Mayan city of El Pilar To Undergo Major Research

A 3D model of the city in the 8th Century

A major Mayan site will see two archaeology teams from America and Belize carry out major excavations on the ancient Mayan city of El Pilar.

A team from the University of Santa Barbara are teaming up with officials from Belize to study the ancient Mayan city of El Pilar.  Belize representatives will sign a Memorandum of Understanding to start a research and management program called “Archaeology Under the Canopy.”

The site dates from  700BC – 900AD, and was set in a landscape of city houses and gardens surrounded by areas of forest and agricultural fields.  

Today it now lies at the heart of a 5,000 acre archaeological reserve that links Belize and Guatemala.

It flourished as a Maya garden city for nearly 2,000 years. It was the largest urban area in the Belize River region, housing at its peak more than 20,000 people in a mosaic landscape of city houses and gardens, surrounded by forest and agricultural fields.

The city had what is rare in the Maya area, an abundance of water (the name is derived from the Spanish word for watering basin). The venerable Tikal, 30 miles (50 km) to the west, had none.

El Pilar was more than three times the size of nearby Baking Pot and Xunantunich but was unexplored by Western archaeologists until 1983.

The site has more than 25 identified plazas in an area of about 100 acres (38 hectares) and is composed of three main sectors named Xaman, Nohol, and Poniente. Two ball courts are found in the Nohol and Poniente sectors that are connected with a causeway.. The tallest buildings on the site are 17-20 meters high, offering spectacular vistas of the Maya Forest.

One of the archaeologists leading the team, Anabel Ford, mapped out the city of El Pilar on the border between Belize and Guatemala in 1983. She started a preservation campaign in 1993 and the site now has protected status in both countries.

This Memorandum renews the agreement between UCSB and Belize have had since 2005.

Ms Ford said “This MOU underscores the importance of our international relationships and the value of Mesoamerica, literally at our back door,”

 “Having an opportunity to celebrate the value of research, the importance of exchange, and the critical quality of conservation is in and of itself remarkable. That The University of Santa Barbara can foster this relationship is proof of forward thinking. Here is where the past can help the future of the Maya forest.”