The San Bartolo Archaeological Project is a joint Guatemalan-American endeavor begun in 2002, a year after the discovery of the earliest-known Maya murals and inscriptions on the walls of a building buried deep within a later pyramid. While the original focus of the project was the uncovering and conservation of the murals (still ongoing), it now addresses a broad range of questions relating to the rise and fall of the ancient city of San Bartolo.
In 2007, we will be undertaking geoarchaeological field work examining the relationship between environmental change and ancient Maya settlement decisions and land use surrounding karst wetlands. Specifically, we will be excavating a feature that appears to be an ancient canal on satellite imagery, excavating soil pits in catena (slope) sequences to examine ancient soil erosion, and taking sediment/pollen cores from local aguadas (ponds) to determine the regional history of vegetation change.
UC International Programs University of Cincinnati 3134 One Edwards Center PO Box 210640 Cincinnati, OH 45221-0640 Phone: 513-556-4278; Fax 513-556-2990 E-mail: global@uc.edu
