Satellites Uncover Maya Secrets

Images taken from outer space by NASA helped locate previously unknown ruins of the ancient Maya culture in Guatemala.

GUATEMALA CITY - Mayan ruins, hidden beneath soil and dense forest, have been located in Guatemala using satellite technology, revealing more secrets of this ancient indigenous culture.

Guatemalan experts, alongside academics and scientists of the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), have found ruins in the San Bartolo region in the northern department of Petén, using images taken from outer space.

"Archeological efforts are now being aided with satellite photography," Mónica Urquizú, assistant director of the San Bartolo Regional Archeological Project, told Tierramérica. Of the 20 archeologists involved in the program led by U.S. expert William Saturno, half are from Guatemala and half are from the United States.

The team found that there is a relation between the color and the reflection of the vegetation as it is seen in the images -- through instruments that measure light in general but also cover the infrared spectrum -- and the location of know archeological sites.

The images that show potential archeological ruins are scrutinized, then a trip is made to the site, where probes are dug to obtain the chronology of the ruins, Urquizú explained.

The San Bartolo project involves the Guatemalan Department of Pre-Hispanic Monument's institute of anthropology and history, NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, and the U.S. universities of New Hampshire, Harvard and Yale.

The program encompasses in-depth research of the area's ruins, including architectural structures and murals, to better understand the Mayan culture, which lasted some 3,400 years (until the 9th century), across the region that is now southern Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, and the western parts of Honduras and El Salvador.

One of the most important discoveries of Maya art was in San Bartolo: a series of murals, the oldest known so far, which Saturno found in a royal tomb in 2001 and made public last December.

"It was like discovering the Sistine Chapel if you didn't know there had been a Renaissance," said Saturno during that presentation.

"This marks the beginning of Guatemalan art," said the minister of culture and indigenous leader Manuel Salazar.

That discovery forced the rethinking of other studies that attributed the first Maya paintings and hieroglyphs to the later classic period, between 550 and 900 AC.

The murals "show us that there was already a well-organized and consolidated society that was interested in painting the origins of the world," explained Salvador López, director of the Ministry of Culture's department of Maya monuments.

The principal mural, measuring nine meters by 90 cm, depicts the birth, death and resurrection of the god of maize, portrayed four times with different animals offering a blood sacrifice.

Other ruins being studied in San Bartolo include the Jabalí Group, where last year scientists found a jade chestplate, a tomb and vessels, which are believed to be from a king, said Urquizú.

Archeologists are also focusing on Las Plumas, a group of homes, Las Ventanas pyramid, and Tigrillo Palace.

Urquizú said the excavations will continue. "If this site exists with such rich murals, there must be more like them in other parts," she said.

NASA, which has been providing satellite images to the project since 2003, announced Feb. 17 it will continue as part of the effort to find more Maya ruins.

Furthermore, the scientists hope to uncover the reasons for the demise of the Maya, who lived in this area until the 9th century. It is thought that drought and deforestation led to their disappearance.

* Jorge Grochembake is a Tierramérica contributor.