For more than two decades, Site Q was the elusive
Maya city that lived in the imaginations of archaeologists, the
rumored home of ancient monuments that once flooded the art market.
The mystery, however, might be over after
archaeologists from Southern Methodist University and Yale University
confirmed Tuesday the discovery of the city in the overgrown jungles
of Guatemala.
The find, based on a two-piece limestone panel
with more than 140 hieroglyphs, concludes what a Yale archaeologist
calls "one of the longest and wildest hunts for a Maya city in the
history of the discipline."
It also stands to help unlock secrets about the
New World's only literate ancient civilization.
"It anchors a whole piece of floating Maya
history into the ground," SMU archaeologist David Freidel said.
Dr. Freidel and his team found proof of the city
while working at a little-known royal center called La Corona in the
northwest Petén region of Guatemala.
There, Yale archaeologist Marcello Canuto found
the panel, establishing La Corona as the site of the ancient city.
"The discovery of Site Q promises the recovery of
a record of one of the greatest producers of classic Maya
civilization," Dr. Canuto said.
The enigma of Site Q began in the 1960s when a
series of Maya monuments of similar style but unknown origin inundated
the art market, ending up in museums and private collections. One such
monument, an ancient altar, sits at the Dallas Museum of Art.
A decade later, a graduate student at Yale began
connecting the dots, positing the idea of an undiscovered city or site
that had been looted.
He called it Site Q, an abbreviation of the
Spanish Sitio Que, or "Which Site."
For archaeologists, it was a tantalizing concept.
Ancient Maya civilization was dominated by two large, autonomous and
warring city-states: Calakmul in Mexico and Tikal in Guatemala.
Although much was known of Tikal, Calakmul had
yielded far fewer clues.
Site Q, thought to be an ally of Calakmul, held
the potential to fill out the picture and perhaps help prove a large
north-south ancient road.
"Site Q was proposed to be in one place, then in
another place. There were all these candidates, but none of them
really panned out," Dr. Canuto said.
In the 1990s, trackers working for conservation
societies in Guatemala led researchers to La Corona. In 1997, Harvard
archeologists explored the site, finding clues that helped begin to
make the link between the area and the lost city. Still, definitive
evidence was lacking.
"There was a general sense that Site Q might
never be found. It might not be a site or it might be a series of
sites in the region," Dr. Canuto said.
The break came in April, when researchers left
for a six-day expedition at La Corona, sponsored in part by the
National Geographic Society.
In a trench at the location, Dr. Canuto came
across the stone panel, SMU graduate student Stanley Guenter said.
"We had never expected to find something like
that," Mr. Guenter said. "A find like this is a once in a lifetime
deal."
The team has presented its findings to
archaeologists in Guatemala and plans to return in the spring for
another expedition. A full excavation could begin as early as 2007,
Dr. Canuto said.
Dr. Freidel and other SMU researchers also have
worked extensively at El Perú, or Waka, about 30 miles from the latest
discovery. The archaeologist has begun the first modern survey of
Waka's ruined temples and palaces.
Last year, one of his graduate students, David
Lee, unearthed the tomb of a powerful queen who ruled a Maya city 13
centuries ago.
"People have been talking about Site Q monuments
for 30 years," Dr. Freidel said. "It's answering a question that's
been on the table for 30 years."
Dr. Freidel and others hope the find opens the
door further to Maya civilization around the seventh century. It could
also help establish the existence of a major ancient interstate
running through the area.
"We have the outlines of a royal road," Dr.
Freidel said. "We're connecting the dots."
