IU ARCHAEOLOGISTS UNCOVER MAYAN TOMBS IN NORTHERN BELIZE

EDITORS: IU archaeologist Anne Pyburn will return from Belize on Friday (May 30). Photographs of previous finds from the Chau Hiix Mayan site are available on the World Wide Web at photos

CROOKED TREE VILLAGE, Belize -- Indiana University archaeologist Anne Pyburn, working with a team of IU students and local villagers, has discovered two Mayan tombs within the past two weeks, and artifacts from the ongoing dig should yield many clues about life in one of the last populated Mayan settlements.

The site lies in a dense rainforest along a lagoon about 25 miles northwest of Belize City near Crooked Tree Village in northern Belize. Pyburn named the site Chau Hiix ("Chow Heesh") from the Mayan term for the jaguarundi that inhabit the area.

"It's a remarkable find," Pyburn said during a recent telephone interview. "The site was inhabited from about 1200 B.C., through the Spanish conquest, until about 1500 A.D. This is one of the largest-known Mayan settlements of the Post-Classic period. When other Mayan cities were depopulated, Chau Hiix was not."

The entire site covers approximately 3 to 4 square miles. The central area of the site is taken up by a 6-foot-high raised plaza that covers about 8 to 10 acres. Atop this plaza sits a Mayan pyramid about 75 feet tall, surrounded by six other monumental buildings.

The tombs were discovered within the main structure and contain the remains of people who were members of the local ruling class. The bones of one skeleton were red with the dust of cinnabar, a mineral containing mercury. There were four jade beads on the remains: two at the neck, possibly from a necklace, one in the mouth and one at the waist, possibly from a belt.

Researchers also found 10 obsidian cores and hundreds of obsidian blades. "Obsidian would have been extremely valuable at the time because it had to be transported from hundreds of miles away," Pyburn explained.

The second tomb contained two elaborately carved jade plaques, as well as beautiful ear ornaments carved from large chunks of hematite, a native iron ore.

Pyburn has been working at the site each year since 1990. The latest finds are some of the most significant to date because they are from the beginning of the Post-Classic period (about 1000 A.D.). Previous finds had been from the Early Classic era, around 300-400 A.D. Researchers were also intrigued to find such wealth so late in Mayan civilization.

"One of the biggest questions about Mayan society is whether it was under the control of a central empire, or was more a collection of city-states, each competing for influence," said IU cultural anthropologist Richard Wilk. "Chau Hiix presents our first opportunity to really look at the 'state and county' politics of the Mayan system."

One clue to judging how much autonomy the residents of Chau Hiix had is in the quantity and value of the artifacts uncovered. It appears that a good share of the wealth of the village remained under their control.

"It was a very small city, but it's amazing how wealthy the burials were," Wilk said. "They had a very high standard of living."

Today, the dig at Chau Hiix is making a modest contribution to the standard of living for residents of nearby Crooked Tree Village, who brought the site to Wilk's attention in 1989 and encouraged him to enlist the help of an archaeologist. It so happened that Wilk knew of a very good archaeologist -- his wife, Anne Pyburn.

"I was working as a cultural anthropologist in Crooked Tree and they (the residents) kept telling me about this ancient city nearby. I was skeptical at first, but they were very persistent. When Anne and I finally saw the site in 1990, she was astounded. It was probably the last unlooted and untouched Mayan city, and the villagers had kept it hidden and protected for hundreds of years."

From the beginning, the researchers' relationship with the local people has been as important as the dig itself. While the project is funded by IU, the National Science Foundation and the Foundation for Mesoamerican Studies, local residents are helping researchers and students with the excavation, cataloging and other tasks. A few small businesses have even taken root in Crooked Tree, offering food and lodging to tourists who want to visit the site and the surrounding bird sanctuary.

"It's not your typical dig," Wilk explained. "Usually a national government or university identifies a site. Then a few large ecotourism companies start busing people in from miles away to look at it, with no benefit to the local economy. But this has been a very grassroots project. There were just some very forward-thinking people in the village who didn't want to see the site looted and degraded. Now, hopefully, they will see some benefit from it."

For more information, contact Jeff Austin, 812-855-0084 or 812-855-3911, jeaustin@indiana.edu