From Buried Preclassic Villages to the Lexicon for Maya Architecture: The Impact of Architectural Studies in Belize on Maya Scholarship

Summary

This is an abstract from the "“The Center and the Edge”: How the Archaeology of Belize Is Foundational for Understanding the Ancient Maya, Part II" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

In 1984, Stanley Loten and David Pendergast published “A Lexicon for Maya Architecture” based to a large degree on their observations during excavations at Lamanai and Altun Ha, both major Maya centers in Belize. At 16 brief pages of text and nine of figures, this much-coveted, difficult-to-find resource contains the essential vocabulary that scholars still use to describe Maya architecture. The lexicon provides a foundational platform on which architectural description and comparison across space and time can rest. While this work was critical to establishing a common language, it is perhaps the architectural heterogeneity of Belize across space and time that is most critical to our broader understanding of Maya society. While architectural studies in Belize have contributed to our understanding of Classic period (AD 250–800) trends in monumental architecture, the country has also been a key setting for research into domestic architecture, Preclassic (1100 BC–AD 250) architectural origins, and Terminal Classic (AD 800–1000) and Postclassic (AD 1000–1528) architectural transitions. In this paper, we review the major contributions Belizean archaeology has had on Maya archaeology scholarship while also pointing to some places where we believe architectural scholarship in Belize has been overlooked or misunderstood in the construction of broader narratives.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)   •
• “The Center and the Edge”: How the Archaeology of Belize Is Foundational for Understanding the Ancient Maya, Part II

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 39073.0