Santa Rita Corozal. Nine buildings were found that were constructed in the Postclassic period. Most of them were built over earlier buildings. The artifacts found in two structures, Structures 183 and 213, both contained figure artifacts. Structure 213 contained 25 figures that were placed in the ground prior to its construction. Nine of the figures were put into a ceramic urn with the remaining sixteen figurines surrounding it. Structure 183 contained 28 figurines that were placed into a ceramic urn in front of an altar. Excavation The modern town of Corozal was founded in 1848 by refugees from the Caste War in neighbouring Yucatán, and expanded steadily making it the major ethnicity in the country at the time. The ruins of Santa Rita became a target for building resources; the mounds of the site made convenient road fill and the stones were used for structure foundations. Because of this, the exact borders of the ancient Mayan city may never be known. In the early 1900s, amateur archaeologist Thomas Gann visited the site and discovered a Mixtec-influenced mural; these do not survive, but copies made by Gann do. No substantial research followed this until the Corozal Postclassic Project, led by Arlen F. Chase and Diane Zaino Chase, carried out a series of excavations between 1979 and 1985. Little structural evidence remains from the Postclassic era. The only existing structure at the ruins dates from the Classic era. The centre of this building has been described as a ceremonial chamber, with a complex series of interconnected passages leading to other rooms, including two burial chambers. One contained the remains an elderly woman surrounded with jewellery and pottery; the other was that of a warlord, evident from the artefacts found buried with him — a ceremonial flint representing leadership and a stingray spine most used in blood-letting rituals. Both burials date from around 500 CE. According to a Belize government guide at the site in December 2016, Thomas Gann was there primarily looking for gold. He used explosives to blow the top off of the pyramid, leaving the stunted version visible today. Artifacts found dating from the Postclassic era reveal that religious rituals like blood-letting, which were very important during the Classic era, continued to play an important role. The presence of items of Aztec origin, also dating from the Postclassic period, attest to the continuing trade importance of Santa Rita several hundred