Abigail Hess

October 6, 2016
Archaeology
Professor Griffiths
Excavation in El Zotz Guatemala

About two years ago, I went on a week long

mission to Guatemala. There is a great divide
among the people there, at least when it comes to
religion. While about half of the country is Catholic,
the other half still chooses to carry on the traditions of the Mayan culture, including the
religious practices. On the last day of my mission trip, we went to see the Mayan ruins.
We examined the sun and moon temples, the soccer fields, the altars, and even were
able to watch a little bit of a fire ceremony that some locals were practicing. That is why
I chose to do my research on the Mayan ruins in Guatemala specifically. This site
exploration was led by Tom Garrison at El Zotz, and the goal was to find the Maya
queen, but turned into the discovery of a king (Holloway 2016).
Back in 1977, the site had been reported for archaeological looting, and
archaeologist Marco Antonio Bailey visited
the site on its behalf. Although he did map
the site, it wasnt explored in depth again
until 2010. There were very few visits to the
site between those years, and some reports
on it were printed, but others were not

written out (Wikipedia). The excavation in 2010 is what set forth this most recent
exploration. In 2010, there was a discovery of, bowls of human fingers, wood carvings,
bejeweled teeth, sacrificed infants and more, according to Robert Perkins of USC
News, which eventually lead to the discovery of Chak, a Mayan King. Ever since, the
site has been continuously explored for a queen. Because of this excavation, they
discovered very important details needed to fully understand the culture for the next
excavation, like that, Unlike the relatively centralized Aztec and Inca empires, the Maya
civilizationwhich spanned much of what are now Guatemala, Belize, and Mexico's
Yucatn region (Maya map)was a loose aggregation of city-states. (Read about the
rise and fall of the Maya in National Geographic magazine.)
This has been a growing awareness to us since the 1990s, when it became clear that a
few kingdoms were more important than others, said Brown University archaeologist
Stephen Houston, who announced the
discovery of the new temple Thursday.
El Zotz, in what's now Guatemala, was one of
the smaller kingdoms, but one apparently
bent on making a big impression, (Than
2012).
Recently, while searching for the queen,
they stumbled upon another king: Bakab
Kinich. This was discovered by Jose Luis
Garrido who was cleaning of a low
platform that, gave way, revealing a

small opening leading to an underground tunnel. The research team quickly excavated
inside, leading to the discovery of a royal burial chamber, (Holloway 2016). Rats had
eaten away all organic materials in the tomb, unfortunately, but the archaeologists were
able to find four polychrome bowls, one of which had the kings name carved into it.
Because the religion is still so large today in Guatemala, I would say these
discoveries have a great impact on the culture. The religion is formed from a long
lineage of tradition and because the ruins are so prominent in the society and are still in
use, the discovery ought to bring some impact. Over the centuries, some modifications
have been made to the religious practices. For example, human sacrifices are no longer
made and it is not a national religion or society, but these discoveries may bring out a
new set of identities within the religion. This is not to say that human sacrifices will begin
to happen again, but perhaps the practices will revert to some more traditional aspects,
but perhaps not to those extremes.
Overall, the discoveries at El Zotz were many years in the making, and is proof
that sometimes great discoveries happen on accident. While searching for a queen,
another king was found and beautiful discoveries of different artifacts and features were
made. All in all, Im sure that these discoveries greatly impacted the culture as a whole
and the religion as well.

Sources:
http://www.ancient-origins.net/news-history-archaeology/archaeologists-discover-royal-mayaburial-el-zotz-ruins-guatemala-005139

https://news.usc.edu/90555/digging-deep-usc-archaeologist-recounts-the-mystery-and-appealof-his-work-at-a-maya-burial-site/
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/07/120720-maya-temple-el-zotz-masks-facesscience-houston/
https://news.brown.edu/articles/2012/07/masks