UNDER THE LORDLY MONARCHS OF THE NORTH: THE EPIGRAPHY OF NORTHERN BELIZE

Abstract

AbstractThe hieroglyphic texts of northern Belize are remarkable for their longevity, spanning from the Late Preclassic to the Late Postclassic (ca. 100 b.c –a.d. 1544). Together, these texts constitute an invaluable body of information that has thus far been generally overlooked and has not been integrated into larger syntheses of the region. This paper provides a diachronic review of the glyphic texts of northern Belize and contrasts them to the wider historical processes of the eastern Maya lowlands. A definition of the northern Belizean region precedes an outline of the corpora of monuments, as well as the textual sources on portable objects. This provides an historical review of northern Belize from the incipience of royalty to the eve of the Spanish Conquest.