Minanha is the name of a Maya city and petty kingdom, located on the north Vaca Plateau of west-central Belize. Minanha's earliest architecture was built between AD 100-250; but it reached its peak population during the Late and Terminal Classic periods, beginning AD 675-810.
More importantly, as the Classic sites of Caracol and Naranjo faded at the end of the Classic period, Minanha grew, and then faded itself, making Minanha an interesting place to study the Maya collapse. First investigated in the 1920s by the British Museum, the most recent investigations have been conducted by Gyles Iannone, Barbara Slim, Samuel V. Connell and Ryan Primrose, out of Trent University.
Sources
This glossary entry is part of the Guide to the Maya Civilization and the Dictionary of Archaeology.
Iannone, Gyles 2005 The Rise and Fall of an Ancient Maya Petty Royal Court. Latin American Antiquity 16(1):26-44.
