Salvage Excavations of a Painted Maya Tomb at Ayiin Winik, Northwestern Belize

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

In 2023, the Belize Estates Archaeological Survey Team (BEAST) field assessed recently acquired LiDAR data. This effort included documenting a previously unknown large ceremonial center, Ayiin Winik, located between the La Lucha Escarpment and the Rio Bravo in northwestern Belize. Exploration of the site identified a rare double ball court, a parapet-lined sacbe, a large palace, a hilltop acropolis, several large altars, and stelae. At a large hilltop group south of the main plaza, team members identified a large looters’ tunnel that cut through the center of a large pyramidal structure, B-1. This tunnel exposed at least four major construction phases and vaulted rooms, along with ancient graffiti and a looted tomb. The tomb itself is a vaulted room with cream-colored panels bordered by vertical red bars and a red band painted around the top of the chamber’s wall. While the style of the painted tomb mimics the elaborate Early Classic tombs at Rio Azul, Ayiin Winik’s tomb lacks painted glyphs and artistic designs. This paper presents introduces the site and discusses the results of BEAST’s salvage excavations to contextualize the tomb within the region’s Early Classic period.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 39233.0