The existence of large Pre Columbian structures in a then unexplored area -now known as El Mirador- was first noticed by Engineer Claudio Urrutia in the mid 1880's. Claudio Urrutia was in charge of drawing the border between Mexico and Guatemala. He and astronomer Miles Rock were appointed by the Guatemalan government to undertake this enormous task and to explore the area along parallel 17.49º N, where they put markers every 16 kilometers along this imaginary straight line to determine the border dividing Mexico and Guatemala. His work was key in defining the official limits between the two countries and also between Guatemala and Belize and between Guatemala and Honduras later.
They explored this area between 1886 and 1895. Subsequently, a treaty was signed between the Mexican and the Guatemalan governments based on his work and explorations. However, his job was not to make an inventory of archaeological sites, but instead to follow a straight line along parallel 17.49º N, which is the political border between the two nations. Nevertheless, the monumental architecture in the area was so profuse and so impressively huge that it did not go unnoticed. |
Engineer Claudio Urrutia
1859- 1935
©Photograph from the Urrutia family archives
published with permission of Rolando Urrutia
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Click on the map to enlarge this image.
©Photo printed with permission of Rolando Urrutia,
from the Urrutia family archives, dated from 1886-1895
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He used some of these monuments on his maps as references and named them after their old names or with short descriptions of the sites, such as "Icaiche" or "Fortaleza Antigua" (Ancient Fortress, as you can see on the map shown to the left). His maps will undoubtedly become of tremendous importance for future explorers now -140 years after Urrutia's explorations- as this area is now beginning to be studied and better understood on both sides of the border. The area of El Mirador Rio Azul National Park is drawing more attention from around the world for a number of reasons we shall mention on this website. A section containing the entire map and document collection and more information on Urrutia's work is under construction and will be published at a later date.
However, the existence of the site of El Mirador in Northern Guatemala -as such- is known since the 1930s. Aviation pioneer Charles Lindbergh reported having seen some strange mounds in the area as he flew over them, that looked irregularly tall, and it was archaeologist Sylvannus G. Morley who first described the site in 1937. A Carnegie Institute expedition followed in 1943, but it wasn't until Ian Graham's first visits in the early 1960s, fielded by Harvard University's Peabody Museum, that any serious archaeological research actually took place at El Mirador.
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Graham conducted the first significant research at the site between 1962 and 1970. He mapped the site and collected materials from the surface and also dug the first test pits. Thanks to Graham's studies the first evidence of the complexity and monumentality of El Mirador came to light. He mapped the West end of the site, dominated by the Tigre Complex -which was investigated by Dr. Joyce Marcus of Michigan State University- in 1970. Again in 1979 Dr. Ray Matheny of Brigham Young University conducted important studies at this great structure.
Matheny's work in cooperation with Bruce Dahlin of Washington's Catholic University, concentrated on cleaning the materials left over in looters' trenches during years of illegal excavations conducted at the site in the residences and palaces of the elite and in public buildings. He also concentrated on trying to find areas that had not been altered by looters. Looters had years of free for all and continuous illegal activities removing objects at the site, which then found their way to the black market and collectors around the world. They had all the freedom they needed in the void of any official presence at the site for years, sheltered behind the remoteness of this little known site and the vast jungle. |
Archaeologist Ian Graham of Harvard University's Peabody Museum, photographing details at El Tigre Complex on May 4th, 1970.
© Photograph by Douglas R. Pilling
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During the early 1980's a young student came along with the University of Brigham Young, who started working diligently and passionately to get to know the characters who built such a monumental site, who not only built the largest but also the oldest structures in the region, now understood to be the Cradle of Maya civilization. His name is Richard Hansen and he has but dedicated his life to studying the sites in this region. He first directed the RAINPEG Project, the Regional Archaeological Investigations Project of the Northern Peten in Guatemala, and dug at the site of Nakbe, El Tintal, La Florida, Wakna, La Muerta and other important Pre Classic Maya sites in the area, including El Mirador, for 30 years.
As Richard Hansen put it, "I first came in here [to El Mirador] in 1978." The project formerly known as RAINPEG is now the Mirador Basin Project.
He has now been working continuous field seasons at El Mirador since 2003 with a large team of Guatemalan and international archaeologists and scientists from different disciplines, who share his passion for science, adventure and discovery. Every field season they live in the jungle trying to understand who these people were, their architectural and artistic techniques and trying to find any clue that might lead them to understanding the importance of these great historic treasures and the lives of the Pre Classic Maya, who inhabited the area from around 950 BC to around 150 AD.
"Some of the largest ancient cities in the Western Hemisphere are found in this contained ecosystem," says Richard Hansen, Mirador Basin Project Director, ". It has the largest pyramids in the Maya world, that rank among the largest pyramids in the world.It's the cradle of Maya civilization."
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Hansen's passion for the sites in the region, and particularly for the great site of El Mirador, has become large enough to include not only the cultural heritage but also the natural patrimony in the area, a vast virgin rainforest. This forest is not only a part of the Maya Biosphere Reserve but also a crucial element in the cultural development of the Maya civilization. This forest is also in peril of becoming destroyed and we need to preserve this forest for future generations and for the development of present day Guatemala.
His enthusiasm, but mostly his concern for this... |
Left: © NASA April 16th, 2003 Satellite image of the Maya World Region. Forest fires surround Calakmul, north of El Mirador, in the Mexican state of Campeche while the Peten in Guatemala burns in an area that is supposedly protected by law, just west of El Mirador. Accelerated destruction has been extensively documented since the 1980s, when the destruction of the area began. From space one may see that practically only the Mirador Basin and Calakmul are left untouched. Right: Richard Hansen, Mirador Basin Project Director, explaining how Structure 34 must have looked in 400 BC. (El Mirador, Feb. 2006) |
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...most fragile and endangered part of the Maya subtropical rain forest, have become contagious and more people -both Guatemalan and foreign alike- have joined in and are united around the idea of trying to save the cultural and natural patrimony in this part of the Northern Peten.
FARES (Foundation for Anthropological Research and Environmental Studies) and ISU (Idaho State University) are the executory institutions in charge of the scientific research. |
Miradorpark.com is dedicated to this enthusiastic team of Guatemalan and international archaeologists, specialists, technicians and workers. It is also an acknowledgement and recognition of Richard Hansen's hard work and perseverance and to all who come to the jungle -year after year- to try to get a better understanding of the importance of El Mirador. They will tell us about the accomplishments of the great ancient Pre Classic Maya, who lived here more than 2000 years ago, abrubtly abandoned the site and left their testimony for posterity, one of greatness and glory. Because it is the cradle of the Maya civilization it is changing many of the things we previously thought we knew about the Maya, giving way to new theories that are put to the test every day under the scorching sun and in the discomfort of working in a bug-laden jungle all around El Mirador and during months of detailed studies made back at their laboratory in Guatemala City. We started creating this website at El Mirador during the 2008 field season, with the collaboration of this great team of professionals from various disciplines working at the site. We carried out documental research using articles facilitated by Richard Hansen, as well as checking the field reports from previous years and documented the work unfolding at the site by way of direct observation at the different structures at El Mirador.
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Clockwise from top, Photo 1: Craig Argyle makes a major discovery during the 2008 field season. Photo 2: He uncovered a large Pre Classic frieze, dated between 300 and 200 BC. Center photograph: Lilian de Zea draws the details of the panel back at the lab. Photo 3: Lilian de Zea and Josue Guzman use her drawing as a reference and plan the details of the restoration and consolidation work on the frieze. Photo 4: Lilian de Zea works on the restoration of the top part of the panel, which repesents the central characters of the Popol Vuh's Maya Creation Myth, the Hero Twins Hunahpu and Ixbalanque.
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You will be able to appreciate some of the most recent discoveries, which have already been published on previous year's field reports, articles, TV documentaries & other sources. We promise to update this site and, at a later date -after the results of each year's field season have been presented to the Guatemalan government, mainly to IDAEH (Institute of Anthropology and History in Guatemala)- we will share them with you. Any new discoveries at the site first need to be reported and published before we are authorized to disclose any of this important information to you.
This website's objective is not only to attract more lucky visitors to see the greatness and monumentality of El Mirador and to travel with us by helicopter, on muleback or on foot to see this amazing site, it is also to inform everyone interested in El Mirador about what is going on at the site from a scientific perspective. We also want to share this site with everyone and go beyond the language barriers. We pledge to publish this site in English and Spanish first and then translate it into French and German, and then into Russian to get more people from around the world to get to know El Mirador and to help us protect this last of amazing pristine forests dotted with ancient remains of one of the greatest civilizations of the ancient world: the Pre Classic Maya!
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Discovering 5 different construction phases at El Mirador's Structure 313, in the Grand Acropolis, entailed hard work, carrying heavy loads and doing fine restoration work one sizzling hot day after another. At El Mirador care is taken so that nature around the structures is preserved and so that excavations will keep the natural setting around them as intact as possible. El Mirador, July 2008. |
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