From the end of May through
June of 1997, archaeologically related work was concentrated
in two areas: the site of Lamanai in northern Belize, and Middle
Caye, one of four cayes on Glover's Reef Atoll in southern Belize.
No excavations were carried out in 1997, but we began organizing
the pottery in the Lamanai on-site museum for display purposes,
and we carried out preliminary survey and mapping of Middle Caye.
At Lamanai, all of the artifacts
recovered from the excavations carried out by David Pendergast
from 1974 to 1986 (see History of Excavations at Lamanai) were
previously stored in a temporary field lab. They are now displayed
and stored in a masonry building that is serving as the on-site
museum. Most of the artifacts on display are pottery vessels;
there are many other kinds of artifacts in the museum besides
the ceramics, but most of these cannot be displayed owing to
lack of sufficient shelf space and are temporarily stored in
wooden drawers, on storage shelves, and in the bodega (warehouse).
The non-Belizean field crew working at Lamanai in 1997 comprised:
Elizabeth Graham, Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology
at York University, and Research Associate in Anthropology at
the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, Canada; David Pendergast,
now Vice President for Collections and Research at the Royal
Ontario Museum; Heidi Ritscher, Master's degree student in archaeology
from the University of Toronto; Lisa Hilborn, Ph.D. candidate
at the Institute of Archaeology in London, England; and Norbert
Stanchly, also a Ph.D. candidate at the Institute of Archaeology.
Input in Belize was provided by Lamanai caretakers, Nasario Ku
and Guadalupe Cunil, both of whom contributed valuable information
on tourist traffic patterns, and on the questions tourists ask
about the archaeolgoical material.
Nasario, who also serves as
a museum guide, suggested to us that visitors would benefit most
if we organized the pottery chronologically. He was also instrumental
in organizing material so that the pieces of greatest interest
to local schoolchildren are placed where children can view the
items most easily, and where the pieces they like best can be
easily spotted. The pottery is now organized on the shelves according
to the period it represents, and is placed according to children's
viewing specifications.
By July of 1998 we hope to
have a galvanized metal shelf unit built in which to store the
artifacts. Until glass cases are built, Nasario will continue
to display only selected non-ceramic artifacts on a daily basis.
Although we were unable to display them, the bulk of the non-ceramic
artifacts were cleaned and sorted and the wooden drawers in which
they were kept were strengthened for temporary use.
