9 minute read
Last Maya Bastion
Last Maya Bastion
Text: Mateusz Popek
Photos: Petén Itzá Project – Underwater Archaeological Expedition to Guatemala
This smell comes from other times, from another world. It is the scent of the mystery left here by the Maya, and we are about to break into their underground world to learn about these secrets.
Our expedition started about a week ago. After overcoming an infinite number of administrative problems, travelling the ocean and a long journey to the city of Flores lying on an island on Lake Petén Itzá, we are finally there. This is a charming, colonial town with countless bars, hotels and hostels, where backpackers from all over the world rest before moving on. The goal of our expedition is almost at our fingertips. Actually, you just need to cross the street to stand on the shore of the lake, the bottom of which we wish to penetrate, looking for the Maya secrets. Although our goal is so close, we cannot start work, because the compressor that was supposed to serve us from the first day of the project got stuck in the Guatemalan Customs Chamber and we cannot get it back. There is hope, however, because the local firefighters have promised that they would find a way to recharge our scuba tanks and bring them to us in the evening, which is still a few hours away, so we have some time to contemplate the beautiful lake.
The city of Flores was built on the ruins of Maya Nojpetén. When the Spanish dominance already covered the greater part of Mesoamerica, the Maya bravely resisted and defended the independence of the capital located on Petén Itzá Lake – their last bastion. However, even this place was not saved from the devastating power of the conquistadors. In 1697 (as many as 172 years from the beginning of the conquest), the Spaniards led by Martín de Ursú y Arizmendi set up camp on one of the shores of the lake. Preparing for the battle, they built a ship, which was to facilitate their landing on the island. On March 13th, the conquistadors set off towards Nojpetén. When their passage was blocked by the flotilla of the Maya boats, the commander of the Spaniards began a speech that was aimed to force the defenders to surrender on supposedly peaceful conditions. At one point, the defenders of the Nojpetén fortress could not bear it any longer and shot arrows at the Spanish ship. Two European soldiers were injured. One of them fired
12a musket in revenge. A chain reaction was started and the slaughter of the natives could no longer be stopped. The conquistadors occupied the city in a few hours and thus finished their conquest without losing a single soldier of the Spanish garrison.
In the Maya culture, water has always been of great importance and associated with the world of the dead. The Mayan glyph och ha' means "enter the water" which symbolically refers to death. Cenotes were gates to the underworld in which sacrifices were made, including the human ones. Water in the culture of Maya appeared in every aspect of life and was extremely important… My reflexions on history and culture are interrupted by the entrance of smiling firefighters who are coming with good news. The scuba tanks are full. Tomorrow we can dive.
We start the morning activities by packing the equipment on our boat, which is controlled by experienced and smiling Pedro. His lancha, this is how they call their local boats, has a roof that at least protects us from the relentlessly burning sun. When everyone is ready we set off towards the planned area of the lake. The day before, the whole team gathered in the base to choose places that we would explore. It turned out to be the north side of Flores Island.
The first divers enter the water. After the jump we are surprised by the high temperature of the water. The thirty-degree water does not cool down even below twenty meters. Unfortunately, only the temperature is tropical, because the transparency is more like in a European lake and does not exceed two meters. From the very edge of the lake, the bottom is strewn with stones, which end somewhere around ten meters and there, less than a minute after the immersion, the divers team encounters the first artefact. The buoy emerges from the water causing anxiety among the surface crew. Have they come across some historical
objects so quickly or has something happened? To everyone's delight, after a while, two divers emerge, bringing out a huge vessel. We just need one shot from the GPS so that the first Maya artefact could be documented. But there is more. Each dive brings new discoveries and buoys shoot like crazy from underwater. The bottom of the lake is strewn with Mayan relics. None of us has seen anything like this…
We end the work day in the base, where the artefacts should be washed, inventoried and photographed. The number of objects we have extracted forces us to work on documentation almost every day until late at night. Having done the work, we can choose another area for exploration…
The team working on this project consists of underwater archeologists and Mayanists from leading Polish universities, as well as excellent divers – enthusiasts. Everyone is equally committed to the success of the expedition. Although there are only six of us, the work goes smoothly. Everyone has an assigned task that he or she carefully carries out. In addition to the diving itself, there are plenty of other duties to fulfill. Supplying, transporting scuba tanks to and from firefighters, documenting, photographing, drying the equipment. We spend the whole day working and only after dark, when the temperature drops significantly, we can sit on the terrace in our favourite restaurant with refreshing drinks.
However, not every day is a success story, thereare also days when we go in the water and find nothing. There are also days when we are shivering underwater. Local lancheros (helmsmen and boat owners) warn us that you can meet a crocodile in this lake. We try not to think about it while diving, hoping that we will be unattractive to this reptile. Emotions are elevated while searching for objects in deep mud. You never know what a diver's hand will encounter and what the object will be extracted from. During such a search, one of the divers hit a round object sunk in silt.
Thinking that this could be a Spanish cannonball, he got down to extracting it with a great deal of excitement. However, in the course of this operation some gases were released from the bottom, hitting him in the face and raising pressure. What a big surprise it was when the "cannonball" turned out to be the shell of a dead turtle, and the bubbles were the gases resulting from the decomposition of its body. However, this did not stop us from further searching.
An underwater archeologist must show some kind of intuition, because the shape protruding from the bottom, which at first glance does not resemble anything, can be something special. This was the case when one of the crew members saw a slightly rounded shape at the bottom, giving no clue what it was in reality. After unveiling the top layer of stones, a round outline of a vessel appeared. Similar to what we got every day a dime a dozen. However, the removal of further layers of sand and stones uncovered three small bowls, inserted into one another. After placing them in the basket for the artefacts, it turned out that under them were two delicate, beautifully made bowls, on three legs. The biggest surprise though was the obsidian knife between them. A cry of joy scared the nearby crabs. After extracting such an object, it was necessary to check what else was inside of those vessels. Delicate examination of several hours allowed us to find there fragments of obsidian, burnt wood or shells with an opening, things that probably used to be beautiful jewelry. What was that find? We can assume that it was an offering for one of the Maya gods. The bowls with the content and the blade were probably closed and placed together in a net, so we found them in one place. For which god was this sacrifice? What was the intention of the givers? We will probably never find out.
Our expedition lasted a month. During this period, we made dozens of dives, finding more than 800 artefacts. They were found not only around Flores Island once inhabited by the Maya, but also around two other smaller islands. It turned out that the lake has an amazing archaeological potential. Everything points to the fact that it was extremely important for the Maya who lived there, and we only discovered the tip of the iceberg that is hidden at the bottom of this dark lake.
Members of the team: Magdalena Krzemień, Sebastian Lambert, Iga Snopek, Małgorzata Mileszczyk, Jakub Maciejewski, Mateusz Popek
At the end – the whole team would like to thank the main sponsor, Sebastian Lambertand Ida Snopek, without whom this expedition would never have taken place.
