Early Copán Acropolis Program 1995-1997 Field Seasons
Latest Findings at Copán, Honduras

Research Goals and Methods

The Copán Acropolis is an architectural complex used by Copán’s 16 kings from ca. A.D. 420 to 800.  The overall objective of ECAP research is to document the architectural history of this famous complex. To meet this goal, ECAP has excavated some 3 kms of tunnels from the "corte," or river cut along the east side of the Acropolis. As a result, an unprecedented sequence of buried buildings dating to the Early Classic era (ca. A.D. 420-600) has been revealed, recorded, and conserved for future study and appreciation. The tunnels follow known architectural remains (floors, terraces, building walls, etc.) to reveal the form of buried architecture. Tunneling is far less destructive than conventional trenching since most of the excavated material is composed of the fills placed by the Maya when they buried their buildings prior to replacement by subsequent construction. The result is a sequence of superimposed Acropolis buildings that comprise the architectural history of this complex. Each individual building in this sequence is recorded by photography, drawings, and computer-generated plans. The sum of this documentation is a unique record composed of both stratigraphic sections and a series of computer-generated plans of each stage in the growth of the Acropolis. A series of computer-generated schematic plans (Figures 1-10) is hyperlinked to this report as a guide to the architectural sequence.

Excavation and documentation are followed by consolidation of both tunnels and architecture. Tunnel consolidation insures that the architecture buried beneath the Copán Acropolis will remain accessible to both scholars and visitors. One former ECAP tunnel is already open to visitors (see Figure 11); plans call for others to be opened to visitors in the future. Architectural consolidation is carried out according to UNESCO standards so that the long-buried Maya buildings beneath the Acropolis are preserved for future study and appreciation.

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