archaeology

Description

One of Belize's largest Mayan pyramids survived over two thousand years of the worst rain, wind and other storm conditions Nature could through at it, only to fall to the winds of human progress. The head of Belize's Institute of Archaeology aka the real life 'Indiana Jones' says the Noh Mul temple, built an estimated 2,300 years ago, was leveled by a road-building company seeking gravel for road filler. Only a small portion of the pyramid mound was left standing, according to a report by the Associated Press. Jamie Awe, Ph.D., director of the Institute of Archeology of Belize, sued William Homann, the Estates of Anna and F.A. Mitchell-Hedges, LucasFilm, Walt Disney Co., and Paramount Pictures, in Federal Court. The museum director claims Mitchell-Hedges and his daughter looted the artifact from the temple of Lubaantun in 1924 alleging that the movie profits off references to an artifact illegally stolen from the country. But the item in question, a real-life crystal skull, may not be a Belizean artifact carved by the ancient Maya people at all, but rather a hoax perpetrated by a self-styled 20th-century adventurer. "This is one of the worst that I have seen in my entire 25 years of archaeology in Belize," John Morris, an archaeologist with the Institute of Archaeology, told 7newsbelize.com, the website for TV channel 7 in the small Caribbean country. "We can't salvage what has happened out here -- it's an incredible display of ignorance. I am appalled and don't know what to say at this particular moment." Jaime Awe, director of the Institute of Archaeology, said he was sickened by the "intolerable" destruction of the pyramid site by bulldozers and backhoes. The heavy equipment at the site carries the name D-Mar Construction, but Denny Grijalva, owner of the company, denied knowing anything about the project when asked by reporters. Morris said that the construction company must have been aware of the site's significance. "There is absolutely no way that they would not know that these are Maya Mounds," he said. Noh Mul, which means "Big Hill," is spread out over about 12 square miles of privately-owned sugar cane fields, about 7 miles north of Orange Walk Town in northern Belize. The ceremonial center of the site is located on a limestone ridge overlooking the Río Hondo, a permanent river that forms the modern border between Mexico and Belize. The main Noh Mul complex includes 81 separate buildings with ten plazas. Belizean law states any pre-Hispanic ruins, even if they sit on privately-held lands, are protected by the government. http://tinyurl.com/ckw4naq