belize.

Happily, I report that tomorrow we will take a boat up the river with Jaime Awe to visit Lamanai.