Prof. Dr Ivan Šprajc:
This Year’s Archaeological Discoveries in the Maya Region

Conducted by Prof. Dr Ivan Šprajc, an archaeologist and research fellow at ZRC SAZU (Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts), this lecture will address the archaeological expeditions he has been leading for the past three decades in the heart of the Yucatán Peninsula. They have uncovered numerous previously undocumented archaeological sites, including major urban centres. This year, his team continued its research in the central part of the Mexican state of Campeche, where a final major gap in the archaeological map of the Maya cultural region has recently been filled. 

Using laser scanning (LiDAR) data, they first discovered a previously unknown site which, while not particularly large, surprised them with a series of relief-carved stone monuments on which some depictions and hieroglyphic inscriptions are still discernible. On previous expeditions, the team had relied on old logging trails – which, though abandoned and overgrown, could be cleared to allow off-road vehicles to reach their target locations. This time, however, there were no such trails in the wider vicinity of the site, so they named it Minanbé, which in Yucatec Maya translates as “No Path”. The second site, also surveyed this season, lies relatively close to a populated area and was known to the locals, who call it El Yesal; however, neither its details nor its extent were known. Only now have the scientists realised that El Yesal is one of the largest Maya cities in the Yucatecan lowlands. The talk will focus on the fieldwork, highlighting the distinctive features of both sites.