MRP News

Huricane Alma

Six hours before the official start of this years huricane season. The first named storm of the year made ladfall 25 miles due east of the Blue Creek camp. within moments the camp was innundated with winds and rain. Happily other than getting a heavy soaking everyone came out of the storm alright. No one was hurt and no damage occured to the camp. A few of the cabanas are leaking but we will take care of them as soon as the rain stops.

Right now all of the volunteers are sitting at the Lamanai Outpost bar drinking high priced Pina Coladas (if they are over 21) or Shirley Temples (if they are not). Excavations will resume tomorrow. We lost a day and a half to rain, but we will get it back when the whips get unpacked.

Regular Updates

The first session at Blue Creek starts in about a week. If you are part of the first crew than you will quickly get know everything that is going on in camp and at the excavations. If you are not joining us until later in the summer, don't worry, you will not have to feel left out of the happenings in camp. I am planning on making regular posts to this blog with all the news direct from Blue Creek. This way you will be able to keep up to date with both the excavations as well as the torrid camp romances (just kidding, I won't write about the excavations).

As with all good deeds this one might not pan out. Posting news on the internet requires that one has an internet connection, and this is not always the case, even in the capital let alone out at camp. However, I will do my best. Keep an eye here as well as on the Forum, and I will try to keep everyone up on current events.

This Summers Research

We have finalized our research goal for the 2008 Summer Field Season. While no plan ever survives contact with the enemy, I can give everyone an overall idea of what will be going on this summer.

I will be finishing up my research at the site of Rosita. My plans call for the reopening of an excavation started by Sarah Clayton in 2004 as well as completing excations of the Structure 9 patio group that started last year. If everything goes as planned these excavations will be completed by the end of the first two session. Starting in session 3 I will be moving to a new phase of research that includes examining several large elite courtyards along the edge of the escarpment. These excavations will further my on going research that is aimed at examinig conditions at the end of the Classic Period. I will be joined in these excavations by by Leslie Reyes of Humbolt State University. She will be leading excavation teams under my supervision. Leslie and I will be conducting these excavations over all four sessions.

Barbara Hughes will be conducting stripping opperations on a small house mound in the site of Rosita, adjacent to the main road through the Blue Creek community. This excavation will serve the dual purpose of furthering our knowlege about Rosita as well as educating the community on what we are duing in Blue Creek. Barbara will also be conducting test excavations of several small agricultural features, check dams and terraces. Barabara will be with us for the entire field season.

Jason Barret will be leading a team that will bemapping the site of Najah Na and excavating a proposed ballcourt at that location. Najah Nah is a site located 20 kilometers northwest of the Blue Creek site core. It appears to be a minor center with a dispersed settlement pattern. Jason will be joining us for the first two sessions.

Other projects being undertaken this summer include the ongoing investigations of the ditched field agricultural system below the escarpment as well as surveying Sunnyside Farm. Tim and Sheryl Beach have been excavationg a series of ditched fields below the Rio Bravo escarpment for as long as I have been involved with MRP (since 2001) Their work will continue this year. Tom and Steve Shaw will be surveying sites in the extreme northwest of our permit area, the Sunnyside Farm. We know that there are several large sites in this area , but they have not been documented at this time.

Only 2 months to go.

Well, the departure date for this years field season is slowly but surely creeping closer and closer. For myself, this means controlled chaos as I make sure that everything vital will be taken care of while I am gone. The one thing that I really do not need to worry about is packing. I have been doing this long enough that most of what I need is already in Belize. All I really need to do is make sure that my field clothes still fit. Happily they don't, I have lost a little weight and now need to go shopping.

If you are a first time volunteer, then you probably have questions on what what you absolutely need to bring, as well as what might be usefull but not vital. I have started to write a series of posts over on the MRP Forum that will, hopefully, help you to decide what to bring.

I am posting these short articles over on the Forum rather than here, because I feel that it will be easier for people to comment on my suggestions as well as ask questions. Anyone can read the material posted over on the forum, but if you would like to make a comment or ask a question then you must registar. Don't worry it is a painless procedure and only takes a minute. Of course you can always contact me directly with any questions that you might have

See you in Belize, Tim

MRP Wins National Geographic Grant

"National Geographic Society's Committee for Research and Exploration has awarded you (MRP) a grant...in support of your proposed project "Excavation and analysis of an well-preserved ancient Maya fieldhouse associated with ancient ditched field agricultural systems at the Classic Maya city of Blue Creek, Belize."

MRP has received a grant from the National Geographic Society to excavate and analyze materials from a buried, well-preserved wooden field house at Blue Creek. This is the first time that such as structure has ever been found in the Maya area. The field house was found next to an ancient canal and was probably used by farmers while cultivating and harvesting. This grant will allow us to bring a group of specialists to Belize during the excavation and will give us the ability to conduct botanical, faunal and soil analyses.

This is great news for us at Blue Creek and especially for the Doctors Beach, Tim and Sheryl, and Dr Tim Bozarth who have been working in the ditched fields for as long as I have known them. Staff at MRP will be excavating the fieldhouse just before this summers field season. Unfortunately, we can not wait for the arrival of volunteers for this project. If the rains start early we will not be able to go ahead with the dig.

I will be postiong information on this excavation as time and internet connections allow, and of course we will be talking about the excavation throughout the summer.

The great pyramid of Cholula with a colonial church on its summit and a modern fieldhouse in the foreground.

Jason Barrett returns to Blue Creek.

Dr Jason Barrett will be returning to Blue Creek for the 2008 Field Season. He will lead a research team during the first two sessions in the summer of 2008 with the goals of (1) mapping Nojol Nah, (2) dating the construction of architecture in the site’s monumental precinct, and (3) dating the construction of field walls and evaluating their possible use as defensive features.

Dr. Barrett's full bio can be found here.

2008 Feild Season Dates

Here are the Session dates for the 2008 Blue Creek and Yaxunah Field Season.

Blue Creek

• Session 1: Monday May 26 - Sunday June 8
• Session 2: Monday June 9 - Sunday  June 22
• Session 3: Monday June 30 - Sunday July 13 
• Session 4: Monday July 14 - Sunday July 27

Yaxunah

• The Yaxunah Community Participation Experience volunteer schedule for 2008 runs from Monday, June 30 to Sunday, July 27th. You can sign up for any consecutive two, three, or four week session.