Maya News Updates 2009, No. 38: Chichen Itza, Yucatan - New Research at the Casa Colorada
On Tuesday, November 3, 2009, the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia posted a short report on the recent excavations at the Casa Colorada in Chichen Itza, Yucatan, Mexico. Inside this building a hieroglyphic text can be found that opens with a date in A.D. 869. Several findings indicate that construction of the building and the building group to which it belongs may have started at circa A.D. 800 (edited by MNU):
Revelaciones de jeroglíficos mayas - En el llamado Conjunto Casa Colorada, en la zona arqueológica de Chichén Itzá, Yucatán, un grupo de especialistas del Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (INAH-Conaculta) realizan excavaciones para corroborar el origen de la antigua ciudad maya, a partir de una inscripción jeroglífica que hace alusión al año 869 d. C., dicha fecha podría precisar el periodo de ocupación previa al auge de este sitio que ocurrió entre 1000 y 1100 d. C.
Dicha inscripción consta de una tira estilizada con glifos que se ubica en el arranque de la bóveda del edificio Casa Colorada, y que guarda un buen estado de conservación. De manera preliminar, los arqueólogos han logrado identificar datos relativos a algunos personajes mayas importantes, como gobernantes de Chichén Itzá y Ek Balam, además de la fecha de construcción del propio templo. “El dato importante en la inscripción es una fecha, un dato que habla del año 869 de nuestra era, la cual no únicamente nos ofrece un indicio sobre la posible construcción del conjunto sino que corroboraría una secuencia completa de la ocupación más antigua del sitio, hacia finales del periodo Clásico Tardío (entre 800 y el 850 d. C.)”, informó el arqueólogo José Francisco Osorio León.
El especialista del INAH, responsable del proyecto denominado Investigación y restauración integral del conjunto Casa Colorada, añadió que este conjunto arquitectónico se conforma de cuatro edificios distribuidos alrededor de una plataforma central, donde también se localizó una estela que de igual forma cuenta con inscripciones jeroglíficas. “Pensamos que justo en el medio de la plataforma se encontraba dispuesta dicha estela —la única localizada hasta ahora en Chichén Itzá— de aproximadamente 2.30 metros de altura. Se encontró totalmente fragmentada y suponemos que fue despedazada durante algún encuentro bélico.
“Esta estela será también crucial en la investigación del sitio, ya que cuenta con una serie de jeroglíficos que desafortunadamente aún no se identifican plenamente”, abundó Osorio León, al referir que con el desciframiento de ambos textos glíficos y los análisis del material cerámico hallado hasta el momento se podría definir la construcción del conjunto entre los años 800 y el 850 d. C. De corroborarse estas fechas, junto con las investigaciones del Conjunto Serie Inicial, comentó, se tendría suficiente evidencia arquitectónica para precisar uno de los primeros periodos de ocupación maya en la antigua ciudad maya, previo al florecimiento de Chichén Itzá como una gran urbe, además de complementar el panorama cronológico.
Con el objetivo de contar con más elementos, recientemente se iniciaron nuevos trabajos de excavación en diversas estructuras que conforman el Conjunto Casa Colorada, como la plataforma central —cuyo uso fue probablemente de tipo cívico-ceremonial—, una columnata y el edificio denominado Casa del Venado, en cuya parte superior se conserva parte de un grupo de cuartos abovedados.
Osorio León detalló que paralelamente a las excavaciones se realizan los trabajos de restauración de un juego de pelota (el décimo de todo el sitio arqueológico) y del edificio que da nombre al conjunto, la Casa Colorada, que es un basamento tipo piramidal cuya apelativo le fue asignado en las primeras exploraciones en los años 60, cuando aún existían restos de estuco en tonalidades rojizas. “Es la estructura principal del conjunto, cuenta con alrededor de 15 metros de altura y con una escalinata principal. La construcción esta coronada con una bóveda de tres accesos. En su fachada principal se distingue crestería con algunos dioses narigudos y mascarones decorativos asociados a Chaac, dios maya de la lluvia, típicos de la Región Puuc”.
“El estado de conservación es excelente, y la importancia de nuestra investigación radica en la posibilidad de completar un panorama cronológico de ocupación completa del sitio de Chichén Itzá”, comentó el especialista quien desarrolla esta investigación conjuntamente con los arqueólogos Francisco Pérez Ruiz, Mariza Carrillo, Dulce Góngora y Rocío González.
Casa Colorada se ubica entre dos grupos arquitectónicos importantes de Chichén Itzá, el llamado del Osario y el Monjas, por lo que la habilitación de este conjunto servirá como enlace en para el circuito de recorrido que se espera abrir en un futuro a los visitantes, adelantó Osorio León.
Sobre los materiales arqueológicos encontrados hasta el momento y que están en proceso de análisis y registro, concluyó, principalmente son fragmentos de cerámica —no se han encontrado piezas completas— del llamado tipo cehpech, que se distingue del que predomina en el sitio maya, por haber sido elaborada con insumos foráneos, además de sus tonalidades crema y roja. (source INAH)

Maya News Updates 2009, No. 37: Leiden, Netherlands - Exhibition "Maya 2012" Opened to the Public
On October 7, 2009, the exhibition "Maya 2012, het mysterie van een eeuwenoud volk" (Maya 2012, the mystery of a centuries old people) at the Museum of Ethnology in Leiden, the Netherlands, was presented to an invited audience and the press. On October 9, 2009, the exhibition was opened to the general public.
The exhibition is centered around the theme of the well-known date 13.0.0.0.0, 4 Ajaaw 3 Uniiw, a date which through the correlation constant 584,283 can be transposed to the Christian (Gregorian) date December 21, 2012. And that date has become of importance in recent years, in which many a "doomsday" scenario has been described. Not so at this exhibition, which targets a young audience of 8 to 15 years, accompanied by their elder brothers and sisters, their parents, and grand parents. This exhibition, simply said, invites the family.
On a relatively small surface the exhibition shows Precolumbian and present-day objects from the Maya area, all part of the museum collection. The exhibition has a thematic approach and through different themes it introduces the visitors to different aspects of Maya life and culture, for instance Life and Death, Kingship, and the Ballgame. The exhibition is interactive and especially for this exhibition a Dutch software company has developed a "Maya ballgame" application in which the participants (one to one) will wear a protective belt and an arm protector (like the ancient Maya ballplayers). The ballcourt setting ... the Great Ballcourt at Chichen Itza.
Touch screen monitors are placed strategically throughout the exhibition, providing more in-depth information on the different subjects. The Precolumbian Maya objects are exhibited in special show cases and all can be walked around to see the object in full detail. Each show case carries a number through which the explanatory text can be found in the accompanying large, fold-out flyer. Several glyphic texts of some of the Maya vases have been drawn for this occasion and have been integrated into the flyer (the drawings are mine, as I have worked as a consultant during the preparations of this exhibition).
Parts of the exhibition that particularly draw the attention are the Maya sky at night in which the ancient "Maya constellations" are portrayed through a fluid computer animated presentation, the close to life-size reconstruction of the inside of Structure 1, Room 2, at Bonampak (with the reconstructed mural paintings by Heather Hurst beautifully printed on canvas), the position of La Pasadita, Lintel 2, accompanied by an animated and colored wall projection and auditory explanation explaining the contents of both iconography and written text, and the show case presenting the famous Leiden Plate. This corner of the exhibit connects with a basic explanation of the Maya calendar and calculus. The the king's portrait on Leiden Plaque has been painted on the back wall, accompanied by a "sectioned and colored copy". Each section (parts of the headdress, wristlets, anklets, belt, etc.) can be lifted from the king's portrait and the back provides the explanatory text what part of the king's costume it is.
The final part of the exhibition shows the one Classic Maya text (through an enlarged black-and-white drawing) that records the date 13.0.0.0.0, 4 Ajaaw 3 Uniiw in 2012 (with as caveat, if our current understanding of the correlation between the two calendars is correct of course). And here I will add more detail and my personal opinion on the text (my opinion and knowledge is based on personal research on Maya culture in general and Maya epigraphy in particular for many years as well as conversations and email exchanges with many Mayanists on the subject of this text as well as related subjects; at the 2005 European Maya Conference in Geneva, Switserland, I hosted a workshop on the subject). This text is the final part of a longer inscription (known as Monument 6, possibly a T-shaped wall panel) from the site of Tortuguero, located in the Mexican state of Tabasco. During its apogee in the Late Classic, the time period in which this text was produced (the main text records historical dates and events from A.D. 612 to A.D. 667; the side panel records a date in A.D. 510, after which a Distance Number follows to connect the event to A.D. 2012), the site had a strong connection with the site of Palenque (both royal houses employ the same paramount title), located in the Mexican state of Chiapas. To me this is of great importance when we consider the putative 2012 date at Tortuguero. Several texts at Palenque, written during the reigns of various kings, refer to another 13.0.0.0.0 date, the one on 4 Ajaaw 8 Oohl, or August 11, 3114 B.C. (same correlation, 584,283; Gregorian). The Maya scribes, as instructed by their royal patrons, recorded the mythical events before, on, and after that very early date. From these events, and the mythological participants in these events, the Palenque kings derived their royal legitimacy. However, these events concerning 4 Ajaaw 8 Oohl are only covered in short, summary statements, the precise meaning of some of these events still eludes us or are hieroglyphically transparent (we can decipher all glyphic parts) but in meaning it remains opaque (the resulting word has many meanings which may be applicable, or the word does not exist anymore). These particular texts, written and inscribed under the patronage of Palenque kings K'inich Kan Balam and K'inich Ahkuul Mo' Naahb' III, most intriguingly open with these events relative to 13.0.0.0.0, 4 Ajaaw 8 Oohl, in 3114 B.C.
The Tortuguero monument seems to do something comparable. The final part on the 2012 (actually 13.0.0.0.0) date is very short, just 8 glyph blocks describe the date and the events that are related to this date. The much longer preceeding text (most probably when the monument was in one piece and T-shaped) covers over 175 glyph blocks detailing important events in the life of Tortuguero kings. Thus less than 10% of the text tells us, in the present-day, about 13.0.0.0.0, 4 Ajaaw 3 K'ank'in in 2012. If it was a wall panel, it would have been placed in a private setting and the contents of the text was not meant for eyes at all ... More importantly, the 13.0.0.0.0, 4 Ajaaw 3 Uniiw, in 2012, date and events are recorded AT THE END of the text.

Where at Palenque the texts OPEN with events before, on, or just after 13.0.0.0.0, 4 Ajaaw 8 Oohl in 3114 B.C., the text at Tortuguero CLOSES with the events on 13.0.0.0.0, 4 Ajaaw 3 K'ank'in in 2012. The integration of these very important dates, calendrically but also mythologically, seems to be some kind of literary device. "From the olden times" (Palenque) to the "new times" (Tortuguero); these dates thus frame HISTORICAL events (the dates and events "in the middle") and the kings that employ these dates, and record the associated events and the names of the mythological participants, derive their legitimacy from them.
So, what does that final event, in 2012, recorded at Tortuguero actually tell us? First of all, and very importantly, this part of the text suffers from erosion and breakage. This breakage even has resulted in the fact that parts of this text are housed at different locations in the world; part in a museum in Villahermosa, Mexico (where it is on exhibit), while another part resides in the USA in a private collection (luckily, there are photos ... and no, I have not seen the fragment). But .... the final part of the text tells us that 13 calendrical periods named pik (aka. bak'tun) are completed on the date 4 Ajaaw 3 Uniiw. On this date something will happen ('u-to-ma, for utoom), somewhere ... but the name of the possible location is eroded (and epigraphers do not even agree if indeed this is the name of a location or that it spells something completely different). The text continues with what seems to be a spelling ye-ma, but which for the same calligraphic reasons (long inner lines and rotation of the sign; and considering erosion) may read ye-he (possibly a former je sign; at the end of the Classic period /j/ and /h/ merged). Both lead to viable readings, ye-ma to yemal "(is the) descent of" and ye-he to yehet/yeht perhaps meaning "together with" (research on the meaning of -eht continues, as does research on the root em-). What follows this statement is the name of a god, Balun Yokte'; in other texts his name is recorded in full as Balun Yokte' K'uh, in which k'uh means "god" (and we now can enter a debate if the "god-concept" among the first Spanish frairs, who composed the earliest dictionaries in the 16th century, is the same as the "god-concept" among the Maya, or Mesoamerica for that matter).

Epigraphic research has shown that Balun Yokte' K'uh is a god (...) who is connected to war and the transition of time periods. One text at Palenque even connects this god to an important mythological (read "not historical", although now we can enter yet another debate) event some 900,000 years in the past. The final glyph block opens with the sign ta, probably spelling the preposition ta "in, for, with," but what follows, the very last glyphic signs, nearly is eroded beyond recognition. Only a few inner lines remain, even the outher cartouches are incomplete.
The "prophecy" of 2012, that one Classic Maya text on the date 13.0.0.0.0, 4 Ajaaw 3 Uniiw, is incomplete. We have just sniblets on this date and its associated events. Not even story can be recorded in 8 glyph blocks, maybe just the main words of a much longer headline that recalls the story of what will happen on that date. Just as we have only fragmentary (but still more than ...) information on that other date in Maya time reckoning, 13.0.0.0.0, 4 Ajaaw 8 Oohl, in 3114 B.C.
So, what happens after? Well, it all continues. Even the Maya told us. For instance, at Palenque king K'inich Janaahb Pakal records a date into the future and well after 2012. And with excavations going on in the Maya area most probably the next discovery brings us a new text and yet another pespective on these events described above, or any other event for that matter. We are learning, and we keep learning. As 13.0.0.0.0, 4 Ajaaw 3 Uniiw, is not the end of the Maya calendar or Maya culture or the world as we know it, let this date and its fascinating circumstances not be the end of our learning, understanding, ansd appreciation.

Now go see this exhibition! ;) And there is not only an exhibition, it is accompanied by a website and a television series (an adventure-detective story, televized in 12 episodes by the AVRO). But the exhibition is in Dutch ... well, yes, and no. All important explanatory texts are in English as well.
Learning about 2012 is one in this exhibit, getting to know the Museum of Ethnology's Maya collection is two, and experiencing this exhibit and its interactive showcasing is three. Three, yet another magic number. But that is a different story ...
Below (the) Dutch readers/readers of Dutch can find the review of the exhibit as was published today, October 13, 2009, in the Dutch daily newspaper De Telegraaf.

Maya News Updates 2009, No. 36: Yucatan, Mexico - Four Archaeological Sites To Receive Funding from WMF
On Friday, October 9, 2009, the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia informed that four Maya archaeological sites (Chichén Itzá, Kabáh, Aké, and Xocnaceh) are to receive funding from the World Monument Foundation (WMF). The WMF has funded important archaeological research and conservation projects in the Maya area in previous years (see Maya News Updates 2007, Nos. 52 & 53, and 2008, No. 41, on Kabáh). Among the four sites, Chichén Itzá and Kabáh are probably best known among the general public; Aké is much less known (located 30 km to the east of Merida; known for its long occupancy, an iconic gallery building, and a sakbe' or raised causeway connecting the site to Izamal), while the site of Xocnaceh (probably founded circa 500 B.C. and it has one of the largest surviving structures from the Preclassic period in Mesoamerica) is only known since recent years (see Maya News Updates 2009, No. 7) (edited by MNU):
Sitios mayas reciben apoyo - Cuatro sitios arqueológicos del área maya y la Zona Arqueológica de Chalcatzingo, en Morelos, recibirán apoyos económicos del World Monuments Fund (WMF) —una de las organizaciones internacionales más importantes en el ámbito de la filantropía cultural—, que serán destinados para la conservación de edificaciones prehispánicas.
Lo anterior deriva del trabajo conjunto que desde varios años realizan el Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (INAH-Conaculta) y el WMF, para la búsqueda de estrategias que permitan la atención del patrimonio cultural edificado de México, y que para este año se traduce en los proyectos relativos a la restauración de sitios de las culturas maya y olmeca.
Norma Barbacci, directora de Programas para América Latina, España y Portugal del WMF, informó que en 2008 México presentó la propuesta para rescatar la Zona Arqueológica de Chalcatzingo, ubicada en el estado de Morelos, y recientemente fue posible hallar un patrocinador.
“Ya le encontramos un donante interesado en la cultura olmeca, toda vez que el sitio tiene elementos de dicha civilización, quien ofrece un fondo no muy grande pero que permitirá la atención del sitio”. La entrega de los fondos se encuentra en proceso, y posiblemente se ocupe para la elaboración de las techumbres que protegerán elementos arqueológicos de alta fragilidad, entre los que se encuentran los petrograbados olmecas. “En el caso de Chalcatzingo, la reciente compra, por parte del INAH, de terrenos donde está asentado el sitio, ha significado un gran avance que permitirá su recuperación y protección, y que vino a facilitar nuestra tarea”, indicó.
Otros proyectos mexicanos en curso son los de sitios ubicados en el área maya de Yucatán, cuyos trabajos serán financiados por el WMF, en la parte de conservación, y por Fomento Cultural Banamex y el Gobierno de Estado, en lo concerniente a la investigación. Incluye Chichén Itzá, Kabáh, Aké y Xocnaceh.
Lo anterior fue dado a conocer por la representante del Fondo, durante su reciente participación en el Primer Taller sobre lineamientos para la implementación de cubiertas arquitectónicas en contextos arqueológicos, desarrollado por el INAH en Palenque, Chiapas, para dar solución a problemáticas en torno de techumbres que protejan el patrimonio en sitios arqueológicos, presente a nivel mundial.
Ahí, Barbacci destacó que “México es un país privilegiado en América Latina, porque al contar con el INAH entre sus instancias de cultura, el gobierno ha dotado de fuerza a un organismo especializado para la atención del patrimonio, el cual además tiene la capacidad técnica para atender los sitios arqueológicos”.
Reiteró que mediante el trabajo coordinado entre el INAH y el WMF, desde hace ya algunos años se han estado desarrollando diversos proyectos de restauración y conservación, como es el caso de la Zona Arqueológica de Yaxchilán, en Chiapas, donde en meses próximos se dará continuidad a tareas anteriores de restauración, con un fondo que está pendiente. “También hay un proyecto en el norte de México, para el rescate de sitios del estado de Chihuahua, y que están en proceso de definición, y que podrían ser Cuarenta Casa o Huápoca”, anunció.
Asimismo, abundó que recientemente en Coixtlahuaca, en Oaxaca, finalizaron los trabajos de restauración del retablo y del ex convento; mientras que en el conjunto conventual franciscano de San Juan Bautista, en Cuauhtinchán, Puebla, se llevan a cabo labores en la materia, a través de una partida que otorgó la Sociedad de Amigos de Cuauhtinchán. Barbacci recordó que cada dos años el WMF integra una lista de sitios del orbe que necesitan atención en materia de conservación, a partir de las propuestas que presentan los propios organismos gubernamentales encargados su conservación en cada nación.
“World Monuments Fund no interviene un sitio sino es invitado por las autoridades respectivas, tiene que haber una aproximación, una solicitud por parte de quienes lo estudian y conservan, y dentro de las instancias que continuamente realizan un trabajo de concertación para obtener recursos que le permitan atender su patrimonio, como es el caso del INAH en México.
“A partir de una revisión puntual de estas propuestas, especialistas invitados por el WMF seleccionan aquellos proyectos con posibilidad de llevarse a cabo con buenos resultados, y por la importancia del sitio para la cultura universal”, explicó. En el momento en que un sitio es incluido en la lista, dijo Barbacci, éste se vuelve una prioridad para el WMF, e iniciamos una campaña internacional en la cual les buscamos financiamientos con filántropos.
A decir de Barbacci, buscar apoyos financieros para programas culturales no es fácil, porque los patrocinadores por lo regular prefieren atender proyectos relacionados con problemáticas de carácter vital como pueden ser los de salud, nutrición, educación e incluso de rescate ecológico. (source INAH)

Maya News Updates 2009, No. 35: New Publication - "Tesoros Mayas: Las sociedades prehispanicas de la cuenca del rio Chixoy"
Recently, the Centro Histórico y Educativo "Riij Ib’ooy" published a very important guide and catalog on the results of the many years of excavations that have taken place in the Rio Chixoy area. This full color booklet (15x20cm, 88 pages, 85 catalog entries) illustrates and discusses buildings and objects excavated at places like Los Encuentros, Cricruz, and El Jocote. The guide is edited by Walter Burgos, introduced by Alain Ichon, and contains explanatory texts by Walter Burgos (based on the work by Alain Ichon). There are three short contributions written by Anaite Galeotti, Ruud van Akkeren, and Alain Breton. The booklet has been published in an edition of 1000 copies. Its publication has been made possible through the colloboration of the Ministerio de Cultura y Deportes, the Cooperacion Republica de Guatemala - Republica Federal de Alemania, and the Museo Nacional de Arqueologia e Etnologia in conjunction with the Centro Histórico y Educativo "Riij Ib’ooy", Museo Comunitario Rabinal Achi', and the Deutscher Entwicklungsdienst. If you are not able to find a print copy, the website of the Centro Histórico y Educativo "Riij Ib’ooy" provides a link to the PDF of the booklet (to be found further down). Below follow my captures of the front and back cover, the table of contents, the map of the area, and the stuccoed vase from Los Encuentros, which is also illustrated on the front cover:

For more information on this publication, a link to the downloadable PDF, as well as other publications (all available online), just click here for the website of the Centro Histórico y Educativo "Riij Ib’ooy".

Maya News Updates 2009, No. 34: Kiuic, Yucatan - News from the Labna-Kiuic Regional Archaeological Project
Yesterday, Saturday September 19, 2009, the online version of the daily American newspaper USA Today posted a short update on the Labna-Kiuic Regional Archaeological Project (edited by MNU):

Mysterious ruins may help explain Mayan collapse - Ringing two abandoned pyramids are nine palaces "frozen in time" that may help unravel the mystery of the ancient Maya, reports an archaeological team. Hidden in the hilly jungle, the ancient site of Kiuic was one of dozens of ancient Maya centers abandoned in the Puuc region of Mexico's Yucatan about 10 centuries ago. The latest discoveries from the site may capture the moment of departure.
"The people just walked away and left everything in place," says archaeologist George Bey of Millsaps College in Jackson Miss., co-director of the Labna-Kiuic Regional Archaeological Project. "Until now, we had little evidence from the actual moment of abandonment, it's a frozen moment in time."
The ancient, or "classic" Maya were part of a Central American civilization best known for stepped pyramids, beautiful carvings and murals and the widespread abandonment of cities around 900 A.D. in southern Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, and El Salvador. They headed for the northern Yucatan, where Spanish conquistadors met their descendants in the 1500s (6 million modern Maya still live in Central America today).
Past work by the team, led by Bey and Tomas Gallareta of Mexico's National Institute of Archaeology and History, shows the Maya had inhabited the Puuc region since 500 B.C. So why they headed for the coast with their brethren is just part of the mystery of the Maya collapse.
New clues may come from Kiuic, where the archaeologists explored two pyramids and, most intriguingly, plantation palaces on the ridges ringing the center. Of particular interst: a hilltop complex nicknamed "Stairway to Heaven" by Gallareta (that's "Escalera al Cielo" for Spanish-speaking Led Zeppelin fans) because of a long staircase leading from Kiuic to a central plaza nearly a mile away.
Both the pyramids and the palaces look like latter-day additions to Kiuic, built in the 9th century, just as Maya centers farther south were being abandoned. "The influx of wealth (at Kiuic) may spring from immigration," Bey says, as Maya headed north. One pyramid was built atop what was originally a palace, allowing the rulers of Kiuic to simultaneously celebrate their forebears and move to fancier digs in the hills.
When the team started exploring the hilltop palaces, five vaulted homes to the south of the hilltop plaza and four to the north, the archaeologists found tools, stone knives and axes, corn-grinder stones called metates and pots still sitting in place. "It was completely unexpected," Bey says. "It looks like they just turned the metates on their sides and left things waiting for them to come back."
"Their finds look very interesting and promising," says archaeologist Takeshi Inomata of the University of Arizona, who is not part of the project. "If it indeed represents rapid abandonment, it provides important implications about the social circumstance at that time and promises detailed data on the way people lived."
Inomata is part of a team exploring Aguateca, an abandoned Maya center in Guatemala renowned for its preservation. "I should add that the identification of rapid abandonment is not easy. There are other types of deposits — particularly ritual deposits — that result in very similar kinds of artifact assemblages," Inomata cautions, by email.
Bey and colleagues presented some of their findings earlier this year at the Society for American Archaeology meeting in Atlanta. The team hopes to publish its results and dig further at Kiuic to prove their finding of rapid abandonment there. "I think you could compare it to Pompeii, where people locked their doors and fled, taking some things but leaving others," Bey says.
So far, what drove people to leave the site remains a mystery, as it is for the rest of the ancient Maya. The only sign of warfare is a collection of spear points found in the central plaza of Kiuic. There are signs that construction halted there — a stucco-floored plaza sits half-complete, for example. "Drought seems more likely, that would halt construction," Bey says.
Having climbed the "Stairway to Heaven" a few times, Bey can answer one minor mystery, however. Why weren't the palace sites looted as so many other Maya sites have been? "The hills are a good climb," he says. "People just didn't bother to climb the hills to search the rooms." (written by Dan Vergano; source USA Today)

MNU Photo Special No. 2: Chichen Itza, August 2009

In Maya News Updates 2009, No. 25 & 26 I reported on the recent excavations carried out by INAH archaeologists at the Great Plaza of Chichen Itza, Yucatan, Mexico. These excavations revealed structures predating the emblematic structures at the Great Plaza (such as the Temple of the Warriors, The Colonnade, The Castillo, and the Great Ballcourt). On August 14, 2009, Guido Krempel took the following three photographs, showing the location of the earlier structures as well as providing a view of the extension of the INAH excavations on the east side of the Castillo:

I thank Guido for his kind permission to post these three photographs at Maya News Updates.

Maya News Updates 2009, No. 33: El Mirador, Peten, Guatemala - Video on the Recent Excavations at El Mirador

Below I have posted three screenshots from a video that Reuters released on the recent excavations at El Mirador, reported on in Maya News Updates 2009, No. 32:

The video itself can be found at this link. As Michael Ruggeri noted on Aztlan, this video may rotate and thus change URL. Currently (September 16) it is part of a cycle of several news reports posted in September 2009.

Maya News Updates 2009, No. 32: El Mirador, Peten, Guatemala - Last Maya Stand of Pyramidal Summit?

On Thursday September 3, 2009 (I have been extremely busy with too many things these last two weeks ...), the internatuional news service Reuters posted a press release on the site of El Mirad, Peten, Guatemala. The site is home to the largest pyramidal structure in the Maya area (the El Dante structure), but the release focusses on the discovery of some 200 obsidian tips, some having blood traces, as well as bone fragments and smashed pottery on the summit of the El Tigre structure. Possibly sokind of massacre had taken place here, possibly instigated by a Teotihuacan invasion force, the victims of which were local Maya driven to the summit of the structure. DNA tests are currently being undertaken of the blood traces. The obsidian was sourced in central Mexico (as the commentary to a Reuters video on the same subject states). Was this a last stand? Was the the end of the El Mirador site? (edited by MNU):

Guatemala Mayan city may have ended in pyramid battle - One of Guatemala's greatest ancient Mayan cities may have died out in a bloody battle atop a huge pyramid between a royal family and invaders from hundreds of miles away, archeologists say.
Researchers are carrying out DNA tests on blood samples from hundreds of spear tips and arrowheads dug up with bone fragments and smashed pottery at the summit of the El Tigre pyramid in the Mayan city of El Mirador, buried beneath jungle vegetation 5 miles (8 km) from Guatemala's border with Mexico.
Many of the excavated blades are made of obsidian which the archeologists have traced to a source hundreds of miles away in the Mexican highlands. They believe the spears belonged to warriors from Teotihuacan, an ancient civilization near Mexico City and an ally of Tikal, which was an enemy city of El Mirador. "We've found over 200 of the obsidian tips alone, as well as flint ones, indicating there was a tremendous battle," said excavation leader Richard Hansen, a senior scientist in Idaho State University's anthropology department who is pushing the pyramid battle theory.
"It looks like this was the final point of defense for a small group of inhabitants," told Reuters. El Mirador is one of the biggest ancient cities in the Western Hemisphere and is thought to have been home to between 100,000 and 200,000 people at its height. Historians believe it was built up from around 850 BC and flourished for hundreds of years before it was mysteriously abandoned in 150 AD.
Many archeologists think the size and elaborate stucco decoration of the buildings in the city are to blame as the inhabitants used up stone, trees and lime plaster in their construction until their resources were entirely depleted. Hansen's team believes a group of some 200 people, thought to be the last remnants of the royal family, stayed in the ruined metropolis until they were attacked by warriors from Teotihuacan.
They believe the invaders were allies of Tikal, around 37 miles (60 km) to the southeast, which resented being dwarfed by the enormous pyramids of El Mirador and was eager to make sure the enemy never recovered. They think Teotihuacan warriors trapped the survivors in a siege before a bloody battle that sealed the city's fate.
Hansen's archeologists found graffiti they believe was left by Teotihuacan fighters who smashed up carved Maya monoliths and left crudely etched skull drawings, known as Tlalocs, on the rock as proof of their victory. "The Tlaloc is the war god image of the highland Mexicans (and we found it) crudely pecked on these monuments, suggesting that perhaps a hostile event had taken place here," Hansen said.
The team sent excavated spear tips to a lab in Missouri where scientists are trying to extract blood samples for DNA tests. They expect to find one DNA type in blood on the obsidian objects and a different type on the Maya-made flint fragments, suggesting a battle between two racial groups.
El Mirador is home to one of the world's biggest pyramids by volume, La Danta, named after the tapirs that roam the dense jungle that hid the pre-Columbian treasures for decades until the site was discovered in the early 20th century. American archeologists who made an aerial survey of the El Mirador Basin in Guatemala's northern Peten region in the 1930s mistook the tree- and vegetation-covered pyramid for a volcano.
Hansen has worked with teams digging at El Mirador for some 30 years. The site is at risk from looters, poachers and loggers trying to make a living out of the forest, as well as drug traffickers seeking to move cocaine into Mexico. Last year, President Alvaro Colom announced the creation of a huge park in the Peten region to encompass both El Mirador and the already excavated Tikal, a popular tourist site.
The park will include a silent propane-powered train to lug tourists to the El Mirador ruins, currently only accessible by helicopter or a two-day hike through the jungle (written by Sarah Grainger; editing by Catherine Bremer and Kieran Murray; source Reuters at Vision.org).

Addendum: If anybody has an image of the "Tlaloc" graffiti, or the skulls, available and which can be posted here, these will be greatly appreciated.

Maya News Updates 2009, No. 31: Yucatan, Mexico - 1,400 Year Old Maya Altar Discovered During Road Reconstruction
During reconstruction work at the road that communicates between the capital city of Yucatan, Merida, and Campeche a Prehispanic altar was found along the Tanil-Xtepem section. The altar is supposedly at least some 1,400 years old and is constructed of 200 individual stones. The altar will be relocated, as the online version of the daily Mexican newspaper El Universal informed today, Wednesday August 12, 2009 (edited by MNU; photo: El Universal):
Altar maya hallado en ampliación de carretera será reubicado - Un altar maya de al menos mil 400 años de antigüedad, descubierto a raíz de la ampliación de una carretera en el sureste de México, será colocado en un área de distribución de la misma vía para que los viajeros puedan apreciar toda su belleza.
Así lo informaron fuentes de la sede del Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (INAH) en el estado de Yucatán, donde se halló el altar formado por 200 piedras labradas de unos diez kilos cada una, al excavar para las obras de ampliación de la carretera que comunica Mérida, la capital yucateca, con el estado vecino de Campeche, en el tramo Tanil-Xtepem.
La investigadora Eunice Uc indicó que los arqueólogos están esperando una respuesta de la Secretaría de Comunicaciones y Transportes para desmantelar el altar y trasladarlo a un lugar cercano, lo que puede producirse hoy mismo.
El objetivo es moverlo hasta un distribuidor vial de la misma carretera para que los viajeros puedan disfrutar de su belleza al pasar por la zona, indicó.
"En otro caso se va a tener que desbaratar", advirtió Uc, quien subrayó que la estructura principal del altar es un pedestal de cinco por cinco metros de superficie.
Otro investigador, Raúl Morales, indicó que el altar puede corresponder al Período Clásico Temprano de la civilización maya, entre los años 300 y el 600 después de Cristo, aunque "en el sitio había ocupación mucho más temprana, desde el Período Preclásico", entre el 500 u 800 antes de Cristo y el 600 de nuestra era.
Los estados mexicanos de Yucatán, Campeche, Quintana Roo y Chiapas conformaron junto con Belice, Guatemala, El Salvador y Honduras el área de influencia de los mayas en Mesoamérica. Por esta razón, están repletos de ruinas de esa civilización prehispánica, la mayoría cubiertos por la frondosa vegetación de esa zona tropical. (source El Universal)