I spent ten days in the Maya Research Program’s archaeology camp in
Northwestern Belize again this year. This is my fifth time to do this
but the first time during the rainy season.

This is the 20th excavation season for MRP which runs for eight weeks.
Most of the participants are students with a few adult volunteers
sprinkled in and the areas that are excavated each year are based upon
a research thesis of either the graduate students who use this work
for such things as their graduate thesis or someone who already has
their doctorate to develop a paper for publication. This year I
worked for Gail Hammond who is working on her PhD in London and who I
have now known for four years. It was the first time that I worked
outside of the jungle canopy (though it used to be jungle before being
“pushed back”, as they say, by the local progressive Mennonite
population) and in the rainy season. It has always been grueling work
but it is made more difficult and much less efficient by the driving
rains that come through during the day this time of year.

So the digging was delayed this year and I found myself having to
leave before any exciting discoveries. But indications were that some
were imminent on our site. The Mayans left strong clues of what might
be coming up under the floors of their residences and such signs were
hit on my last day of excavating.

So with little physical evidence to show for this year’s activities, I
have included some pictures of last year’s work to demonstrate the
types of things that are found. (Any pictures of me are from 2010)