EL MIRADOR

[Robert F. Smith]

Received the latest issue (May 2011) of the Smithsonian magazine Saturday and found a wonderful article summing up what has been learned in over 30 years of excavation by the Mirador Basin Project in central Yucatan. This was the Kan Kingdom of the preclassic Maya period, which was abandoned almost 2,000 years ago. The Basin covers about 2,475 square miles, with the capital city at El Mirador (200,000 pop) and 51 cities elsewhere in the Basin -- for a total population of around 1 million.

Noteworthy features include an estimated 60 foot high perimeter wall begun in the late Preclassic, the huge La Danta pyramid complex containing 99 million cubic feet of rock and fill, plastered causeways at from 2 to 6 meters high, and no evidence that the culture was less sophisticated than the later Classic period sites.

The Maya hieroglyphs at the site have yet to be deciphered, perhaps because the language is much more archaic than the Classic period writing.

See the article and beautiful photos at "Lost City of the Maya" .

[Hashbaz]

The Smithsonian must not know that the lead archaeologist of the El Mirador project, Richard Hansen, is a faithful member of the Church and therefore cannot be a legitimate archaeologist

[bookofmormontruth]

Not sure if this video has ever been posted, but gives you a perspective how large Mirador is, plus interview with Richard Hansen which I had no idea he was LDS.

"1000s of pyramids yet to be uncovered". Is that in the surrounding areas or right in the Mirador location?

Also, do we have LDS archaeologists on LDS sponsored sites?

[Hashbaz]

"1000s of pyramids yet to be uncovered". Is that in the surrounding areas or right in the Mirador location?

That's just at El Mirador. There are at least 3000 structures in the core metropolitan area. They've been excavating there for over 30 years now and have literally barely scratched the surface.

Also, do we have LDS archaeologists on LDS sponsored sites?

BYU leads the excavations at Chiapa de Corzo through its New World Archaeological Foundation (NWAF), but it is not an exclusively LDS operation.

http://chiapadecorzo.byu.edu/

The NWAF has always worked with non-LDS scholars and organizations to produce the finest scholarship in the field. I was just chatting with the Senior Research Fellow for Mesoamerican art from the Smithsonian last weekend and she was raving about the consistent quality of NWAF's scholarship and publications. You can access them here:

http://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/cdm4/browse.php?CISOROOT=%2FNWAF

[TAO]

It's quite interesting how 'dense' population wise the Mayas were... there really could have been battles of tens of thousands of people... on a tour I took, they compared the density to that of the United States. Which is quite interesting.

[sunstoned]

The Smithsonian must not know that the lead archaeologist of the El Mirador project, Richard Hansen, is a faithful member of the Church and therefore cannot be a legitimate archaeologist

Has the Smithsonian made such a claim against Mormon Scientist? If so, I would find that quite disheartening.

[Hashbaz]

Has the Smithsonian made such a claim against Mormon Scientist? If so, I would find that quite disheartening.

The Smithsonian used to send out a rather disparaging form letter any time someone would write them a letter inquiring about the authenticity of the Book of Mormon. Jeff Lindsay has a write up about it here: http://www.jefflindsay.com/LDSFAQ/smithsonian.shtml

[Mola Ram Suda Ram]

That was an interesting bit about the Myan creation story.

[Mellybug]

I agree that the new dating for the Popol Vu (Sp??) was pretty neat. I would love to go travel throughout so many areas in 'central' America, camera and journal in hand...

[mfbukowski]

Not sure if this video has ever been posted, but gives you a perspective how large Mirador is, ....

"The Mountain of the Lord...."