Cancuén Archaeological Project

Consolidation and Recording of Looted Structures

While the numerous looter’s trenches at Cancuén were damaging, fortunately looters mistakenly excavated trenches into the palace, and not into contexts where elaborate goods would be located. All trenches were documented (Figure 6) and consolidated. The trenches exposed beautiful limestone masonry architecture and numerous corbel-vaults. Unstable architectural features were stabilized with wooden supports. These supports will allow the preservation of cut stone masonry walls 3 to 4 meters in height for future conservation and reconstruction.

Artifacts recovered from these trenches included ceramics, lithic material, figurine fragments, and jade beads. These remains indicate very great wealth for the royal family of Cancuén, not surprising given their control of the Upper Pasión River. Consolidation of these trenches has allowed us to refine our strategy for excavations of the palace in future seasons.

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