 |
|
|
Southern Methodist University/
New 3-D topographical survey date confirms more than 100 buildings buried beneath centuries of foliage.Melvin Rodrigo Guzman Piedrasanta |
Southern Methodist University/
Brigitte Kovacevich checks out a tunnel made by looters at a Head of Stone pyramid.Michael G. Callaghan |
|
3-D topo map reveals secrets of Mayan city
By the Southern Methodist University news staff
(May 15, 2011) Archaeologists have made the first three-dimensional topographical map of ancient monumental buildings long buried under centuries of jungle at the Maya site Head of Stone in Guatemala. The map puts into 3-D perspective the location and size of Head of Stone's many buildings and architectural patterns, which are typical of Maya sites: a 70-foot-tall triadic pyramid, an astronomical observatory, a ritual ball court, numerous plazas and also residential mounds that would have been the homes of elites and commoners, according to archaeologist Brigitte Kovacevich, at Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas. The map situates the primary buildings relative to one another and also places them within the context of the site's hills and valleys in the Central Lakes agricultural region of north-central Guatemala. The buildings date from 800 B.C. to 900 A.D., says Ms. Kovacevich, an expert in Meso-American cultures and co-leader of an international scientific team that has been granted permission by the Guatemalan government to work the site, which has never before been excavated. Known for its far-reaching state-level government, Maya civilization during the Classic Period from 200 A.D. to 900 A.D. consisted of huge monumental cities with tens of thousands of people ruled by powerful kings, palaces, pyramidal temples and complex political and economic alliances, Ms. Kovacevich says. The ancient culture at its peak during the Classic Period has been well-documented by archaeologists studying the civilization's large urban centers, such as Tikal, which was one of the most powerful and long-lasting of the Maya kingdoms. In contrast, Head of Stone, called Holtun in Maya, is a modest site from the Pre-Classic Period, 600 B.C. to 250 A.D., she says. The small city had no more than 2,000 people at its peak. Situated about 35 kilometers south of Tikal, Head of Stone in its heyday preceded the celebrated vast city-states and kingship culture for which the Maya are known. By excavating a small city, Ms. Kovacevich said, the archaeologists hope to understand early Maya trade routes and alliances, the importance of ritual for developing political power, how political power emerged, and how kingship lines evolved and solidified. "There is a movement toward a greater understanding of these early periods, with smaller sites and common people," says Ms.Kovacevich, an assistant professor in Southern Methodist's Anthropology Department. "Little is known about how kingship developed, how individuals grabbed political power within the society, how the state-level society evolved and why it then was followed by a mini-collapse between 100 A.D. and 250 A.D." Ms. Kovacevich presented "Head of Stone: Archaeological Investigation at the Maya Site of Holtun, Guatemala" during the 76th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology in Sacramento, Calif., Situated in a patch of rainforest on defensible escarpment Head of Stone today sits in a patch of rainforest surrounded by cow pastures and cornfields on a limestone escarpment, which would have made it highly defensible, Ms. Kovacevich says. Holtun's structures — more than 100 of them — now are overgrown with a thin layer of centuries-old jungle foliage and soil. The site is about one kilometer long and half a kilometer wide, or almost three-quarters of a mile long and one-third of a mile wide. The large mounds protruding here and there from the jungle floor signal to archaeologists the familiar building arrangements customary at a Maya site, Ms. Kovacevich says. As with most Maya sites, looters have tunneled into many of the important structures. Ms.Kovacevich and her colleagues will dig more tunnels to further explore the buildings with the help of Guatemalan experts skilled at working Maya sites. |
|