The Excavation

This is our unit before we started excavating. It is 4 x 2 meters and is positioned at the far end of an Eastern Shrine or E-group at the site of Martinez. Our objective in this unit was to find the architectural features of the building  

This is the 1/4 inch screen we used to look for artifacts. By the end of excavation the pile was so high we had to move the screen over

This is what excavation looks like. The pink string is the most difficult and important part, it is the exact border of the unit, to half a millimeter

The Palapa was the center of the farm and where all the meals came from.

We spent every Wednesday cleaning and sorting every artifact we dug up

This is team Megatron (going from left to right starting from the top): Raviv Litman, Mads Jorgensen (the Dane), Cortney Proctor, Kendel Hills, Arianne Boudieu (honorary member) and Rachael Fulton

If you look closely you will see ducktape on the top of the tent. It was downhill from the day I set it up: the string in the cables broke, a donkey eat the roof, the right side teared inexplicably, and the mosquito net developed such large holes that I awoke to find half an ant colony in my book pile one night (likely not fire ants)

This is our unit half way through, you may see some changes in depth. You might also notice we uncovered three steps

On one special occasion I was sent to help survey, which involved a theodolite (pictured). We mapped out Terraces and Sacbes, or roads, by the elevated or lowered ground. Than we picked a datum point and measured the distance from the datum point to the features, to find their relative distance. From what I have heard, more of BC archaeology involves surveying, because there are less artifacts and more mounds.
The surveying was done at the site of Waybil, which was nice to working because it was inside the jungle, I never remembered to bring enough bug spray though

This is the project head, Gyles, being the first person in more than a thousand years to enter this man made cave. Unfortunately there was nothing in there as it was probably filled with perishable goods

This is how we got in and out of town every weekend. Right after this picture was taken the van overheated and we had to walk part way

Tent city is what we called the makeshift town we lived in. The photo was taken just as it was being put up

One of the most significant finds of the last year is this ploy-chrome (painted multiple colors) bowl depicting some sort of man-bird-panther with holy essence coming out of its butt. On the far side is a finger bowl, so called because they have always contained finger bones

This is a cave outside of Minanha, the larger site of the area which we think influenced the others.The hypothesis has been substantiated by the fact that both Martinez and Waybil had major construction phases around the time that Minanha was at the height of its power

This the site of Caracol which we visited the first weekend. It is one of the biggest sites in the area and played a major role in the politics of the region: In a cold war between Tikal and Calakmul Caracol at first allied with Tikal and Calakmul became weak, then later it allied with Calakmul and Tikal began to fall apart. As you can see this pyramid top would be a great place to give a speech

This is one of the clubs we often went to on the weekends. The father of one of our French Canadian staff (Max, a great guy who advised me on my Mexico trip) is seen here hustling some local talent.

This is the river boat we took to see Caracol.

No explanation needed

This is a reconstruction of a mural at Xunantunich, Another site near the Guatemala border. The seen associates the rulers with gods. Mayan Art was most commonly used as a propaganda tool to associate the ruler with gods and earlier rulers and proving that they  were essential to the success of the farmers and laborers.  It is somewhat like the Feudal system of Europe but with added blood sacrifices  

This is Kevin, me and Tyler, going from left to right. We were enjoying a spectacular pyramid top view

This is 100 pounds of Monosodium Glutamate, or MSG. There were four of these at this particular Chinese restaurant but generally the lax regulation of food and the local production made for some of the cheapest and delicious chow main and fried rice I have ever had







This is a smaller site right in the town of San Ignacio (where we went on the weekends) called Cahal Pech. Right before we left the American group excavating it found a royal tomb that even had some bone rings with hieroglyphs marking ownership, something never seen before in the Maya world