Maya Metallurgy and the Political Economy of Late Postclassic-Spanish Colonial Lamanai, Belize

The Maya Archaeometallurgy Project (MAP) is in its fourth year at Lamanai, Belize. The research is focused on understanding the roles that copper metallurgy played in the political economy of Lamanai in Postclassic and Spanish Colonial times. At present, more copper objects have been recovered during controlled archaeological excavations at Lamanai than at any other Maya site. The results of recent research suggest that Lamanai’s Spanish colonial period administrator, the cacique, may have controlled some aspects of the production and distribution of copper objects at Lamanai. The results of chemical compositional analyses, and other MAP research, will be presented here.

Maya Metallurgy and the Political Economy of Late Postclassic-Spanish Colonial Lamanai, Belize Presentation