On June 9, 2012, I arrived in Belize City, the largest city in the
Central American nation of Belize. I was met at the Belize City airport
by my colleague and friend Dr. Helen Haines, an archaeologist from Trent
University, and a ROM Research Associate. Dr. Haines began her research
in Northern Belize around 23 years ago. We drove three hours to Indian
Church village, a small remote village in the Orange Walk District of
Belize, which is located on the west bank of New River, neighbouring the
town of San Carlos to its south, and the famous Maya ruins of Lamanai
to its north.
My friends and colleagues back in Toronto asked me why a Chinese
archaeologist was going to Belize to work on an ancient Mayan site. Was I
traveling all the way to Central America to find a connection between
the ancient Chinese and Maya of the first millennium BC? Well, I wish I
could say that was what I was doing! In fact, I was invited to
participate on the Ka’Kabish Archaeological Research Project in northern
Belize by Dr. Helen Haines, as a lithic analysis specialist. After so
many years of working in over-populated “small” towns in China, Helen
was able to show me what it was like to work in a small village in
Belize with a population of around 200 people (about 70 households).
Ka’Kabish is a moderate-sized Maya city located 10 kilometres to the
east of the more famous site of Lamanai; both were first discovered by a
former curator Dr. David Pendergast in the 1970s. At the time Dr.
Pendergast was working on a ROM funded expedition at Lamanai. He took a
trip to Ka’Kabish, which at that time took over 2 hours on a narrow,
muddy logging road, today it takes only 20 minutes from Lamanai to
Ka’Kabish. Ka’Kabish came to Dr. Pendergast’s attention due to reports
of looting at the site and, when he visited the area, evidence of
plundering could be found in the form of massive trenches throughout
many of the buildings. Dr. Pendergast recognised the value of the work
at Ka’Kabish, however, he also realised that further archaeological
investigations would have to be left for the future — access to the site
made such work impossible at that time. Dr. Pendergast’s vision was
realised in 2009 when SSHRC (Social Science and Humanity Research of
Canada) supported Dr. Helen Haines’ Ka’Kabish project.
Ka’kabish was initially believed to be a small subsidiary centre
supporting the larger city of Lamanai. It was hypothesized that
Ka’Kabish was settled in the later part of the Late Formative period
(ca. AD 100-300), and reached it apogee during the Late Classic period
(AD 600-900). It was surmised that the site served as a secondary centre
administering to the outlying, periphery population of the Lamanai
polity. However, recent work at Ka’Kabish by Dr. Haines’ team has
documented the existence of multiple elite tombs, a ball court with
marker stone, over a thousand pieces of ritually deposited obsidian, and
other evidence of a thriving and prosperous ritual elite occupation
during the Early Classic period. Ka’Kabish also has a ritually preserved
corbel-vaulted structure, now partially looted, that is the only one of
its kind in the northern Belize. Over a few days, I have classified
more than 2,000 stone tool artifacts recovered from six-weeks of
excavation this year.
Dr. Haines has told me that: “our recent work, in fact, has shown
that what we thought about the Ka’kabish as being a secondary center to
Lamanai is incorrect. In fact, over the first 1,000 years Ka’Kabish and
Lamanai had similar developmental paths, with Ka’Kabish currently
showing evidence of having greater ritual activity than Lamanai.” Dr.
Haines revealed that ceramics at Ka’Kabish suggest that the inception of
the site was 200 years earlier than that of Lamanai.
The highlight of my visit to the sites of Ka’Kabish and Lanamai was
meeting Professor Elizabeth (Liz) Graham who, like her husband David
Pendergast, is a legendary figure in Belizean archaeological circles.
Before his retirement, Dave was the ROM`s Deputy Director of Collections
and Research, he served as the chair of a search committee, who
interviewed and offered me the post of Curator back in the middle of the
1990s. When I first met Liz she was still a professor at York
University. I also knew that both Liz and Dave were responsible for the
exciting work at the Lamanai site, and had been excavating the sites and
training generations of students for more then three decades. It was
amazing to finally be with Liz Graham at their sites in Belize. Some of
the Lamanai excavated materials are now part of the ROM’s collection,
and some of them were showcased in the ROM’s recent blockbuster
exhibition Maya: the Secret of Ancient World. Their
contributions to the discovery and study of Lamanai, one of largest Maya
complexes in Belize, and one of the longest lasting ancient settlements
in the Maya world, has ensured that the ROM has left a permanent and
enduring mark on Belize and Belizean archaeology. This was clearly
demonstrated when Dr. Haines proudly introduced me to her Belize
co-workers and friends as the Vice President and archaeologist from the
Royal Ontario Museum. It was immediately apparent that everyone here in
this remote location, young and old, had heard of the Royal Ontario
Museum. Many people at Lamanai still fondly remember working with Dave
and Liz, and Helen tells me that they constantly ask when David and Liz
and the ROM will be back, even if only to visit.
Today, the Ka’Kabish project continues the ROM legacy of Maya
archaeology in Belize, and I am so glad that I took some time off to
visit the “ROM sites” 3,000 kilometers away from Toronto, to be inspired
by the ROM’s renowned past research. At the Museum of Belize, a staff
asked me to pose for a photo to be posted on their website blog because
of my connection with the ROM.
During one of my many conversations with Liz, she raised her concerns
about the ROM’s legacy at Lamanai and the collection material
associated with this excavation site. She stressed feelings of
adisconnect back at the ROM. Today the collection is languishing with
much needed financial assistance and human resources. I shared her
concerns, and I feel that greater attention is needed to make this
invaluable ROM collection relevant and accessible to students and the
public (both foreign and the local inhabitants of Belize whose ancestral
culture pieces these belong to). I believe it is extremely important to
ensure that these archaeological materials are well-preserved for the
future generation of archaeologists and Maya scholars. When I ended my
tour and flew back to Toronto, I felt that I have some very important
items to attend to on my agenda.
To read more about Ka’Kabish you can look at their web page at www.kakabish.org and follow their blogs from the field.
for the same post with pictures at Royal Ontario Museum website http://www.rom.on.ca/en/blog/rom%E2%80%99s-archaeologists-maya-ruins-ka%E2%80%99kabish-and-lamanai-belize
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