Minanha was once a small but strategic city-state located within the north Vaca Plateau of west central Belize.

It is situated almost equidistant between two of the most intensively investigated regions of the Maya lowlands, the upper Belize River region to the north, and the large site of Caracol to the south. In contrast to these two areas, the north Vaca Plateau is one of the least explored regions of the Maya lowlands. The site itself first came to the attention of archaeologists in 1922, when a chiclero (someone who taps the chicle tree for the resin used in chewing gum) stumbled upon the ruins. During his exploration the chiclero noted that one of the vaulted burial chambers had caved in, exposing human bone, and Maya ceramics.

These ceramics, including four complete vessels and a fragmentary one, were taken to the nearby town of Benque Viejo and left with Reverend Arthur Versaval. The ceramics, some of which were polychromes (painted in three or more colours) with Maya glyphs and calendric dates, intrigued Versaval enough that he launched an expedition to the site. The expedition took place on April 27, 1922. Versaval was accompanied by Dr. Windsor, the Medical Officer from nearby El Cayo (today’s San Ignacio), and the chiclero guide. Upon completion of their explorations they decided to name the site Mucnal Yok Tunich (roughly translated as “grave upon a stone”). Versaval’s findings were published in the Belize newspaper, The Clarion, on May 11, 1922.

We next hear of the site in various reports detailing the British Museum’s 1927 expedition to British Honduras (the country we now know as Belize). Having heard of the newly discovered Maya “city”, T.A. Joyce, Thomas Gann, J. E. S. Thompson, and J. Cooper Clark decided to mount an expedition to map and excavate the ruins. The numerous reports describing the British Museum expedition all discuss the difficulties encountered in reaching the site, as well as their amazement at its size. Over a period of a week this expedition was able to survey the main residential acropolis, and sketch small portions of the larger, public plaza. Although the limited excavations did not produce any remarkable finds, many of the excavators underscored the importance of the site with regard to trade, and sociopolitical interaction. Given the lack of a permanent water source, the British Museum expedition was forced to leave the site after a short, one week field season. It was this lack of water that prompted the renaming of the site to Minanha, which loosely translates as “place without water.”

Following the 1927 expedition there were sporadic references to the site in the literature, but no concerted effort to carry out research there. Minanha was originally recorded as an archaeological site by the government of British Honduras in 1967, although it now appears evident that the site was not visited at this time. In 1997, Trent University's Social Archaeology Research Program (SARP) was asked by the government of Belize to relocate the site, and assess the potential for carrying out an archaeological project there. The “70th Anniversary Minanha Expedition” set out in late July in order to relocate the site

Unfortunately, it soon became clear that the site was incorrectly marked on the government maps. Still, we were able to document the presence of numerous agricultural terraces and small residential clusters. In addition, we also spent some time exploring a newly discovered “minor center”, which we named Waybil (resting spot). In early May, 1998, we returned to Waybil, and continued our search for Minanha. Although our initial efforts were again unsuccessful, the following week two of our local assistants were able to relocate the site, some 1.9 km northeast of Waybil, and roughly 3.4 km from where it was situated on the government map. By the end of the 1998 field season we had made five trips to Minanha, and as a result we were able to develop a detailed understanding of site morphology. Our first significant observation was that the site was much larger than we had expected, given the 1927 map. Well over half of the site was not included in the initial mapping. These unmapped features included the main, public plazas (ritual and administrative foci), along with a number of more restricted access courtyards and patio groups. Our explorations eventually indicated that the site core consists of at least 169 structures.

Over the past thirteen years we have conducted detailed archaeological investigations in the epicentral court complex, site core, and adjacent periphery, in association with various agricultural terraces, water management features, and caves. The 2012 excavations will focus on the highly significant minor center of Waybil, located 1.9km south of the Minanha epicenter.