Williams College's second archaeological field season in Guatemala, June-July 1998

Our first field season at the large center of Motul de San José (located in the Central Petén jungle of northern Guatemala, Central America) was exciting as well as extremely successful.  We had a small group of two students from Williams (Jessica Charland ’98 and Rebecca Goldfine ‘99) and two graduate students from Tulane and Vanderbilt Universities.  Although it was supposed to be the rainy season, we only had a few days of rain, so we were able to do a great deal of work.  Our camp on the shores of the Lake Peten Itza was beautiful, with wonderful vistas of the sunrise.

Half of the group surveyed and mapped this large center, using a total station, compasses and theodolites.  Below you can see the end product of our survey. The site extends beyond what we mapped, and we will continue next year.  There are several main groups, called from west to east, Plaza A, Plaza B, and Plaza C/D/E.  The largest group (Plaza C/D/E) represents the center of this Classic Maya city, with the Main Plaza located in the southeast part of the complex.  Architecturally, each of these major groups has a pyramid of some 5 to 20 meters, and adjacent palaces.  The Main Plaza has four such pyramids and holds 5 stelae, and the largest palace complex which we have called the Acropolis.  We even found a low wall (defensive? a border marker between different lineages?) or narrow causeway to the north of Plaza B.   During our final days at the site we located another 8 meter high pyramid with its palace groups, but we didn't have time to finish mapping it.
 

The other group of archaeology students excavated small units, usually 1 x 1 m test pits.  We found that the site had been occupied over a thousand years, from c. 300 B.C. until 800 A.D.  We also found a very rich midden (trash deposit) behind one of the main palaces.  This revealed numerous partial pottery vessels--among them, beautiful polychrome vases with hieroglyphic texts--and stone tools made of obsidian and chert.   Another important discovery was a fragmented stela that we uncovered in front of the highest pyramid, which rises 20 meters above the central plaza of Motul de San José.  The stela is badly broken and has no hieroglyphic text.  But parts of the main figure (presumably one of the rulers of the site) were still visible: the right arm and hand holding the God K scepter, the dancing feet, the loin cloth decorated with the large head of a zoomorph, a chest jade carved with a skull head. Five other stelae decorate the main courtyards of this center, and the style of this sixth stela is similar to these.

All in all, this was a very fruitful field season.  It will form the foundation for a long-term interdisciplinary archaeological-ecological project expected to continue through 2003.  If you are interested in participating, please contact me via email at antonia.e.foias@williams.edu.

Photos: Prof. Foias at excavated palace, Tamarindito; Fredy Sosa
and crew, La Amelia excavation, 1997.