The Piedras Negras Project: Preliminary Report of the 2000 Field Season

In the Land of the Turtle Lords:
Archaeological Investigations at Piedras Negras, Guatemala
Stephen Houston, Héctor Escobedo, Mark Child, Charles Golden, Richard Terry, and David Webster

Operations in 2000

By late March camp construction began at Piedras Negras, with an enlarged lab and more orderly storage for sherds. Operations soon opened in R-5 and R-3 in the South Group, where the project focused on the presumed Early Classic remains at Piedras Negras. This area had been touched relatively little by the University Museum project, although a 3.5 m. deep trench had been driven into R-3. Partly with the idea of cleaning and backfilling this gaping pit, which still retained metal wire from Museum revetments, Mark and Jessica Child excavated the trench down to the original limits of the Pennsylvania operations and slightly beyond, into Preclassic levels (Operation 55). The profiles proved to be extremely unstable, so the Childs reinforced them with bagged silt. At the end of the season, the trench was refilled to the original surface of the pyramid. In the meantime Escobedo and Marcelo Zamora completed work on the basal platform and adjacent plaza of Pyramid R-5 (Operation 47). Repeated attempts to pierce the core of the pyramid were made impossible by the loose, poorly consolidated rubble of the structure. By late April, Escobedo and Zamora moved to a well-preserved Early Classic building, R-2 (Operation 56), which held several column altars that seem to have been flung there during Terminal Classic times. None of these columns had cist foundations, suggesting that they originated in another part of the site. This building was shown stratigraphically to postdate Pyramid R-3, and to rest on a large Early Classic extension of the R-32 platform. Unfortunately, the surface of R-2 had been cleared by the University Museum, which seems not to have preserved records of these excavations, nor of those in R-3.  J. Alden Mason was probably responsible for these operations, since his notes are not otherwise commendable for their thoroughness. Escobedo and Zamora finished the season by limited clearing and testing of Pyramid R-16 (Operation 58), shown to be of Early Classic date, with sherds of this period atop its basal platform. A final test in O-12 attempted to retrieve remains linked to the enigmatic Ruler 6, whose stela now lies in front of this building.

In late April Mark and Jessica Child moved to R-8, an extension of R-7 that merited excavation because of its unusual shape (Operation 59). The chances were great that the irregular outline of this mound concealed earlier structures. Clearance began on top and near its stairway, which faced the alley to the west of the R-11 ballcourt. An L-shaped excavation led to the uncovering of R-8-Sub 1, an Early Classic structure with excellent if variable preservation. On May 23rd, three days before the projected close of excavations, a richly appointed, probably royal tomb was found oriented along its long-axis, towards the rear of the structure, directly on bedrock. With the assistance of fans, generators, and 16-hour workdays, this tomb was recorded and cleared within a five-day period. Simultaneously, workers pitted into R-14 (Operation 60), finding an Early Classic deposit and cleaned the front of the R-8 stairway oriented to the South Group Court.

By mid-April operations were in full force throughout the site. Charles Golden and Fabiola Quiroa concentrated exclusively on a residential terrace behind the Acropolis (Operations 46 and 54). In 1999 this area was found to produce deep stratigraphy, and the expectation of functional insights into an undisturbed residential component of the Acropolis. Quiroa devoted her attentions initially to J-27, evidently the summit of a long, ruined stairway leading to the Northwest Group Court. However, the building clearly differed from other temples, being little more than a crudely fashioned platform of Yaxche date with superficial deposits of Chacalhaaz materials, perhaps tossed from the residential area above. The buildings above (Operation 46), excavated by Golden, later with the assistance of Quiroa, absorbed the entire field season because of the complexity of the deposits. Nearby, Houston and Ernesto Arredondo commenced a broad approach to the few areas in the remainder of the Acropolis that were not covered by debris left by the University Museum or by standing buildings.

In early April Arredondo directed himself to Platform J-1, particularly the base of Pyramid J-4 (Operation 48). Later, he opened simultaneous operations throughout the Acropolis, with the aim of determining the constructional history of standing buildings on the palace. These tests targeted Court 1 (clearance of part of J-6 in preparation for consolidation efforts in a destabilized wall, along with final explorations of Platform J-5), Court 2 (Structures J-9, J-11, J-12, J-13, and what appeared to be a hitherto undetected, late structures between Pyramid J-4 and Structure J-12), and points above (J-21, J-22, and J-23). Megan O’Neil undertook detailed documentation of all standing masonry in the Acropolis, and later assisted Zachary Hruby’s invaluable contributions to project photography. Heather Hurst, too, took measurements and began perspective drawings of buildings throughout the site. James Fitzsimmons and Lillian Garrido complemented these efforts with thorough tests and trenches throughout the West Group Plaza and its surrounding structures. Fitzsimmons dealt with Structures O-14, O-16, O-17, K-1, K-3, and K-7, Garrido with the subterranean mysteries of the probable Early Classic palace under the Plaza. Garrido ended the season by further explorations in S-5, following through on tests made in the beginning of the season by Sarah Jackson, who began her work in the patio dominated by S-11 (Operation 15), a presumed elite, sub-royal residence, and direct the remaining forty-five days of the season in Structures C-10 and C-12.

From mid-April excavations picked up from earlier seasons in Operation 33, under the supervision of Zachary Nelson, who gradually extended this operation into test-pitting in the unexcavated portion of the "U-sector."  Simultaneously, Amy Kovak began an ambitious program of stripping in RS-28, among the more monumental structures in the periphery of Piedras Negras. After Webster’s arrival in late April, he completed excavations in RS-27, assisted by Mark Child, who excavated a probable sweatbath nearby, and by early May had moved to RS-24, the most distant site excavated thoroughly by the Pennsylvania State team. These excavations were done in concert with soil tests by Jacob Parnell and Fabián Fernández. Parnell tested for phosphate throughout the Arroyo sector of settlement, mapped last year by Nelson (Nelson, 1999), as well as in residential areas explored by James Fitzsimmons around N-3, following up on unusually high concentrations of phosphorus and heavy metals detected in previous seasons of soil testing. Alejandro Guillot augmented our large number of test pits with others in the Z-sector (Operation 53), near the northern trail leading into Piedras Negras. He completed his work by comprehensive test-pitting in the difficult second-growth that covered the Arroyo sector. Finally, Rachel Cane mapped in the Acropolis while Timothy Murtha surveyed the area of the suburban excavations.

By contract the Project was obliged to invest over 20% of its budget in consolidation and restoration. These terms have precise meanings in Guatemala, "consolidation" being a reinforcement of standing masonry, "restoration" the thorough repointing and repair of such walls, benches, cornices, and floors. "Reconstruction" carries a more pejorative connotation, as it involves the speculative and often fanciful mending of entire buildings, a measure not countenanced in Guatemala. The project rigorously avoided reconstruction, focusing only on standing masonry and the consolidation of walls destabilized by the University Museum team in the 1930s or by looters in the last three decades. Efforts were directed to two locations, the P-7 sweatbath, the scene of restoration in the 1998 field season, and selected points in the Acropolis. A team of 20 masons needed first to address the perilous state of the north, front wall of P-7, which had begun to lean ominously after the 1999 field season.

Masons soon determined the cause: rubble under the wall had been poorly compressed, an instability exacerbated by great weight and height of the building facade. After marking each stone, the masons dismantled and rebuilt the wall on a level footing. Probing around the side walls soon revealed the distressing fact that virtually all of the mortar had decomposed to the consistency of powder. Worse, tree roots had penetrated the full height of the northwestern wall. The decision was made then and there to concentrate all restoration efforts on P-7.  By the end of the field season most internal and external walls had been repointed with mortar, loose sections dismantled and reconstituted, tree roots entirely removed, cornices brought back to their original reversed-Z, sloping outlines, and three benches returned to their former height (two of these benches, those in the front vestibule, had the character of thrones, with freestanding front supports; those in the back room were entirely solid, intended, one presumes, for reclining). To facilitate visits by tourists, a central portion of the front stairway was fully consolidated and loose fill heaped to the sides to prevent erosion. Finally, holes in masonry were patched in the Acropolis, particularly in Structure J-6.  Some of these cavities came from looting, although the largest resulted from Pennsylvania excavations, which, in searching for earlier remains, had undermined the northern interior wall of J-6.

By May 20, the rains arrived early, making further work difficult or even impossible. Hardships in removing the massive Panel 15 meant that Arredondo and Inspector Gustavo Amarra had to stay past June 3, at which time all excavations had been completely backfilled and most staff transported away from Piedras Negras. This situation remained thus until Escobedo arranged, with the kind help of numerous friends but especially the American Embassy, the airlift of the panel to safety in Guatemala City. The monument is now on display in the National Museum, in a special frame devised by the Institute of Anthropology and staff at the Museum.

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