Surviving in the Rainforest:
The Realities of Looting in the Rural Villages of El Petén, Guatemala

Local Knowledge about Maya Art and History

Local knowledge about Precolumbian remains is not limited only to architecture, but also includes the objects that are part of the material culture. It is an important fact that most of the population in Guatemala is living on, or next to, archaeological sites and centers. If people are aware of those remains, they do not understand them to be part of the nation’s history and Precolumbian culture. In the highlands, for example, people engaged in agriculture are the ones who find Precolumbian objects more easily. Ceramics, are identified as objects that the "ancestors" (los antiguos) left behind. Other elements, like jade beads and obsidian blades, are placed on altars and used for divination by the local healers. ⁴⁵ 

Other interesting phenomena occur on the Pacific coast of Guatemala, where large areas of land are cotton or sugar cane plantations or cattle ranches. Some of the fincas have large Precolumbian monuments, which are still visited by local and foreign pilgrims, who burn copal and present offerings to the figures. ⁴⁶   These basalt stone sculptures are usually carved in human and animal shapes. In many cases, black soot cover the surfaces due to the heavy smoke of the ritual burning, and neither the owners of these lands or IDAEH have been able to remove some of them to safer places because of their importance to local rituals. ⁴⁷ 

Unfortunately, in the highlands and on the Pacific coast, most of the sites are located under major human settlements and agricultural areas. Looting is a problem because of the presence of laborers (many of them are immigrants from other departments) dedicated to the seasonal harvesting and extensive agriculture. Also, there is a high demand for objects from this region by private collectors, often the owners of these fincas. (Bové, 1996).

In El Petén, on the contrary, people are more aware of archaeological sites and mounds which are easier to notice because the structures were built with limestone blocks, and not with mud bricks. Also, large extensions of the Petén territory (mostly the northern areas) are not occupied with permanent settlements or criss-crossed by highways, thus being more protected from devastating destruction.

Today’s population categorizes objects according to their own cultural context and beliefs. Local people in the rural areas classify the archaeological remains according to their nature, shape, material, and decoration. For example, it is common to hear that all round-based ceramic vessels are defined as ollas (cooking pots), and beads or shells that are found together are defined as collares (necklaces). Archaeological sites, with tall structures and pyramidal buildings, are commonly known as reinados or kingdoms. Mostly among the forest workers, minor sites with smaller architectural groups are often considered to be part of, or subordinate to, a nearby kingdom. This size relation among sites is empirically deduced by their experience in the field.

Long-term research and recent discoveries in archaeology and epigraphy have revealed that Maya cities had strong socio-political interrelationships through commercial exchange, marriage, alliances, warfare, and social events. Thanks to the study of Maya art and glyphic writing, (most often from looted objects) it has been possible to determine the importance of ritual events at certain sites, and the attendance of rulers from other sites during those occasions.

Moreover, it is interesting to hear chicleros suggest, by direct observation and reconnaissance in the forest, how sites could have been subordinated to another powerful site based on their sizes and the distances that separate them. Don Matías Velásquez (an arriero who rides back and forth from the camps to the central warehouse with supplies and chicle) was explaining to me his theory about how El Infiernón (now Naactún), Río Azul, and even Tikal were kingdoms that, despite their greatness, must have been subjects of a greater kingdom "on the other side" called Calakmul (Campeche, México). Interestingly, until that day he never had the opportunity to read or hear of the latest discoveries about the Maya states and their relationships. Specific studies about Calakmul as a superpower had already been made by epigraphers and archaeologists. Calakmul’s dominance of the Maya lowlands has been deduced from the inscriptions carved on stelae and buildings, which record the diplomatic and economic exchange of the sites of the area (Martin and Grube, 1995:44-45). ⁴⁸ 

Endnotes

45. This was observed in the house of a healer from San Antonio Palopó (Lake Atitlán), Sololá. According to him, the obsidian objects (clearly Precolumbian), were left for him in the fields by the Lord of Thunder, after a day of rain. Effectively, the common name for obsidian is piedra de rayo (stone of thunderbolt) and, just as a coincidence, it can be easily found after the rain washes down mounds and slopes.

46. Copal is incense made with the resin of the copal tree (Protium copal), in use since Precolumbian times. Other modern offerings include candles that equate with the colors of the cardinal points (red, black, white, and yellow), liquor and chocolate bars that resemble the sacred cacao (Theobroma cacao) consumed as a sacred food in antiquity.

47. The most well known sculpted stones are located on fincas in Santa Lucía Cotzumalhuapa, and La Democracia (department of Escuintla).

48. According to these studies, the sites that were more closely related to Calakmul through royal visits, diplomatic exchange, marital alliances, or warfare are: Piedras Negras, El Perú, Yaxchilán, Dos Pilas, Cancuén, Naranjo, and Caracol. Tikal and Palenque were related to Calakmul only through armed conflict (Martin and Grube, 1995:45).

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