Lamanai could scarcely have remained a viable community in a vacuum, created by collapse of political and social organization at neighboring Lowland centers and with the accompanying dissolution of intersite networks: it is therefore likely that the path of events at the site was repeated, at least in its main aspects, elsewhere in the area. (Pendergast 1986a: 226).
While Spanish presence is archaeologically invisible or lacking at Chau Hiix, there is abundant evidence of Maya occupation during the time of Spanish contact at Lamanai in the second half of the fifteenth century. Despite a reduction in the overall level of cultural activity at Chau Hiix between the Classic and Postclassic periods, ceramic and architectural data indicate substantial ceremonial and possible residential use of the main platform during the Postclassic period (a. d. 900 through ca. A. D. 1500). Evidence of continuous use of the site-center architecture is intriguing because it is both variable and has proved archaeologically unpredictable.
Many of the larger structures in the site center show signs of only intermittent use between the end of the Classic period and initial Spanish contact in 1544. The construction of a Postclassic stairway on top of ten centimeters of humus and collapse debris at the base of Structure 1, for example, indicates the structure was not continuously maintained throughout the pre-contact period (Andres 2000). Structure 3, a modest temple structure southwest of Structure 1, demonstrates even less use between its probable Classic-period abandonment and activities that left deposits of Late Postclassic Mayapan-style effigy incensarios on its summit (Figure 18.2) (Cook and Pyburn 1995).
Furthermore, excavation of a significant portion of a modest residential structure (Structure 14) on the southern edge of the main platform yielded ceramic debris in fill layers dating no later than the Terminal Classic Period. This evidence, combined with a complete absence of Postclassic material from the surfaces of other structures on the main platform, indicates the main group did not experience the same overall level of maintenance and use during the Postclassic as it did during the Classic period. Instead, certain Classic-period structures became the focus of intermittent Postclassic activities, which in some cases diverged significantly from the buildings’ Classic-period functions.
World History
