“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.
|
 Today
March 7, 2009, was revealed to the world by Dr. Richard
Hansen a large Frieze or Panel, measuring 3 m.
high and 4 m wide, that is dated ca. 300 BC, and
decorated a Royal pool that formed part of the
hydraulics works of the city. The Panel represents
the hero twins Hunahpú and Ixbalnqué, swimming away from
Xibalbá, with his
father's (The Maize God) head as the
Popol Vuh,
19 centuries later relates. |
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, 5 types of tropical forests, 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,
Nakbé,
Tintal,
Naachtún, La Florida, Wakná,
among others, linked by huge causeways, all bearing the same emblem
glyph of Kan Ahau, thus all the cities were called by this Polity
nam,.
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
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 |
The Finest Preclassic Stucco decorations found so far,
and its protection |
Structure2 |
Structure 3 |
Structure 4 |
Site Map |
