Ancient Maya stone altar recovered in Guatemala

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1 An unprecedented collaboration of archeologists, Maya villagers and Guatemalan authorities has resulted in the recovery of a magnificent Maya altar stone that was carved in 796 AD and sheds new light on the collapse of the classic Maya civilization. In addition to the altar's archeological importance, its recovery illustrates the value of working with indigenous peoples to restore ancient ruins. It reads like a combination of the movies Traffic and Raiders of the Lost Ark. An unusual collaboration among Guatemalan undercover agents, local Maya villagers and American archaeologists have successfully recovered of an elaborately carved, 600- pound Maya altar, replete with images and writing that offer new information on the shrouded history of the Maya civilization. Arthur Demarest, the Ingram Professor of Anthropology and Archeology at Vanderbilt, who spearheaded the recovery effort, said the relic is one of the finest Maya altars known and provides important clues about one of the wealthiest Maya kingdoms. The great altar was placed in A.D. 796 as a marker at the end of the royal ball court of Cancuén, the site of one of the largest and richest royal palaces ever found, where the ancient city's ruler would play the sacred Maya ball game with visiting kings. The role of the game was more ritual than sport. Location of ball courts in the ritual space within Maya cities, and the imagery that accompanies them, underscores their role as boundaries between the actual and supernatural worlds. They also used these royal ball games to celebrate state visits and to conclude royal alliances, says Demarest. The carvings on the altar actually represent the two kings playing and, thus, record the state visit. The stone altar was set into the ball court floor and was used as a marker or goal post for later games, as well as a sacrificial altar. The altar is one of two from Cancuén known to exist. The other, unearthed in 1915, is on display in Guatemala s National Museum of Archaeology and has long been considered one of that museum s greatest treasures. The newly discovered altar is a masterpiece of Maya art, even better than the one found in 1915, and its text gives a glimpse of the last years of the Cancuén kingdom, said Federico Fahsen, Cancuén project epigrapher who is deciphering the glyphs. The king pictured on the altar, Taj Chan Ahk Ah Kalomte, was the greatest in Cancuén s long dynasty of rulers. Demarest, with co-director Tomás Barrientos, leads the Cancuén Archaeological Project, which is supported by National Geographic and Vanderbilt. Discovery of the stone altar, however, did not come about through archaeology, but as the result of a sustainable tourism and indigenous development project conducted by National Geographic, Vanderbilt and the humanitarian organization Counterpart International. The initiative, begun in 2001, is designed to train residents of the impoverished Q eqchi Maya villages near the Cancuén ruins to develop tourism and also helps provide basic health services, water, solar power and legal support. While working on the project, Demarest and his - 1 -

2 colleagues developed the trust of local residents, who eventually came to him with news that the altar had been looted from the ground after it was exposed by a storm. Demarest first learned of the altar s existence more than six months ago while working at the site. One night four Maya elders showed up at my tent in the project camp, he recalled. They told me that a woman had been brutally beaten by men in ski masks who were searching for a great altar that had been looted from Cancuén, one that I hadn t even known existed. The nocturnal visit set in motion a secret investigation by Cancuén project members, Guatemala s Ministry of Culture, and the Ecological and Cultural Patrimony Division of Guatemala s S.I.C. (Servícios de Investigación Criminal, that country s equivalent of the FBI) of looting in the region. It was this unprecedented cooperative effort among local Maya villagers, Guatemalan authorities and archaeologists that brought about recovery of the artifact. Guatemalan officials state that this may be the first time an entire network of looters and dealers of Maya artifacts has been exposed. These arrests will set an example for the looters and dealers that Guatemala takes the defense of its ancient Maya heritage seriously, said Claudia Gonzales Herrera, Guatemala s assistant attorney general for national patrimony. Herrera will lead prosecution of the looters. The Cancuén Archaeological Project has been the scene of a series of spectacular discoveries in the remote southwestern region of the Petén rain forest. The project has been unearthing the lost city of Cancuén, an ancient Maya mercantile port city located at the head of the Pasión River, the largest transport highway of the Petén during the Late Classic golden age of the Maya civilization (A.D ). The local shamans and leaders have long revered these sites as sacred, but because of their involvement in managing the sites, they now also see them as vital to their economic future and to that of their children and grandchildren, said Demarest. Because of this, some local Maya leaders took great personal risk to inform us about looters in the region, help apprehend the looters, and eventually to testify against them. Jonathan Tourtellot, director of National Geographic s Sustainable Tourism project, views the capture of the looters and recovery of the altar as a great victory for sustainable community tourism. It s what we ve been arguing for some time that the best way to protect the world s archaeological and ecological treasures is for the local people to share in the benefits of tourism, said Tourtellot. They need to have an economic stake and a cultural identification with the sites. Demarest agrees that the story of the altar s recovery is miraculous. Open to us now are clues to the end of the Cancuén kingdom that we never would have found without its recovery. The larger figure carved on the altar is identified as Taj Chan Ahk, the lord of Cancuén s sprawling palace. Taj Chan Ahk was the greatest in Cancuén s long dynasty of rulers, and his titles on the altar show his aspirations to take control of the whole region during these final decades of Classic Maya civilization, said Fahsen. Taj Chan Ahk used his wealth to construct Cancuén s gigantic palace of fine masonry and to cover it with life-sized stucco sculptures. He also dedicated ball courts and many monuments and used those settings to host feasts, rituals and ball games in order to ally himself with kings of other centers who had greater military power. His strategies - 2 -

3 allowed him to stay in power and even expand his authority at a time, about A.D. 800, when most of the other Maya kingdoms of the west were collapsing, Fahsen said. Demarest and his colleagues will use Fahsen s decipherment of the altar and clues from other recently discovered monuments to continue excavations at Cancuén, including a search for the great king s royal tomb. The Strange Journey of a Stolen Altar A.D. 796 A 600-pound stone altar is commissioned by Taj Chan Ahk, the Maya lord of Cancuén, to commemorate a summit with the vassal king of a neighboring kingdom. The large limestone disk is carved with images of the two Maya lords playing a sacred ball game. It is used as a marker for the game and a place for animal sacrifices. A.D. 800 to A.D. 810 Cancuén is abandoned a few years after Taj Chan Ahk s death, and the altar is covered over by mahogany rain forest that begins to blanket Cancuén. 1900s Altar remains buried and goes unnoticed by explorer Sylvanus Morley, who uncovers a similar altar at the ball court in Exploration of the site in 1967 by Harvard University graduate students also fails to discover it to 1999 Vanderbilt University archaeologist Arthur Demarest determines that the site was once a major trading center and that its royal palace was one of the largest in the Maya world. Major excavation of the site begins, though excavation of the ball court is postponed until The project is supported by National Geographic. October 2001 Heavy rains expose the altar, for the first time in more than 1,000 years. A son of the leader of a local gang of looters spots it and tells his father, who leads his gang on a raid of the site, hauling the heavy altar out of the ball court and placing it into a boat. The altar is taken to the gang leader s encampment, down river from Cancuén. November 2001-December 2002 The altar is photographed and the pictures are distributed by the gang in search of a buyer. Local drug traffickers inspect the altar and offer $4,000 (U.S.) for it, but the gang leader holds out for more money. December 2002 A split in the gang leads four members to steal the altar, moving it across the river and burying it. Later, the gang leader retrieves the altar in a gun battle heard by nearby villagers. The gang continues to try to sell it. January-February 2003 One of the drug traffickers, leading men with submachine guns and ski masks, raids the place where the men believe the altar is hidden, badly beating an innocent woman in an effort to learn the altar s whereabouts. Villagers concerned about the incident enlist the help of archaeologist Demarest, who is known to them because of his work on sustainable development in the area. March 2003 Because he doesn t want to tangle with the powerful drug lords, Demarest meets with the head of drug traffickers in the area, who is also the district governor, and persuades him not to interfere with efforts to stop the looting and recover the altar. A few hours later the governor is gunned down by a rival, precipitating a major drug war throughout the region

4 April 2003 Demarest reports the altar s theft to the Guatemalan Ministry of Culture, which calls in the Ecological and Cultural Patrimony division of the S.I.C. (Guatemala s equivalent of the FBI). The S.I.C. stages an evening raid on the outlaws, with guidance from Demarest and his survey director, Marc Wolf. The gang leader and a lieutenant are arrested. The altar, however, is not found. It has been sold to a looter, who has loaded it onto a truck and hauled it to a town 20 miles to the south. May 2003 A photograph of the altar is recovered, and the Ministry of Culture and S.I.C. send copies of the photograph and drawings made from it to law-enforcement officials around the world, including Interpol and Belizean authorities. The dealer last known to have the altar is arrested but says he no longer has it; it has gone to a dealer in Melchor de Mencos, on the border with Belize. August 2003 The authorities learn that their efforts to make the altar too hot to sell have been effective when they hear from Maya villagers that it has been moved back to the region from which it was stolen and then buried until it can be sold safely. September-October 2003 The altar is recovered after another series of S.I.C raids. Several looters are arrested and await trial. The altar, dirt-covered but in otherwise sound condition, is transported to the National Museum in Guatemala City for cleaning and decipherment. Cancuén Sustainable Tourism and Indigenous Development Project Archaeologist Arthur Demarest first learned of the ancient altar s existence from Maya village elders near his project site in Guatemala. Their information, given at personal risk, also led to the altar s recovery and the arrest of the looters who had it. The villagers concern for the looted altar and their fragile heritage had come about in part as a result of a sustainable tourism and indigenous development project that is directed by Vanderbilt University, National Geographic and Counterpart International, with funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and many other organizations. Under the development project at Cancuén, local villagers are trained in the stewardship of the site, the surrounding area and other sites throughout the region. These collaborations have helped the Maya become tour guides, park rangers and managers of rustic inns, boat services and ecotourism enterprises, providing indigenous peoples a stake in preserving the ancient sites. In return, visitors will learn not only about the Classic Maya ruins but also about the Maya of today as well as their rain forests. Since Demarest began restoring the Maya royal palace at Cancuén and the sacred caves and sites nearby, he has worked to help the Q eqchi Maya there become custodians of their heritage, gain access to sacred sites for rituals, and reap economic benefits from the archaeological parks and the accomplishments of their ancestors. Raymond Chavez, director of several Counterpart International/USAID development projects of this type in Central America, said, Without the counterbalance of some economic benefits from tourism and the support of the traditional Maya rituals, the sites would have been looted and the remaining rain forest would have disappeared under pressure from logging, ranching and farming. All development decisions at Cancuén are made in consultation with Maya villagers. This collaborative approach has led to a number of additional projects, such as the - 4 -

5 establishment of Maya-run village pharmacy-clinics that provide both basic Western medicines and traditional Maya remedies, bringing medical care to over 30 villages. Other projects include sustainable garden agriculture, potable water systems, solar panels for village schools, corn mills, and support for Maya economic, political and religious rights. The development project at Cancuén is one of several conducted with the support of the National Geographic Sustainable Tourism Initiative. In response to soaring tourism growth around the world, the Initiative facilitates informed stewardship of locales and regions that have great visitor appeal. The NGS Initiative supports innovative community-based tourism projects based on the concept of geotourism, tourism that sustains or enhances the geographical character of a place, its environment, heritage, aesthetics, culture and the well-being of its citizens. The Cancuén project can serve as a lesson for other, more typical international aid initiatives, said Jonathan B. Tourtellot, National Geographic s director of sustainable tourism. The story of the ball-court altar shows that success ultimately relies not only on building infrastructure for tourism but also on building knowledge and trust. More information is available at: and ### - 5 -