Lamanai

Belize is home to a huge number of archeological sites related to the Mayans. Lamanai is one of the few remaining cities that were original Mayan cities that exist today. The site is placed at the northern part of Belize. The exact location is close to the New River Lagoon, on the west bank.

Lamanai was referenced by the Spanish in documents written in the 16th century by the conquistador. These documents were bought to light by the historian Grant Jones when he was working his way through the archives kept in Seville, Spain. It is said that Lamanai can be translated roughly as the “Submerged Crocodile”.

What we can decipher out of what the document says are two important things. The ancient Mayans still had their home in the city of Lamanai as the Spanish disembarked. The Importance of the Morelets’ crocodile is another factor which we can understand. It was never consumed as it occupied an important status as an animal.

The remains of this species of crocodile were never found in the midden sites (kitchen waste dumps from the ancient times). The site itself has a huge number of representations of crocodiles on various things such as stucco facades, architecture, stone and ceramics, which proves that the transition is fitting.

Lamanai was home to close to thirty to sixty thousand Mayans in the ancient times. This was during the time when the civilization was at its pinnacle. The occupational history of the city of Lamanai well exceeded that of many Mayan cities. The three thousand years of occupation that the city of Lamanai has experienced is a piece of unbroken history.