Maya Initiative

Around 1000 CE, the Maya culture, for all its power and influence, began to undergo a rapid decline. Cities were abandoned and in time overtaken by nature. The culture, however, remains vivid, though at a lower intensity. Today, more than six million Mayan people are living in the land of their ancestors, preserving and transmitting the traditions they inherited, unerased by time and other cultures. The Mayan language still survives, and the society maintains its very colorful and expressive cultural practices.

Since the 19th century, many archaeologists and historians have been involved in discovering and interpreting the incredible material remains of the Maya culture in order to understand its organizing principles and how parts of it survived to the present day. Thousands of sites have been identified and numerous ones excavated—often they are partially reconstructed or left unprotected from natural elements. As a result, many sites are suffering the effects of vegetation growth, climate forces, and looting, in addition to more recent threats posed by the development of mass tourism.

The Maya Initiative stemmed from previous Conservation Institute involvement in the region and from requests from national authorities. To this end, a cooperative agreement was signed in Merida, Mexico, by representatives from the following governmental organizations: the Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes, El Salvador; the Instituto Hondureño de Antropología e Historia, Honduras; the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, México; and the Vice Ministerio de Cultura y Deportes, Guatemala. Project members identified conservation issues of common interest, specific conservation-related needs, and areas of potential collaboration.

The objectives of the project were to improve conservation practice in the region and to foster collaboration among the countries of the area through:

• development of methodologies to address site management and conservation issues
• transfer of knowledge to technicians and site managers
• establishment of reference documents and training
• dissemination and promotion of the results
• support for the development of local, national, and regional networks

Two World Heritage sites were selected for the Maya Initiative—Joya de Cerén, El Salvador, and Copán, Honduras. Both components included training and capacity building for professionals and technicians that were integrated at all stages of the project and adapted to specific conditions at the sites. Another important component of the project was the wide dissemination of the results and the promotion of the methodologies developed at each site.

El Salvador

Conservation Institute: Françoise Descamps, Rand Eppich, Shin Maekawa, Leslie Rainer

Consultants: Carolina Castellanos, Tony Crosby, Giulia Caneva, Mark Gemperline, Todd Ruttenbeck, Rebeka Vital

Concultura: Federico Hernández Aguilar

Honduras

Conservation Institute: Françoise Descamps, Thomas Roby, David Carson, Rand Eppich, Vincent Beltran, Eric Doehne, Shin Maekawa, Michael Aronowitz

Consultants: Clive Boardman, Peter Boniface, Giulia Caneva, Catherine Dewey, Mark Gemperline, Lorenzo Lazzarini, Lorraine McVey, William Martin, Gionata Rizzi, Todd Rutenbeck, Luis Torres Montes, Fritz Wenzel, Albert Wiedmann

With assistance from: William Fash, Harvard University; Barbara Fash, Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology, Harvard University; Seiichi Nakamura, director, Proyecto ProARCO, Copán; Eliud Guerra, asistente de conservación, Proyecto ProARCO, Copán

Instituto Hondureño de Antropología e Historia, Tegucigalpa: Dario Euraque, director, Honduras; Salvador Valera, site director, Copán

Dissemination

Conservation Institute: Françoise Descamps, Thomas Roby, Michael Aronowitz Consultants: Carolina Castellanos, Jennifer Carballo

In collaboration with: Barbara Arroyo, archaeologist, Asociación Tikal, and organizer of Guatemala Maya Symposium

El Salvador: Jennifer Carballo, Gabriela Caballero, Evin Erder, Christopher Gray, Alexia Margaritis, Urs Mueller, Irene Sen, Lucia Valero Martin

Honduras: Elsa Bourguignon, Jennifer Carballo, Evin Erder, Eduardo Gochez, Christopher Gray, Virginia Horton, Bettina Lucherini, Eduardo Sanchez, Stefan Simon, Alberto de Tagle, Lucia Valero Martin