Page Three

"El Castillo" or Structure N10-43

George And Audrey DeLange

Lamanai is a rather old site and it has an interesting history. The evolution of the structure called N10-43 or "El Castillo" has an interesting history. This page features N10-43. Quoting from Dr. David Pendergast, who we met this day on the site. "The radiocarbon date associated with abnormally high concentrations of corn pollen in a feature called The Harbour, the Maya had established an agriculturally based settlement at Lamanai by or before 1500 B.C. The concentration of pollen suggests very strongly that the material represents waterborne ceremonial activity in what was, probably throughout the site's occupation, a small arm of the great lagoon on which Lamanai faces. This in turn suggests that the settlement may have been of moderate size by 1500 B.C. The earliest extensive evidence, including both residential and communal structures, falls around 500-700 B.C., and reveals Lamanai as a nucleated community with a somewhat diffuse Central Precinct. By this time or slightly later, residential settlement had embraced what was to become the heart of the Classic-period Central Precinct, the area of Structure N10-43. Near the end of the Preclassic, probably around 100 B.C., a major transformation of the site took place. Whereas the community's centre lay originally in the northernmost part of the site as we see it now, probably to be near the small area of raised fields north of the site's margin, its late Preclassic heart shifted southward. The shift embodied one of a series of truly major changes in Lamanai's appearance as well as its activity patterns. In a real "urban renewal" project, a group of small southern residential structures was supplanted by the massive initial stage of Structure N10-43, which served as the focal point for the first major plaza group to appear at the site." A considerable amount of restoration has been going on at the site. These photos of Structure N10-43 or "El Castillo were taken on May 19, 2003 at about 11:30 am. The photos were taken just two weeks before the rainy season had begun for 2003.