Current Research

Tz'unun, Belize - Maya Research Program

Tz'unun (Hummingbird)

Tz'unun is located in the far northwest corner of Orange Walk District, Belize. In terms of physiographic regions, Tz’unun is located within the Azucar Lowlands, and sits on a prominence along the eastern margin of the Bajo Alacranes (seasonal wetland).I discovered the site in 2016, along with Justin Telepak (Maya Research Program), Fidel Cruz, and Pete Magana of San Felipe. The site gets its name - Yukateko Mayan for hummingbird - from the white-bellied emerald and green-breasted mango hummingbirds that kept us company on a daily basis. Research activities in 2017 consisted entirely of reconnaissance and mapping, and excavations began in 2018. As such, Tz’unun’s history and relation to its neighbors are poorly understood. Current data indicate occupation spanning at the Middle Preclassic (ca. 400 BC) through Terminal Classic (ca. AD 850) periods.

The site core is comprised of two main groups, the eastern acropolis and the western group, connected by a 260m long causeway. Some notable features of the site include a large Cenote variant E Group, a ballcourt, and two large reservoirs. Two stelae in poor states of preservation are located in the plaza of the E Group. An inscribed panel recovered from the site bears the Kaan emblem glyph accompanied by a date that David Stuart places in AD 639 (Hanratty et al. 2016; Stuart 2017). Stela 1 from Los Alacranes, located on the opposite side of the bajo, commemorates the enthronement of a local ruler under the auspices of Calakmul’s Sky Witness in AD 561. Taken together, these inscriptions suggest the Tz’unun and the Bajo Alacranes were under the influence of the Kaan dynasty during the Late Classic, perhaps even representing a frontier zone.

As of the summer of 2019, 84 structures have been mapped at the site. Excavations have focused on the Western Group, including the ballcourt, a series of low range structures located along the edge of the large basal platform, and the E group. Additional test pits have been excavated in the Acropolis and far west reservoir.

Field Reports

Kwoka, Joshua J. 2018 Survey and Mapping of Tz’unun. In The 25th Annual Report of the Blue Creek Archaeological Project, edited by C. Colleen Hanratty and Thomas H. Guderjan, pp. 53-64. Report submitted to the Institute of Archaeology, National Institute of Culture and History, Belmopan, Belize. .pdf

Kwoka, Joshua J., and Justin Telepak. 2017. Maya Research Program Regional Reconnaissance: 2016. .pdf

References and Additional Resources

Hanratty, Colleen, Bruce Love, Stanley Guenter and Tom Guderjan. 2016. First Evidence of the Ka’an Dynasty in Northern Belize. Mexicon XXXVIII(6):142.

Stuart, David. 2017. An Intriguing Date on the Tz'unun Panel.  https://decipherment.wordpress.com/2017/01/20/an-intriguing-date-on-the-tzunun-panel/