Hello friends. The FTP site where I had previously stored several of the links in my last post is no longer working, so I have uploaded my files to another Internet location (Google Docs) and I have now updated my previous blog posting as can be seen below.
Here is the slide presentation that I created for the 2009 Society of American Archaeologists Conference in Atlanta:
You may remember the above map as a smaller portion of a map that I posted in an earlier entry (it was annotated by Linda Schele) when I was discussing archaeologists that have excavated at Palenque. The map does not display those made by Miguel Angel Fernandez in the early 1940s where he found several caches in the Temple of the Cross and Sun.
Temple of the Cross
Temple of the SunThe underground caching of objects by the ancient Maya people was a frequent ritual behavior and is evidenced in the archaeological record throughout the Maya Area, particularly within sacred temples. These caches often take the form of buried and covered pots that contain a variety of objects including things such as human bones, charred flowers, figurines and obsidian lances.
Photo Credit: Archaeologia Mexicana and Marco Antonio Pacheco/Raices
The pot on the left above was found in the Temple of the Cross by the Fernandez in 1941. When there are multiple caches in one building, the configuration of how they are laid out can have ritual or symbolic meaning. For instance, many are found in the shape of a cross or in the shape of a quincunx (one in each corner of the building and then one in the middle).
But the grouped cache excavated by Fernandez shown in the diagram above was of a very strange configuration that he postulated was in the shape of the big and little dipper (he also thought that it could be a coincidence). The layout does not quite fit these two constellations and the ancient Maya would surely have made it more precise, if that was their intention. What do you think it might represent or is this just a random "building ensoulment".
Here is a picture of some of the holes in the floor of the building. It was hard to take this photo, since I had to try to fit my camera through the screening device protecting the sanctuary. You may ask “how did Fernandez know where to dig for these caches?” He knew where they were because he could see the holes in the stucco of the floor where they had been patched up.
I recently received a new National Geographic magazine collector's item publication in the mail.
As I was flipping through the softbound book, I noticed the messages contained on the inside of the front cover.
And then I noticed the inside of the back cover. Delfino Lopez Hidalgo, one of the administrators at the Palenque site from the INAH (the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia) told me that the governor of Chiapas, as well a the National Secretary of Tourism had spent large amounts of money in tourism advertising in order to promote the state of Chiapas. Visit http://www.sectorturismo.gob.mx/wb/sectur/sect_buscador?q=chiapas
You may recall a discussion in a previous posting about the possible existence of bathrooms in the Palace. This evening, while looking through many of our old books and enformes about Palenque, I came across the above diagram that was drawn under the direction of Mexican archaeologist, Miguel Angel Fernandez. He excavated at Palenque in the 1940's. The diagram illustrates part of the Palace tower court and clearly shows "la posición" that a man would be able take in order to relieve himself in "el hombre's estación". It even shows the physics of how it might operate. I guess we will have to continue to use our imagination regarding how the women's excusado works. I now have a new-found confidence in our Palenque tour guides because the information that they are giving their audiances comes from a pretty good source!
This year, for the first time, I am attending the International GIS conference in San Diego put on by ESRI (Environmental Science Resources Institute). I haven't seen so many geography geeks under one roof in my life! There are so many of us that we take up the entire San Diego Conference Center.
I am here to hone my GIS skills, to present information about my Don Juan project (the mountain right behind Palenque), to learn from other people doing archaeology GIS, and to learn the new GIS tools that ESRI has been developing for their products this year.
In addition, I decided to be daring and stay at an International Youth Hostel to save money. Here is a picture of the establishment.
Here is a shot of the front desk.
There are several alternative travel modes available to get to the Palenque site. My preferred way is the "combi" which costs only 10 pesos. But how are other people finding their way there? It is less than 10 miles from the modern city also named Palenque. When one begins the trip up into the site, its an uphill struggle by foot, so many people want motorized transportation to there. Lots of Mexican families are on vacation now and they tend to bring their cars, although many are arriving in tour package buses.
To determine the modes that people are using to get Lakamha, I have begun an effort to sample trip modes (what kind of vehicle are people using). It will come as no surprise to know that so far (and my sampling is not yet complete) I have found that 58 percent of all the vehicles that enter the site parking lot are private vehicles. But this is a third world country, right (is this still true of Mexico?) I don't know much about Mexico's economy, but I do know that they love their cars! This does not mean that more PEOPLE come into the site by private car, on the contrary, most people are coming in on the large luxury buses like this one.
What this large percent of private vehicles means is there are not enough parking spaces in the small lot up the hill next to the site, so people are parking on the road "shoulders". This road is the only one into the site.
In reality, the road has no shoulders. When it was built several years ago, at least one ancient grave was disturbed and the new road was carved into several of the ancient buildings. Widening it now is unthinkable, so other traffic management tools must be found -- it is an obvious safety issue.
It would help if parking were restricted to one side of the street, but this is not the case. In addition, people who have parked their cars are getting out and walking up in the street to get to the park entrance because there is no other place to walk, thus creating conflicts between the pedestrian, the car and the bus. I am told that there are plans to create a park and ride lot near the Panchan entrance, but the funds may not be available for a while and building a parking lot takes time. No need to worry, I am told, after all the problems are only due to vacation season, right? In a couple of months, all will be back to normal and the traffic problems will go away. OK, maybe so, but we should pray that no one looses their lives in the meantime.
I suggest that this is a wake-up call for what the future might look like within the next 20 years. Too many cars and people on a road too narrow and curvy.
Mexican School Children
Families on Vacation
People from all over the world
Today I went to the site looking for a guide named Nicolas Lopez, a local Chol Maya. He had ben my guide last year into Palenque's jungle on the western side of the site and I wanted to go there again. Tourists can only visit this area if they are accompanied by a licensed guide. Guides must have 530 hours of training. Few touristas want to go there because the paths are muddy and hard to follow. Nicolas loves to tramp through the woods, finding things that he thinks are of interest to me. When we were done, after paying him, I also gave him a reproducible map of the site that he can give out to his future clients.
I made this map to help you see how I have geo-coded the signs. They are the purple dots and usually the are found along the tourist circuit path. As you can see, I still need to add the suspension bridge that crosses the Otolum (the signs incorrectly designate this crossing as the Murcielogos).
Until I made this map (in ArcScene) and then turned the site toward me, I hadn't realized how high up into the mountain the Murcielagos stream originates. The streams that cross Palenque come from perched table water springs that become full to overflowing due to added runoff when a big storm comes through. There are at least 51 of these type springs that flow out of the Palenque site.
The site experiences tremendous erosional processes during the events. This is a picture that I snapped of Group C today. Water pours across and over everything, even though many modern efforts has been used to try to channelize it.
Tthe Murcielagos (meaning bats) Group is also heavy soaked. 
To my surprise and delight, I came across this little guy trying to cross the walkway and make his way down to one of the cascades. Obviously in a defensive posture...
(Click on the map to open a new window)
I would like you to meet my dear friend and fellow University of Texas PhD student who also is doing work at the Classic Maya site of Palenque, Mexico for the sustainable tourism project. She is examining and analyzing parts of the site architecture that are being impacted by tourism and natural processes such as erosion and vegetation growth. Archaeology is her love and passion and she is specializing in architecture. She has worked at the sites of La Corona, San Bartolo and Tikal - just to name a few. 
To help people cross all the streams that flow in and around the site, there are at least 7 bridges, both modern and ancient. This is the first one that crosses the Otolum Arroyo. I'm mapping the location of all the bridges, trying to describe each one's composition.
Above is a modern suspension bridge that the tourists just love. Many try to take pictures while standing in the middle of it, but its pretty hopeless to get it focused properly, since the bridge is always swinging. It is suspended over the Murcielagos Arroyo and has many travertine waterfalls.
Yes, I tried to get a good shot too, but I was just as shakey as the tourists. Click on the picture to enlarge it and you will see what I mean.
Here we have another bridge that crosses the Otolum, but this one still has some of the original stones that were put back together by archaeologists.
I used 3D Analyst and ArcScene to make this image (same programs used for the 3D image of the entire mountain). The data comes from the work that Ed Barnhart and his mapping crew did 5 or 6 years ago. I received the data in AutoCAD format and I continue to try to produce an acceptable 3D model of the site to help me understand how people moved around within it. When I produced this image, I added the building lines into the process as "hard lines" to try to contain the elevation points. The palace looks distorted because only one elvation point was included - that for the middle of the structure. Looks a bit bumpy.
For the last month, I have climbed up and down the limestone (both modern and reconstructed) stairs at Palenque without a mishap. Its ironic that I finally hammered my left big toe on the two steps down from Alfonso and Julia's library -- landing on the concrete floor right on top of the computer monitor that I was carrying. The monitor was fine, but as you can see, the toe took a beating. I fear that I have broken it. Looks pretty ugly.
Scattered throughout the site are places like these where tourists and vendors can sit in the shade to rest or to listen to the local guides. I am mapping these resting areas as well as areas where the vendors sell their wares. Many of these vendors are local Maya and wear the traditional Maya traje. They each need several square feet of ground to be able to lay out their goods for beautiful displays like this one.
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