2022 Field Season (June 10 - July 10)
Week 4 (July 2 - July 8):
Una Noche Mas
Astrid Molina
Anthropology Major, CSUDH
Social Media Manager, Anthropology Club
The last week of the field season got off to a rocky start! Car troubles and thorny branches left us a bit wary of what surprises might be in store for the final few days, but we ended up making it to the end of the field season with only minimal bruises and bug bites, but plenty of smiles, and then bittersweet goodbyes! At Proyecto Arqueológico Sitios de Pequeña Escala en el Puuc Oriental (PASPEPO), we have completed our archaeological survey for the two sites, Xanab Chak (Preclassic Period) and Cerro Hul (Terminal Classic Period)! During this past week, we split up the groups, and each one set a record for features mapped in single day. The first group, Karen and I, helped map 30 ancient structures on Tuesday! The second group, Leslie and Cesar, mapped 10 platform groups on Wednesday! It was a lot of work, but the weather was in our favor those days by not being as hot as the week before and having cloud coverage for a few hours in the morning to take all necessary photos. On the last day of the field season, we all went out together to say our goodbyes and thank the Indigenous Maya workers who did a great job clearing the sites for us these last four weeks.
The 2022 PASPEPO Field Crew: Miguel, Misael, Casimiro, Bladimir, Carlos, Jonathan, Rey David, Ismael, Daviniel, Alex, Antonio, Leocio, Manuel, Juan, Joel, Cristiano, Magdaleno, Wilfrido, Leslie, Astrid, Karen, Cesar, and Dr. Seligson.
Every day for four weeks, the local men would wake up early to meet us at the site and clear the dense vegetation from the field structures for us to complete our surveying and mapping. Not only did we have great workers in the field, but we also had great local workers at our housing facility who ensured we ate well and were comfortable in our casitas. One of the many things that I learned from this field season is that archaeology does not just involve work that is done in the field. The work extends to who we work with, where we are staying, and the community that welcomed us. We don’t stop being archaeologists when we go back to our housing facility. We affect everything we touch, everywhere we go, and the people we meet. Over the weekend, it was two of our cooks’ birthdays, and we celebrated with good Yucatecan food and tres leches cake. It goes to show how close you can become to the people you are working with and surrounded by.
Just a few of the many platform groups we mapped during the 2022 field season. Dr. Seligson will convert this sketchmap into a fully digital version using AutoCAD drafting software.
This is my first experience working in the field, and I believe that I was extremely lucky to go to a site with great people and good accommodations. Of course, this wouldn’t be possible without the help of the local Yucatan people, who put in a lot of work to make sure we could do our jobs. I learned to measure archaeological sites, take pictures, clean sherds, and many other methods of archaeology during this field season. I was able to work with friends from CSUDH and make new friends from Millsaps college. Our group from CSUDH were the only people of color (POC) undergraduate students to work on this project this year, and it has been very eye-opening to the importance of having POC in archaeology. I believe my friends and I felt strongly for the people here in Oxkutzcab and felt comfortable being able to communicate with everyone here and connect with the people.
Thelma and Rita Martin, two of the many local non-archaeologists who are absolutely integral to the functioning of the archaeological field project every summer.
The ending is bittersweet. It feels amazing to have accomplished my first archaeological field season, which makes it such a difficult goodbye. We made a lot of great memories and learned a lot from our project director, Dr. Seligson, and co-director, Evan Parker. From listening to the same CD by Grupo Broncos over and over again, running away from a horde of ants at the sites, and learning about insects and plants in the Yucatan from the Seek app, this fulfilling and eventful field season is one that I will never forget. Una noche mas!
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Our final meal at the Millsaps Puuc Archaeological Research Center - delicious enchiladas rojas y verdes, prepared by Thelma and Rita.
Week 3 (June 27 - July 1):
Chultunes, Sascaberas, or the “Other Side??”
Karen Carrillo
Anthropology Major, CSUDH
Secretary, Anthropology Club
This week at the Proyecto Arqueológico Sitios de Pequeña Escala en el Puuc Oriental (PASPEPO) we moved to a new site called Cerro Hul! This site is a Terminal Classic Period (c. 700-950 CE) site, which was different from our previous Preclassic Period (c. 900-300 BCE) site, Xanab Chak. My first impressions of Cerro Hul that it has many cool metates still intact and the structures have many more rooms than Xanab Chak. I was definitely excited to begin working at this new site!
A lidar digital terrain model of our new site, Cerro Hul, lit up like a Christmas tree by all of the GPS points we have taken on the ground so far while exploring the multitude of archaeological features.
The major difference that we observed between the two archaeological sites was based off the residential architecture. Cerro Hul has the structures on top of terraced platforms and rocky outcrops, whereas Xanab Chak has low structures in the middle of planadas. It was nice seeing some walls still standing even after 1,000 years! We saw many openings to chultuns (subterranean water storage tanks carved out of the bedrock), sascaberas (mines for quarrying soft limestone called sascab), and surface limestone quarries around the site. Our workers joked that the quarries were puma dens because of their ominous sloping shape that descends into an eerie darkness like an entrance to the “other side.” Maybe there was something inside… or maybe I was just being paranoid…
One of the many partly standing structures that we have documented so far at Cerro Hul. It is a one-room masonry structure that would have likely supported a wooden and thatch roof.
During this past week, we measured what remained of the walls and chultun openings. We took countless measurements with a gigantic measuring tape that reminded me of a fishing pole because of how we had to reel it in after using it. We also documented Cerro Hul via photography. I attribute my fantastic photography skills to our project’s co-director, Evan Parker, because he taught me how to take awesome photos of the site's landmarks. During this process, we struggled taking photos of some structures because the sun would peak through the trees. At one point, we created a “human tarp” with our bodies, hats, and jackets to block out the sun from our photos. The times when the sun could not be avoided, which involved lots of waiting, were spent listening to podcast about bananas, chatting about Star Wars, and singing songs.
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Trying (and somewhat succeeding) at forming a human tarp to block the sun from the area being photographed.
We caught up to the workers who were clearing the platforms and structures of dense forest vegetation (really tough work!) and this caused swarms of mosquitos to come out to fight us – and by “us,” I mean mainly Astrid, the mosquito magnet. Luckily, my trusty fan came to my rescue and kept those pesky mosquitos away. This past week was filled with sightings of many different insects that I had not seen before. It was a whole other job to dodge these annoying bugs when walking and measuring. I feel bad for all the poor spider webs I destroyed by charging ahead through the narrow freshly cut paths…but at the same time I do not because I do not like those creepy crawlies.
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Doing what we can to keep the mosquitos at bay.
At the center of the ancient community is the hill for which it has now been named – Cerro Hul or “Arrow Hill.” Cerro Hul is a very steep hike with several trees and vines to walk through. The trees were the trickiest because they seemed to appear at random, which could make your brain bounce like flan if you were to crash into one (not speaking from experience or anything…). The hike to the amazing hilltop residential complex at the apex of Cerro Hul felt longer than the long walk out to our previous site of Xanab Chak. However, I was disappointed to find out that distance-wise, this was not the case at all. To reach the summit of Cerro Hul from we park our field vehicle is only 0.5 miles, whereas the trek to Xanab Chak was almost a full mile! The hilly terrain definitely tricked us into thinking that we were walking more.
A 3D model of one of the many standing or partly-standing structures we have encountered at Cerro Hul.
At Cerro Hul, Dr. Seligson also took many photos of a few of the intact architectural features to create 3D models and images of the structures. He used an imaging software called Metashape to align and combine the dozens of photographs. These 3D models are useful to help see the structures in their entirety without having to look through individual images and they allow us to manipulate angles and perspectives that are impossible to view at the site. I had an eventful week and I am excited to see what else happens in our upcoming final week of fieldwork!
Week 2 (June 20 - June 26):
Mosquitos, Sunlight, and Jaguars, Oh My!
Leslie C. Gómez
Anthropology Major, CSUDH
McNair Scholar
Mosquitos, sunlight, and jaguars, oh my! The past week's fieldwork on the Proyecto Arqueológico Sitios de Pequeña Escala en el Puuc Oriental (PASPEPO) – the Small-Scale Sites in the Eastern Puuc Archaeological Project - has yielded some of the many challenges associated with archaeological field research. However, it has also allowed us to broaden the skillsets that we learned in Week 1. As Week 2 of the field season began, our local collaborators from the small town of Kancab removed most of the dense jungle vegetation covering the ancient features at our site, allowing us to begin in-depth evaluations. Previous analyses using lidar (Light Detection and Ranging) airborne laser scanning data had already allowed us to develop preliminary hypotheses, but in-person assessments are required to answer some essential questions. Why were these structures located here? What were they used for? Why did the Preclassic residents abandon them? A time machine would be great to answer these questions, but until that happens, we must use our archaeological toolbox and team efforts to address our hypotheses.
A lidar-derived digital terrain model of our field site, Xanab Chak, showing the central platform group and ancient ballcourt. The large, rectangular platform measures 34 x 18 meters long!
The Middle Preclassic site (c.800-300 BCE) that we have been analyzing has officially been given a name: Xanab Chak, meaning alternatively “Red Shoe” or “Shoe of Chak (the Maya Rain/Thunder God). Why this name? Well, the official story behind the site name is derived from the Mayan name for a type of wasp that we encountered at the site on our first day. It also might have something to do with red beards, the red soil found around the site, and/or the untimely total destruction of our co-director’s boot in the first week of the field season (see @csudhanthro on Instagram for more info about our shoe friend, Mr. Booty McBootface). One can only speculate which of these factors contributed most to the official site name.
Three contributors to our site name, Xanab Chak: the Xanab Chak wasp, the red soil of the eastern Puuc, poor Booty McBootface.
With the vegetation now clear from the field structures, our team (Dr. Seligson, myself, Karen, Astrid, and Cesar, were finally able to observe what was left behind by the Preclassic Maya in this corner of the Puuc region of Yucatan. This little community did not leave behind gold or crystal idols as you would expect from watching Indiana Jones. Instead, they left behind something even better, arranged rocks!! A pile of stones that just looks like rubble is something that most would not get excited about, but these are not just any ordinary mounds of rocks. Once upon a time, they formed the walls of platforms with intricate displays of art, residential structures, storage areas, and, best of all, an Ancient Maya ballcourt. Features I had only read about in my anthropology classes were now right in front of me. I was excited to finally see these structures in person after two years of Zoom University. In addition, we also began finding some pretty cool ceramic sherds, which Astrid and Karen were excellent at finding. Thankfully, they only found 10-15 and not 100 because ceramic logging can be a lengthy process with bagging, cleaning, re-bagging, labeling, and analysis.
One of the small pieces of ceramics (called sherds) that we found on the surface at the field site of Xanab Chak. We label artifact bags with the specific details of where at the site sherds like this one were found and then wash them in the afternoon when we get back to the research center.
The main structure on top of the central platform has a megalithic (large stone) stairway leading up to it with at least five steps. Now that it is cleared of vegetation and fallen leaves, you can almost imagine residents of the ancient community ascending the steps for ceremonies in the structure on top.
During this past week, we had the privilege of visiting the Classic Period site of Kiuic, which our fellow research students from Millsaps College are currently excavating under the directions of Archaeologist Rossana May Ciau and Dr. George J. Bey III. The drive to the site took us over an hour – not because it was too far away, but because of the horrendous potholes all over the road. It seemed like we were in a video game where the objective was not to get a flat tire and get stranded on the side of the road. Thankfully, Dr. Seligson's driving skills were on point, and we made it to Kiuic in one piece. Once we arrived at the site, I was immediately jealous that we were not excavating there. The site has large pyramids, massive residential palaces, and grand open courtyards. However, the highlight of visiting this site was climbing the Yaxche pyramid, which would have had an incredible view thousands of years ago when the vegetation was mostly cleared and the site center was surrounded by acres of milpa fields and orchards. The magnificence of this site surpassed our small Xanab Chak site. However, seeing both a Preclassic and Classic site allowed us to critically analyze architectural and living differences between the two periods in the Puuc region.
Our field crew standing in front of the Yaxche Pyramid (left) and the Kuche Palace (right) at the site of Kiuic, about 15 km away from our smaller site of Xanab Chak. Kiuic was occupied as far back as the Middle Preclassic Period (c. 800 BCE) but really grew in size during the Terminal Classic Period (c. 700-950 CE) when the ruling family turned the Yaxche Pyramid into a shrine to their ancestors and constructed the new Kuche Palace. Our peers from Millsaps College are helping Archaeologist Rossana May Ciau excavate the Kuche Palace!
Back at our site of Xanab Chak, we had a few complications during our observations, but is it archaeology if you do not have a few obstacles? Our first problem was the ants. For some reason, they would swarm wherever we needed to go. So, we would have to wait or play “jump over the ants” to avoid getting bitten. Our second problem was the sun. We needed to complete a ton of field photos of our structures, but the sun's rays would make us wait for extensive periods because we need full cloud cover to ensure uniform photographs. Our final complication was that we found jaguar paw prints on the way to Xanab Chak. It was awesome to see them there, in real life… but it was also very alarming because I do not want to be a mid-day jaguar snack.
Overall, the second week of fieldwork has been another successful week in the books. We had much more work to complete, such as photography and measuring. However, that was expected with the clearing of vegetation at our site. Thankfully, I have a fantastic group of peers from the CSUDH Anthropology Department, Astrid and Karen, and my roommate from the CSUDH History Department and Mellon Mays Scholar, Cesar, to share this epic four-week journey. Our days are long, but it is worth it because we are helping to uncover more about the history and lifestyle of Maya communities in the Puuc region.
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Fresh jaguar paw prints, oh my!
Week 1 (June 10 - June 19):
Challenges, Expectations, and Excitement!
Cesar J. Ovando
History Major, CSUDH
Mellon Mays Fellow, Sally Casanova Pre-Doctoral Scholar
Learning new skills and information while conducting fieldwork can be challenging but rewarding. After finishing up my first week as a member of the Proyecto Arqueológico Sitios de Pequeña Escala en el Puuc Oriental (PASPEPO) – the Small-Scale Sites in the Eastern Puuc Archaeological Project - alongside CSUDH peers and Professor Ken Seligson, I am excited to take advantage of so many opportunities for firsthand research and cultural experiences. Let me begin with my expectations for this project before arriving in Yucatan. The ins and outs of archaeological fieldwork are not even close to what I had imagined and this is not a bad thing. In fact, it is a very good thing! Throughout this first week, we conducted fieldwork at our study sites, visited other archaeological sites that have been consolidated for tourism purposes, and experienced the challenges of settling into field life.
Joining together to map, measure, and photograph the field site.
Taking field notes at Xanab Chak while (trying to) dodge mosquitoes.
Over the course of this first week, I not only got to work in the field with Dr. Seligson but also with his project co-director, Evan Parker of Millsaps College. I was a bit timid the first two days out in the field working with Evan because I did not know him too much. I feared he might bite because I had not yet taken any archaeological methods classes. The minute I saw him pulling out graph paper, my mind started to panic because I am not a math whiz. And let me tell you, I thought fieldwork involved utterly different methods from what I was about to experience. I was thinking more along the lines of digging tools like pickaxes and trowels. Instead, this season we are concentrating on mapping a few sites that have not yet been explored by archaeologists and this involves such documentation activities as drawing sketch maps and taking notes of architectural descriptions and measurements. Of course, all turned out well. Evan is a nice guy, and under his and Dr. Seligson’s direction, I quickly learned new skills that my history degree had not taught me. I learned how to map ancient archaeological structures using meter sticks, measuring tape, and a compass, and how to take photographs of features.
Driving out to one of our field sites, the tiny Preclassic site of Paso del Macho.
The 2022 Field Crew: Leslie, Karen, Cesar, Astrid, and Dr. Seligson!
My impressions of my visits to Maya sites so far split into two categories: (1) visits to our study sites and (2) visits to consolidated sites, aka “tourist attractions.” During this first week in the field, I visited two sites: Paso del Macho and “Site A,” which will now be called Xanab Chak (the Yucatec Mayan name for a wasp that was living there, which literally means the “Shoe of Lightning/Thunder). These Maya sites date back to the Middle Preclassic Period (c. 800‒300 BCE). When I first saw these sites, there wasn’t much to see due to the vegetation growth surrounding these areas. Fortunately, the hardworking dedication of Indigenous Maya workers, descended from the people who built and lived in these sites centuries ago, eventually allowed us to get a firsthand view of these features in a way that lidar-generated digital elevation models cannot provide. Once clear, the sites look like a pile of rocks. After a few days, I was able to begin to see patterns in the way the rocks were arranged that showed multiple characteristics of human-made constructions. I definitely would not have been able to identify these piles of stones as archaeological features prior to this week! Examples include the layout of stones from inclining and declining slopes and figures of specific areas like levels, steps, and plazas.
Visit to the Late Classic Period (c. 600-950 CE) site of Labna right near our field site. Ancient dignitaries who visited the site would have passed through this elaborate mosaic arch on their way to the royal palace.
As for the consolidated sites, I cannot lie; they too were spectacular to see. Labna (meaning “Old House” in Yucatec) and Uxmal (“Thrice Built”) displayed different features compared to the sites we are currently working on. It is no surprise since Labna and Uxmal are from the Late Classic Period (c. 600-950 CE), meaning much more of their infrastructures are still preserved and intact. Also, archaeologists have already excavated and consolidated many of the main structures, which allows them to visited and walked on by tourists. Seeing all these sites, both unexcavated and consolidated, excites me and inspires me to expand the picture of what I could do research-wise at some archaeological sites in Guatemala.
Visiting the large Classic Period site of Uxmal, which may have served as a regional capital around c. 850-925 CE and was a rival of Chichen Itza. On the left side of the image you can see the site's ballcourt and on the right in the distance is the Pyramid of the Magician. Go Toros!
Beyond the challenges I had during this first week, which were mainly mosquito- and heat-related, I was pleased to meet a set of peers with whom I am creating lasting memories that I don’t think can ever be recreated again. After two years of learning and interacting through a screen via Zoom, I could not mingle much during the pandemic. In my anthropology courses at CSUDH, I had the pleasure to meet Astrid and Karen through a screen but never got to know them. As for Leslie, I didn’t know what she looked like as I had never seen her but only heard about the exciting research she completed for the McNair Scholars program. As previously mentioned, this field school can be challenging but rewarding. I am glad that I can work with a group of scholars who are developing and furthering themselves through study abroad and firsthand research experiences.