“The virgin rainforest and
monumental ancient
Maya architecture of the Mirador Basin struck GHF
and our Advisory Board as a once in a lifetime opportunity” said
Jeff Morgan, Executive Director of Global Heritage Fund. “GHF
funding is focused on expediting the creation of a permanently
national park and take advantage of the newly-established Special
Protected Area status signed in law by President Accord. GHF’s focus
is on high-priority monument conservation within the Mirador Basin,
master conservation planning, as well as training a professional
park service to stem the looting, poaching and destruction of this
Cradle of Maya Civilization.”
Global Heritage Fund.
The first concrete traces of the
Mayan civilization date back to the Preclassic period around 1,800
BC in the Mirador Basin of
Petén, northern Guatemala, though some
settlements are thought to be over 6,000 years old (Coe, 2005).
Signs of chiefdom-like political organization emerged during the
Middle Preclassic era (ca. 1,000–400 BC), leading to the birth of a
ruling elite and the development of city-state governing systems in
the Late Preclassic (ca. 400 BC–100 AD). (Sharer and
Tucker, 2006)
Investigations at lake Puerto Arturo, in the
Mirador Basin, pollen records that
include the mid Holocene show decreasing forest from ca.
4000-2000 B.C. (Leyden 2002). Without concurrent evidence of
agriculture, it has been difficult to isolate a cause for this
decrease. Maize pollen at ~2650 B.C. in the Puerto Arturo core
suggests that forest clearance by early agriculturalists was
responsible. Although populations must have been relatively small at
this time, their land use practices had a clear impact on the
environment. At least four more phases of increased disturbance
alternating with periods of ecological recovery occurred during the
following 2500 years. Changes in the local landscape correspond to
the onset of sedentary village life. The pollen evidence shows an
abrupt rise in grasses and weeds around 1450 B.C., concurrent with
an accelerated decline in forest. Similarly, the first large pulse
of erosion occurred around 1400 B.C. Disturbance/recovery
phases occur approximately every 500 years during the period of
prehistoric settlement. The final recovery phase began ~1000
AD (David Wahl, 2005).
The
Mirador Basin is
2,156 square kilometers (525,100 acres) of pristine tropical
rainforest surrounding the oldest and largest Maya pyramids, city
and
temple complexes in the Americas, it is a part of
Guatemala’s
Maya Biosphere Reserve that covers 2.1 million hectares, an area
roughly the size of El Salvador. It represents 80 percent of
Guatemala’s protected areas and almost 20 percent of its total
territory. Rich in biodiversity, the Biosphere is
home to 20
ecosystems, 220 species of
birds, and 53
mammal species. It is also
the cradle of ancient Maya civilization with 175 archaeological
sites. The Mythical Kan (Snake) Kingdom, that was like a Camelot for
the Mayas, have been proven to be the today's sites of
El Mirador, and
Nakbé, that
flourished during the Late Preclassic, but the sites and Mirador Basin were
suddenly and almost totally abandoned around AD 150. While some cibales
(Bajos) remain, many were silted up through massive erosion that accompanied the
widespread deforestation that occurred in Pre Classic times. El Mirador’s Late
Preclassic structures feature some of the most copious uses of stucco to cover
and decorate the myriad large pyramids and other structures at the sites and the
necessity of burning large amounts of green wood to make stucco was clearly a
major factor in this deforestation. Deforestation, massive erosion and changing
climates may well have combined at the end of the Late Preclassic to make the Mirador Basin simply uninhabitable. Only in the late Classic some artisans
resettled some sites in this area.
El Mirador Basin is currently providing
much evidence on the major cultural collapses that affected lowland Maya
civilization at the end of the Preclassic and Late Classic periods. There are at
least 26 known sites and several waiting to be uncovered, in The Mirador Basin
area, only 13 have been superficially studied, see map
above. Some sites as Naxtún and
La Manteca are not described here.
Tintal is a Large Pre Classic
Maya Site, in fact, the second largest Maya site, after Mirador, it has
Ball
courts, E groups and large Pyramids more than 50 Mt. high, a huge
Sacbé
(Causeway), the largest in Mesoamerica, 40 Km long, connects Tintal and Mirador.
Recently a Jade funeral Mask has been found there, maybe the oldest
known to date. The site center has been recently mapped, see below.
Xulnal: One of the 5
Pre-Classic Big Maya sites in Mirador Basin located approximately nine
kilometers west by southwest of Tintal, preliminary investigations shows an E
Group and a wall/canal system.
Site map
La Florida: Is
A mid size mainly late Preclassic site, in the Mirador Basin,
with good examples of the early Maya Arch, it was occupied from
800 BC to 100 AD
La
Florida Palace |
Bench
in Palace |
Palace |
Tomb Excavation |
Maya Arch |
Wakná:
Is another major Middle Pre
Classic site (800 BC), that has not been well studied, it is at least as big as
Tikal. There are ball courts, a huge E group some 400 mt. long, and Mural
paintings similar to those in San Bartolo from the early Late Pre-Classic (300
BC), located south of Mirador, and North East from Tintal and Xulnal, another
Large Maya sites in the area, see map below with Sites Map
Area
Map
La Muerta
Is a mid size
Late Preclassic to Early Classic
site, located some 2 miles south from el Tigre Complex at
Mirador, the site
features Large Stucco Masks in some structures, and the finest
example of Preclassic stucco decorations, that are being protected
with a special roof.
Structure 1 |
Structure
3 |
Structure2 |
The Finest Preclassic Stucco decorations, and its
protection |
Site
Map |
