The Lamanai Archaeological Reserve and its wider Cultural Landscape has been named to the 2022 World Monuments Watch. It's a selection of 25 heritage sites of global significance, quote, "whose preservation is urgent and vital to the communities surrounding them."
The selection is made by the World Monuments Fund and the project was pushed locally by the community based Heritage Education Network Belize.
We asked a member of that group, Sylvia Batty "why Lamanai:"
Sylvia Batty, Director, Heritage Edu. Network Belize
"For different people. Lamanai might have different meanings, for some people is absolutely amazing - the largest mask in Belize at any site. For other people it's the height of the structure, the fact that it was beside the lagoon. For other persons it might be just the longevity of the site - longest occupy site in Belize hands down. For other people it would be the aspect of colonial resistance. The fact that there was a Spanish church that was built during that period of colonization that was burnt, that missionaries came back and rebuilt that church and it was burnt again. When we think of resistance, the people who said no to religion, no to European colonization, the people who had that last vestige of fight left in them. That can be seen very clearly at Lamanai and at the archaeological areas of the site that have been conserve and then of course the sugar mill. If you want talk about the way that European colonization impacted Belize in the later years, Lamanai is an amazing site where you can see that as well. And so when you put all of that together it really is this intricate story about the history of Belize and for us and the nomination we look at some of the aspects at the forefront of those narratives, they are there, they exist, but everybody likes to see the ancient Maya site and we what we are trying to say with this nomination, is that there are more to Lamanai than just the ancient Maya site core."
Jules Vasquez
"So what will this being listed in 2022 watch, what will it mean for the site?"
Sylvia Batty
"What it means for the site is that the nominators which is Heritage Education Network Belize, we get to develop a project."
Jules Vasquez
"There are different perspectives and history or the effluxion of time gives us greater perspective on what something actually was and what it may have meant. Explain to me how you all hope to flesh out these contested histories to give a more rounded look at Lamanai as more than just a temple, a site, a ruin?"
Sylvia Batty
"So we have one line of inquiry being used to evidence historical narratives and what Lamanai provides opportunity to be able to numerous kinds of inquiry. We are talking historical archaeology. So we are not only looking at Lamanai in terms of what one line of inquiry can tell you. We are looking at this holistically with different approaches, but we are also looking at how all the information that we have historically, archaeologically, from the archives can give you a well-rounded picture or at least a broader overview of the specific time period within our country. I keep referencing in terms of the sugar mills for example. You have very brief lines that talk about Indian or Chinese indentured servants who worked at the sugar mill, but that does not tell you the story of the people who were there, who were these people. how long did they live there, where did they come from, how many people, where did they end up."
The Monuments Watch is "announced every two years and includes heritage places nominated by individuals and community-based organizations across the globe."
