One of the things we forget, those of us who have spent any time in the field, is how very few people ever get to know what an archaeological expedition is like. The experience is a very rare one: a tiny percent of the human population works in archaeology, and a not much larger percentage can take the time to visit an archaeological excavation, let alone hang around during the length of the study.
Road to Toucan House. Photo by Maya Research Program
I've always wanted to illustrate the processes of an archaeological excavation, and so this May when I reached archaeologist Colleen Hanratty, senior staff member of the Maya Research Program (MRP) as they were about to begin excavating in Belize, I was excited to learn she was happy to take photos for us as they were working through the excavations.
Toucan House is an elite residence of the Maya civilization, occupied ca 200-800 AD, and its ruins were excavated by the MRP in May and June of 2011. The Toucan House Photo Essay shows the archaeology dig in process, getting to the site, excavating the site, documenting the site and conducting laboratory analysis.
I've very grateful to Colleen, director Dr. Tom Gudjeran and the MRP, for providing photographs and background information for this essay.
Comments
Very cool – thanks for sharing the information!!!
Very interesting and amazing work.
WOW!!!!! Thanks for posting!!!!!!!