Doctor Jaime Awe is a Belizean archaeologist with almost thirty years of experience in Maya archaeology. He has taught at universities in Canada, England, and the United States and is currently employed at the National Institute of Culture and History as Director of Archaeology. Doctor Awe is presently heading the restoration of Santa Rita Maya Ruin located in Santa Rita in the Corozal District where work commenced more than two months ago. Less than two weeks into the excavation, the Archaeological team discovered a burial that contained a Pelican Effigy Vessel and on Tuesday another remarkable discovery was made, a tomb was found at the foot of the ruin. Its contents prove that there are many secrets and treasures of the Maya left to be unearthed. In an interview with CTV3 News, Doctor Awe unraveled the mysteries that lie underneath the Santa Rita Maya Ruin.
Santa Rita Maya Ruin is an archaeological reserve located on the outskirts of Corozal Town. Historical evidence suggests that Santa Rita Maya Ruin was once the Capital of Chetumal. In 2012 the US Embassy granted thousands of dollars to the National Institute of Culture and History, NICH for the restoration of the archaeological site which will be converted into a Maya Wedding Garden in hopes of pinning Corozal as one of the most visited tourist destinations in the Caribbean and Latin America, on the world map.
Since excavations began two months ago, surprising discoveries have been made including a burial at the foot of the ruin. Evidence shows that the Maya who were living around the site around 1200- 1500 AD dug a hole through the foreground of the courtyard and buried people in the hole.
Inside the burial excavators found the remains of either one or two humans. Right next to the remains archaeologist found a Pelican Effigy Vessel and smash pottery.
But the principal find so far was unearthed on Tuesday when excavators found a tomb in the heart of the upper flat of the ruin. Hidden beneath the rubble are thousands of years of history.
Doctor Jaime Awe- Director NICH
“It looks like some kind of stone that looks like quartzite or gem, or it could be and I am guessing, it could be a figurine make from resin, copal resin, and if it is which am not 100% sure but what is interesting about that is that we know that in historic times they would make some figurines out of copal and use them as offerings.”
Because the site resembles the Mayan city of Chetumal (or Chactemal), Santa Rita is believed to be a vestige of this larger metropolis. Santa Rita most likely controlled trade routes to and from Chetumal and other Yucatan cities within present-day Mexico and Guatemala. Mayans inhabited Santa Rita from 2000 B.C. to approximately the 16th century A.D, when residents forced conquistador Alfonso Davila to leave. The city's population slowly dwindled thereafter and finally abandoned the area late in the century.
But left behind were many secrets of ancient Maya History which are slowly discovered as archaeologist make their way through the recently found shallow grave.
“Just yesterday we came across what is really an amazing tool found in the centre of this temple. We never expected to find anything like this because many, many, many, many years ago Tomas has excavated this mount and we also know that in the 1980’s we had two archaeologist worked here and also found a tomb here just behind me, and the classic tomb which had some fantastic artefact in there so we were just here to fixed up the architecture, we got fortunate and we came across this new tomb and as we went into the tomb you could that is has a place for two individuals inside the tomb and one of them was laid out in extended fashion very likely to be a very tall male for given the height of most, the Maya average height was around five feet three inches and then the second burial was at the north end of the tomb and it was like in feet opposition, lying down and as we are working right now we still don’t know what all the tombs have but there are two pot with it and there are hundreds beads, a lot of them shells, jade, we also saw some other shell objects, there appears to be at least two figurines.
"One of them I likely out of manatee bone or other kind of see mammal. The other one is particularly interesting because it appears to be made from resin from probably copal or pine resin that would have been heated so that it was in liquid form and then it was poured into a mould and you can actually see the mould line. In almost my thirty years in doing archaeology I have never found a figurine made out of resin and that I think might be the first one found in the country of Belize and so really, really unique. Another interesting feature that I have seen inside the tomb is that we have a lot of flex of suckled plastered that is painted, like this greenish blue colour and we know that it could have either been from the walls or painted at one time or we know that the Mayas made books out of barks and then they put plaster in it and then they wrote or painted on it unfortunately it is that and most of it has been destroyed and most of it is flex of plaster with the paint on it, certainly very exciting find and I feel very privilege to be part of it.”
The ancient Mayans were masters of time, keepers of good calendars and excellent painters. Prove of that theory are paintings found on the walls of the tomb. Doctor Awe is positive that as excavation continues more discoveries will be made and we’ll be right there to capture them. Excavation is expected to conclude next year.