Mahogany and Sugar for Tobacco, Booze, and Salt-Pork: Consumerism and Consumption at 19th-Century Lamanai, Belize

Summary

This presentation outlines archaeological research focused on the nineteenth-century, British sugar plantation settlement at Lamanai, northwestern Belize. Little is known about the eighteenth- and nineteenth- centuries at Lamanai, and this ongoing project aims to answer questions regarding how life (residential, industrial, and administrative) was structured.

Archaeological data presented here includes the results of recent archaeological excavations (2014) and a study of previously excavated archaeological materials recovered at the site over the past 30 years (2009), conducted by the authors. Much of the diagnostic archaeological evidence has taken the form of ceramic remains, but glass, bone and metal objects are also present. Archival research has also shed greater light on the operational history of the site and the composition of its labour force. The project’s core theoretical and methodological foundations will also be discussed, which framed the most recent studies at Lamanai and will continue to inform future research endeavours.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• British Ceramics in Indigenous, Colonial, and Post-Independence Latin America   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2017

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 319