Professor of Anthropology, Vanderbilt University
In my career I have been constantly compared to Indiana Jones — most notably by PBS, The LA Times, and New Scientist. I’ve always chuckled at this comparison, but I do understand why and how this is an unending theme of my work. In colloquial terms: my job is to dig up lost cities in the thick of the jungle while negotiating with armed and dangerous drug lords. This is what I do for a living, plain and simple.
Continue reading “5 Ways in Which I Identify with Indiana Jones”
Follow along as I continue our tour through Cancuen! We start at the camp and then we move toward the jungle to show the only place that is really our home, our hut-tent complex in the jungle, 100-feet above the river. Then, join us as we walk through the jungle to the entrance of the palace and the scene of the great royal mass assassination. Next, we go up through the great entrance to the palace and audience rooms. We move on to visit each of the excavations in the palace (which covers an area larger than six football fields) where we make a new discovery in real time. These digs are made possible by Vanderbilt University and by our leading archaeologists on my team, including my co-director Paola Torres.
Continue reading “Join Me in Making a New Discovery – VIDEO”
Cancuen sits in a narrow peninsula where the Pasión river sharply bends and first slows down to be navigable by canoe. It’s a huge rich city built at “the head of navigation of the Pasión river,” the beginning of the great river trade route of the Classic Maya world. Due to its strategic economic position as the transfer point between the ancient highland world and the lowland cities, Cancuen became incredibly rich with the largest workshops of the Maya in both jade and obsidian, and one of the largest Classic Maya royal palaces.
In my last blog post, Colossal Cave Excavation, I shared a short video of my supervisory visit to the cave subproject, the Raxruja Viejo project, in collaboration with, and under the direction of, my co-director Chloe Andrieu (CNRS) and assistant co-director, Julien Sion (Sorbonne).
Are you ready for more? Below you can see Julien Sion and I entering the cave to give a tour at the bottom of the main entrance. Listen closely as we share updates about our ongoing progress.
In the next video, Don Amilcar takes us deep into the cave subproject to show off the grand, natural wonders as I discuss Mayan rituals practiced in this very location. As you can see, even with many flashlights, it’s difficult to find your way to the underground river below. Can you imagine the ancient Maya doing this journey in almost complete darkness?
This cave acted not only as a ritual space, but also as a gigantic tomb and cathedral. For more, follow along below.
What about the popular books and tv documentaries that link Mayan (and other ancient civilization’s) achievements to extraterrestrials and space aliens? Arthur explains key points to clear up any confusion… Continue reading “Ancient Civilizations and Space Aliens”
