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El Mirador (which translates as "the lookout", "the viewpoint", or "the belvedere") is a large
pre-Columbian In the history of the Americas, the pre-Columbian era spans from the original settlement of North and South America in the Upper Paleolithic period through European colonization, which began with Christopher Columbus's voyage of 1492. Usually, th ...
Middle and Late Preclassic (1000 BC - 250 AD)
Mayan Mayan most commonly refers to: * Maya peoples, various indigenous peoples of Mesoamerica and northern Central America * Maya civilization, pre-Columbian culture of Mesoamerica and northern Central America * Mayan languages, language family spoken ...
settlement, located in the north of the modern department of
El Petén EL, El or el may refer to: Religion * El (deity), a Semitic word for "God" People * EL (rapper) (born 1983), stage name of Elorm Adablah, a Ghanaian rapper and sound engineer * El DeBarge, music artist * El Franco Lee (1949–2016), American po ...
,
Guatemala Guatemala ( ; ), officially the Republic of Guatemala ( es, República de Guatemala, links=no), is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico; to the northeast by Belize and the Caribbean; to the east by H ...
. It is part of the Mirador-
Calakmul Calakmul (; also Kalakmul and other less frequent variants) is a Maya archaeological site in the Mexican state of Campeche, deep in the jungles of the greater Petén Basin region. It is from the Guatemalan border. Calakmul was one of the large ...
Karst Basin of northern Guatemala.
ansen, R., Morales-Aguilar, C., Thompson, J., Ensley, R., Hernández, E., Schreiner, T., . . . Martínez, G. (2022). LiDAR analyses in the contiguous Mirador-Calakmul Karst Basin, Guatemala: An introduction to new perspectives on regional early Maya socioeconomic and political organization. Ancient Mesoamerica, 1-40. doi:10.1017/S0956536122000244


Discovery

Some of the Mirador basin was surveyed in 1885 by Claudio Urrutia, who noted the presence of ruins. But El Mirador had little attention paid to it until Ian Graham spent some time there making the first map of the area in 1962. A detailed investigation began in 1978 with an archaeological project under the direction of Bruce Dahlin (
The Catholic University of America The Catholic University of America (CUA) is a private university, private Catholic church, Roman Catholic research university in Washington, D.C. It is a pontifical university of the Catholic Church in the United States and the only institution ...
) and Ray Matheny (
Brigham Young University Brigham Young University (BYU, sometimes referred to colloquially as The Y) is a private research university in Provo, Utah. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day ...
). Dahlin's work focused primarily on the bajo swamps and mapping, while Matheny's team focused primarily on excavations in the site center and architecture. This project ended in 1983. To the surprise of the
archaeologist Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...
s, it was found that a large amount of construction was not contemporary with the large Maya classic cities in the area, like
Tikal Tikal () (''Tik’al'' in modern Mayan orthography) is the ruin of an ancient city, which was likely to have been called Yax Mutal, found in a rainforest in Guatemala. It is one of the largest archeological sites and urban centers of the pre-Co ...
and
Uaxactun Uaxactun (pronounced ) is an ancient sacred place of the Maya civilization, located in the Petén Basin region of the Maya lowlands, in the present-day department of Petén, Guatemala. The site lies some north of the major center of Tikal. T ...
, but rather from centuries earlier in the pre-classic era (''see:''
Mesoamerican chronology Mesoamerican chronology divides the history of pre-Columbian, prehispanic Mesoamerica into several periods: the Paleo-Indian (first human habitation until 3500 BCE); the Archaic (before 2600 BCE), the Preclassic or Formative (2500 BC ...
). In 2003, Richard D. Hansen, a Senior Scientist from
Idaho State University , mottoeng = "The truth will set you free" , established = , former_names = Academy of Idaho(1901–1915)Idaho Technical Institute(1915–1927)University of Idaho—Southern Branch(1927–1947)Idaho State ...
, initiated major investigation, stabilization, and conservation programs at El Mirador with a multi-disciplinary approach, including staff and technical personnel from 52 universities and research institutions from throughout the world. By August 2008, the team had published 168 scientific papers, and produced many technical reports and scientific presentations. In the popular media documentary films for the
History Channel History (formerly The History Channel from January 1, 1995 to February 15, 2008, stylized as HISTORY) is an American pay television network and flagship channel owned by A&E Networks, a joint venture between Hearst Communications and the Disney ...
,
National Geographic ''National Geographic'' (formerly the ''National Geographic Magazine'', sometimes branded as NAT GEO) is a popular American monthly magazine published by National Geographic Partners. Known for its photojournalism, it is one of the most widely ...
, the
Learning Channel TLC is an American cable television channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. First established in 1980 as The Learning Channel, it initially focused on educational and instructional programming. By the late 1990s, after an acquisition by the own ...
,
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
,
ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...
's
20/20 Visual acuity (VA) commonly refers to the clarity of vision, but technically rates an examinee's ability to recognize small details with precision. Visual acuity is dependent on optical and neural factors, i.e. (1) the sharpness of the retinal ...
and
Good Morning America ''Good Morning America'' (often abbreviated as ''GMA'') is an American morning television program that is broadcast on ABC. It debuted on November 3, 1975, and first expanded to weekends with the debut of a Sunday edition on January 3, 1993. Th ...
,
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(Australia), and the
Discovery Channel Discovery Channel (known as The Discovery Channel from 1985 to 1995, and often referred to as simply Discovery) is an American cable channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, a publicly traded company run by CEO David Zaslav. , Discovery Channe ...
were produced. In 2019,
Yes Theory Yes Theory is an American digital media brand built around a YouTube channel founded by Thomas Brag, Ammar Kandil, Matt Dajer, and Derin Emre. Yes Theory first gained national media attention in November 2015 with their message of inclusivity in ...
released ''The Lost Pyramid'', a feature-length documentary about their adventure through the Guatemalan jungle to climb The La Danta Pyramid.


History

El Mirador flourished from about the 6th century BCE to the 1st century CE, reaching its height from the 3rd century BCE. Then it experienced a hiatus of construction and perhaps abandonment for generations, followed by re-occupation and further construction in the Late Classic era, and a final abandonment about the end of the 9th century. The civic center of the site covers some with several thousand structures, including monumental architecture from 10 to 72 meters high. One of the key elements for this tremendous rise in human population was the many bajos, seasonal swamps, in the region. Tropical-forest soil contains hardly any nutrients, and most of the nutrients present get washed away by rain. Yet the Maya developed a system that was highly productive. In the Mirador basin, the swamps provided the solution. By importing mud from the swamps by the thousands of tonnes, the Maya created mud-covered terraces ready for agriculture. By adding lime to the soil, they elevated the pH, making it suitable for a variety of crops: corn, squash, beans, cacao, cotton and palm. When the ground was depleted of nutrients, adding another layer of mud reinvigorated the fields. There are a number of "triadic" structures (around 35 structures), consisting of large artificial platforms topped with a set of 3 summit pyramids. The most notable of such structures are three huge complexes; one is nicknamed El Tigre, with height ; another is called La Danta (or Danta) temple. The La Danta temple measures approximately tall from the forest floor, and considering its total volume (2,800,000 cubic meters) is one of the largest
pyramids A pyramid (from el, πυραμίς ') is a structure whose outer surfaces are triangular and converge to a single step at the top, making the shape roughly a pyramid in the geometric sense. The base of a pyramid can be trilateral, quadrilate ...
in the world. When the large man-made platform that the temple is built upon (some 180,000 square meters) is included in calculations, La Danta is considered by some archeologists to be one of the largest ancient structures in the world. Also the Los Monos complex is very large (48 meters high) although not as well known. Most of the structures were originally faced with cut stone which was then decorated with large
stucco Stucco or render is a construction material made of aggregates, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as a decorative coating for walls and ceilings, exterior walls, and as a sculptural and a ...
masks depicting the deities of
Maya mythology Maya or Mayan mythology is part of Mesoamerican mythology and comprises all of the Maya tales in which personified forces of nature, deities, and the heroes interacting with these play the main roles. The myths of the era have to be reconstructed ...
. According to Carlos Morales-Aguilar, a Guatemalan archaeologist from Pantheon-Sorbonne University, the city appears to have been planned from its foundation, as alignments have been found between the architectural groups and main temples, which were possibly related to solar alignments. The study reflects an importance of urban planning and sacred spaces since the first settlers. An additional feature of El Mirador is the quantity and size of causeways, internally linking important architectural compounds, and externally linking the numerous major ancient cities within the Mirador Basin during the later part of the Middle and Late Preclassic periods. The causeways are commonly referred to as ''
sacbe Sacbe at Dzibilchaltun in the Yucatán Arch at the end of the sacbé, Kabah, Yucatán A sacbe, plural sacbeob ( Yucatec Maya: singular ''sakbej'', plural ''sakbejo'ob''), or "white way", is a raised paved road built by the Maya civilization of p ...
ob'' (the plural form of ''sacbe'', meaning "white road" in
Mayan Mayan most commonly refers to: * Maya peoples, various indigenous peoples of Mesoamerica and northern Central America * Maya civilization, pre-Columbian culture of Mesoamerica and northern Central America * Mayan languages, language family spoken ...
, from ''sac'' "white" and ''be'' "road"). These are raised stone causeways rising 2 to 6 meters above the level of the surrounding
landscape A landscape is the visible features of an area of land, its landforms, and how they integrate with natural or man-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.''New Oxford American Dictionary''. A landscape includes the ...
and measuring from 20 to 50 meters wide. One ''sacbe'' links El Mirador to the neighbouring site of
Nakbe Nakbe is one of the largest early Maya civilization, Maya archaeological sites. Nakbe is located in the Mirador Basin, in the Petén (department), Petén region of Guatemala, approximately 13 kilometers south of the largest Maya city of El Mirador ...
, approximately 12 km away, while another joined El Mirador to
El Tintal El Tintal is a Maya archaeological site in the northern Petén region of Guatemala, about northeast of the modern-day settlement of Carmelita, with settlement dating to the Preclassic and Classic periods. It is close to the better known si ...
, 20 km away. While the city and the sister centers of the Mirador Basin thrived between 300 BCE and the Common Era (CE), apparently, the site was abandoned, as were nearly all other major sites in the area, by about 150 CE. A large wall, which must have been as high as 3 to 8 meters, had been constructed on the entire northern, eastern, and southern portions of the West Group of the city prior to its abandonment in the terminal Preclassic period, suggesting a possible threat that had been perceived by this time. Another aspect that may have led to the downfall of the system was soil erosion due to deforestation; trees were burned as part of the process of making stucco. The Maya were fond of plastering buildings, houses, floors and even ceramics with layers of lime plaster called stucco. This plaster created a nice smooth surface which facilitated painting. With this stucco, the Maya created many astonishingly beautiful artifacts, as well as smooth-walled pyramids and 'paved' roads. But a darker side to this production became evident when consumption started to evolve into conspicuous consumption. The production of lime needs a large amount of green wood. Archeologists have calculated that for the production of 1 tonne of lime cement, 5 tonnes of limestone and 5 tonnes of wood were needed. Excavations in and around the bajos (swamps) revealed the effects of deforestation. When trees vanish, the soil becomes loose and is easily transported by water (e.g. rain). Also, water flows downhill, and the only places in the Basin where it could flow to were these bajos. The nutrient-rich muck that was so vigorously imported from the bajos was now buried under a 2 to 3-metre thick layer of sterile clay. This cut off the driving force behind the sustainable agricultural fields. When you cannot replenish your crop fields, more and more harvests start to fail. In the end the failing crop fields led to starvation and collapse of society. In the Late Classic period, c. 700 CE, portions of the site were reoccupied on a more modest scale, with small structures nestled among the ruins of the great preclassic center. The largest structure from this time period is scarcely more than 8 meters high, and many of the preclassic building were plundered for stone materials for construction and lime making. The Late Classic occupants, however, were noted scribes and artists. The area of the Mirador Basin is the only known source of the "codex-style
ceramics A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature. Common examples are earthenware, porcelain ...
", a particularly fine polychrome ceramic consisting of black line drawings on a cream colored background. The Late Classic occupation was brief, and by about 900 CE the area was again nearly completely abandoned and remains so until the present time.


Today

Richard D. Hansen, an archaeologist from the
University of Utah The University of Utah (U of U, UofU, or simply The U) is a public research university in Salt Lake City, Utah. It is the flagship institution of the Utah System of Higher Education. The university was established in 1850 as the University of De ...
, is the current director of the
Mirador Basin The Mirador Basin is a hypothesized geological depression found in the remote rainforest of the northern department of Petén, Guatemala. Mirador Basin consists of two true basins, consisting of shallowly sloping terrain dominated by low-lying ...
Project, and according to his discoveries here, he thinks that the more than 45 mapped sites in the
Mirador Basin The Mirador Basin is a hypothesized geological depression found in the remote rainforest of the northern department of Petén, Guatemala. Mirador Basin consists of two true basins, consisting of shallowly sloping terrain dominated by low-lying ...
may have formed the earliest well-defined political state in Mesoamerica. Although containing striking examples of Preclassic Maya civilization, the remote location of El Mirador has prevented it from becoming a popular tourist site. Major plans by the current government of Guatemala include El Mirador as an important center of the Cuatro Balam Conservation and Development project.


Threats to Mirador

This large concentration of Preclassic Maya cities in Mesoamerica is threatened by massive deforestation, looting, and destruction caused by equipment used in logging road construction, which itself facilitates intrusive settlements. The Mirador Basin in the far northern Petén region of Guatemala is known for its abundance of sites, many of which are among the largest and earliest in the Maya world. Of 26 known sites, only 14 have been studied; an estimated 30 more await discovery. By the time scholars get there, looters may already have plundered them:
Trafficking in Maya artifacts is big business. George S. Stuart of the National Geographic Society has suggested that 1,000 pieces of fine pottery leave the Maya region each month, not an unreasonable estimate in light of the site damage observed. The most sought-after finds are codex-style ceramics, Late Classic (600–900 CE) black-line-on-cream pottery depicting mythological and historical events. Looters are often paid between $200 and $500 per vessel. Collectors may pay more than $100,000 for the same pieces in a gallery or at auction. At even minimal prices this amounts to a $10-million-a-month business in stolen cultural property. Collecting Precolumbian art is often viewed as a justifiable means of preserving the past. It is, in fact, a destructive and sometimes violent business, as attested to by the recent assassination in Carmelita of Carlos Catalán, a local chiclero who had become a staunch opponent of looting in Petén.Archaeology Magazine. Plundering the Petén, September/October 1997 by Richard D. Hansen
Since 2003, California-based non-profit organization
Global Heritage Fund Global Heritage Fund is a non-profit organization that operates internationally. Founded in California in 2002, its mission is to "transform local communities by investing in global heritage." To date, it has partnered with over 100 public and ...
(GHF) has been working to preserve and protect Mirador. In an October 2010 report titled ''
Saving Our Vanishing Heritage ''Saving Our Vanishing Heritage: Safeguarding Endangered Cultural Heritage Sites in the Developing World'' was a report released by Global Heritage Fund on October 17, 2010. It illuminated five accelerating man-made threats facing global heritage si ...
'', GHF listed Mirador as one of 12 worldwide heritage sites most "On the Verge" of irreparable loss and destruction, citing deforestation, fires, major logging, poaching, looting, and narcotics trafficking as major threats to the region.


See also

*
List of Maya sites This list of Maya sites is an alphabetical listing of a number of significant archaeological sites associated with the Maya civilization of pre-Columbian Mesoamerica. The peoples and cultures which comprised the Maya civilization spanned more ...
*
Jungle tourism Jungle tourism is a subcategory of adventure travel defined by active multifaceted physical means of travel in the jungle regions of the earth. Although similar in many respects to adventure travel, jungle tourism pertains specifically to the cont ...
* K'àak' Chi' *
La Muerta La Muerta is a Maya archaeological site in the northern Petén region of Guatemala, located between the sites of El Mirador and El Tintal. It is located on a promontory south of the El Tigre complex of El Mirador, and it is considered a satelli ...
* List of tallest ancient structures


References


Further reading

*Argyle, J. Craig 2008 Investigación de los sistemas de recolección de agua en El Mirador, Operación 610 A-L. In Informe final de investigaciones 2007: Investigación y conservación en los sitios arqueológicos de la zona cultural y natural Mirador, edited by Lopez, Nora, Hansen, Richard D., and Suyuc-Ley, Edgar, pp. 487–497. Report filed with the Departamento de Monumentos Prehispánicos y Coloniales, Instituto de Antropología e Historia, Ministerio de Cultura y Deportes, Guatemala City (in Spanish) *Argyle, J. Craig 2009 Manejo de agua en el período preclásico en El Mirador, Petén, Guatemala: Operación 610 O, 2008. In Investigaciones multidisciplinarias en El Mirador: Informe final de la temporada 2008, Vols. 1 & II, edited by Mejía, Héctor, Hansen, Richard D., and Suyuc-Ley, Edgar, pp. 586–612. Report filed with the Ministerio de Cultura y Deportes, Instituto de Antropología e Historia, Departamento de Monumentos Prehispánicos y Coloniales, Guatemala City (in Spanish) *Argyle, J. Craig 2010 Los paneles y rasgos asociados al manejo de agua en la Gran Acrópolis de El Mirador: Operación 610-O. In Exploraciones arqueológicas en la Cuenca Mirador, 2009, edited by Mejía, Héctor E., Hansen, Richard D., and Suyuc-Ley, Edgar, pp. 539–556. Report filed with the Instituto de Antropología e Historia, Guatemala, Departamento de Monumentos Prehispánicos y Coloniales, Guatemala City (in Spanish) *Argyle, J. Craig, and Hansen, Richard D. 2010 La cosmovisión de estuco: Los paneles estucados del sistema hidráulico del Mirador. In La cosmovisión a través del tiempo: Tres mil años de historia maya. III Convención Mundial de Arqueología Maya, 2010. Casa Convento Concepción, Antigua Guatemala, June 18–20, 2010 (in Spanish) *Argyle, J. Craig, and Hansen, Richard D. 2015 Excavaciones de la Plaza Hundida Oeste, Gran Acrópolis Central, El Mirador: Operaciones 610 KK, 610 LL, 610 MM, 610 NN, 610 OO. Temporada de Campo 2014. In Investigaciones en la Cuenca Mirador, Temporada 2014, edited by Hansen, Richard D. and Suyuc-Ley, Edgar, pp. 154–171. Report presented to the Instituto de Antropología e Historia, Ministerio de Cultura y Deportes, Guatemala City. (in Spanish) *Argyle, J. Craig, and Hansen, Richard D. 2016 El friso preclásico de la Gran Acrópolis Central en El Mirador: Distribución de recursos y mitos relatados en estuco / The Preclassic Frieze of the Great Central Acropolis at El Mirador: Resource Allocation and Myth Recounted in Stucco. In Mirador: Research and Conservation in the Ancient Kaan Kingdom, edited by Hansen, Richard D. and Suyuc-Ley, Edgar, pp. 131–152. Foundation for Anthropological Research and Environmental Studies (FARES), Corporación Litográfica, Guatemala City (in Spanish) * *Hansen, Richard D. 2016a The Mirador-Calakmul Cultural and Natural System: A Priceless Treasure in Guatemala and Mexico / El sistema cultural y natural Mirador-Calakmul: Un tesoro invaluable en Guatemala y Mexico. In Mirador: Research and Conservation in the Ancient Kaan Kingdom, edited by Hansen, Richard D. and Suyuc-Ley, Edgar, pp. 9–36. Foundation for Anthropological Research and Environmental Studies, Corporación Litográfica, Guatemala City *


External links


Archaeologists Discover Huge Lost Civilization in Guatemala - Vice - Becky Ferreira - December 21, 2022Scientific papers and reports on El Mirador
at
Global Heritage Fund Global Heritage Fund is a non-profit organization that operates internationally. Founded in California in 2002, its mission is to "transform local communities by investing in global heritage." To date, it has partnered with over 100 public and ...

Mirador Basin Project (formerly RAINPEG)
updates Archaeological and preservational work at El Mirador and surrounding sites by the Foundation for Anthropological Research and Environmental Studies (FARES).
The Tombs of El Mirador
YouTube (National Geographic)
El Mirador, Photos and description of the site and the jungle hike at AmazingTemples.com

Digital reconstruction of El Mirador
{{Authority control Mirador, El Maya Preclassic Period Former populated places in Guatemala Archaeological theft Populated places established in the 6th century BC 6th-century BC establishments in the Maya civilization 10th-century disestablishments in the Maya civilization 1926 archaeological discoveries