Dzibilchaltún: Lost City of the Maya (1958-60)

Dzibilchaltún: Lost City of the Maya (1960)

Yucatán (1958-60)

Between the years of 1957 and 1966 the National Geographic Society and Tulane University, along with the National Science Foundation and the American Philosophical Society, sponsored the archaeological expeditions in Yucatán, Mexico led by Dr. E. Wyllys Andrews to excavate the “lost city of the Maya” - Dzibilchaltún.  

Even in the short weeks they started excavating, the team knew that they had made a significant discovery.  Not only was it a large city (Dzibilchaltún covers at least 20 square miles and a 60 foot wide causeway), but it also seemed to pre-date other Mayan centers in the Yucatán, such as Uxmal and Chichén Itzá.

The previous year, 1956, Tulane’s Middle American Research Institute (MARI) signed a contract with the Mexican government authorizing four years of excavation work at Dzibilchaltún, which means "the place where there is writing on flat stones."  Andrews’ team included students and authorities from various universities and institutions, as well as subject matter experts sponsored by the Mexican Government, most notably, Dr. Alfredo Barrera Vasquez, Maya scholar and the authority on Maya linguistics.  Another member of the team was George E. Stuart, “surveyor-turned-archaeologist” from South Carolina who was brought on to map the whole site and who would later be hired by the Geographic’s Cartographic Division (after receiving his doctorate, he was appointed to the Committee for Research and Exploration and eventually became the Chair).

Their first order of business of the expedition was to restore the Standing Temple, in which they found imported pottery from Guatemala, and could thus cross-date the architecture with those from the south.  Then, excavation on the Palace began – this structure covered more than a dozen acres. Here they found 250,000 pieces of pottery, some of which was also imported from Guatemala further linking the history of the Yucatán with that of the southern regions.  In addition, they found burials with funeral offerings of plates and jars of food for the afterlife.  

One of the greatest discoveries during the expedition was of the “sacred cenote,” Cenote Xlacah. Student divers used Acqua-Lungs to descend 140 feet and explore the cenote, where they found a plethora of incredible artifacts.   Later, in the Spring of 1958, NGS photographers, Luis Marden and Bates Littlehales were recruited for the underwater cenote assignment (both of whom were already sent by NGS to document the entire expedition, along with Richard Stewart), so the two photographers strapped on their Aqua-Lungs and dove in. They found the expected trove of artifacts and also made some stunning photographs that were published in "Up From the Well of Time" in the January 1959 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC.  But the well was treacherous. After one dive, in which they explored its remotest recesses, they returned slowly to the surface, paying close attention, as usual, to the stages called for in their decompression tables. Yet it wasn’t long after they were back in the open air that Marden felt a stab in his arm. Soon he began turning blue with cold. Littlehales came down with an agonizing pain in the base of his spine. It was clear they had the dreaded bends--nitrogen bubbles in the blood--from failing to decompress properly. After spending time in a jury-rigged recompression chamber, they were airlifted to a U.S. Navy hospital in Panama City, Florida. They pulled through, but it had been a dangerous moment in Geographic diving history.

During that same season, the expedition team uncovered what was probably the most extraordinary find yet, a buried temple dubbed the "Temple of the Seven Dolls," for seven small clay figurines found beneath the floor.  These “dolls” which all seemed to have some deformity, might have been used by Mayan priests to cure diseases.  They also found true “windows” never before seen in any Mayan center, and they radio carbon dated the temple from some wood in one of the doorways to about 458-508 A.D. (give or take 200 years).  

Andrews notes that at that time, most scholars believed that “the great Mayan ruins were not really cities, but ceremonial centers where a scattered population could gather from rural homes to worship and trade.  Dzibilchaltún appeared to refute this concept by the very size and number of the remains” (99).  There were ten to fifteen thousand thatched dwellings, which implied a large permanent population.  From their findings at Dzibilchaltún - pottery, artifacts and architecture, it was theorized that the city was most likely founded between 2000 and 1000 B.C. (Archaeologists are now reasonably certain that the earliest ceramics at the site, and in this area, go back to about 900 B.C.).  The artifacts and architecture also illustrated changing cultures and styles throughout time.  

What Andrews and team concluded was that Dzibilchaltún was not only the largest of the ancient Mayan cities, but also probably the earliest and the longest occupied.  It was still around into the late 1500s/early 1600s.  Andrews states:  “Here is the site’s great challenge for us.  This is the yardstick we have never had before – a unique one more than 3,000 years long. And if we do our job well, we should be able to use it to bring some order into what has been thus far a most disjointed history in this part of the world (109).”

The two films displayed above were preserved with a 2019 grant from the National Film Preservation Foundation (NFPF).  During our grant application process, we consulted with Dr. Will Andrews, former Middle American Research Institute Director at Tulane University and son of the elder Dr. Andrews, to make our film selections for the NFPF grant application. He stated that:

"The main scientific value of these films lies in showing how the buildings were excavated, from start to finish, especially in recording how the larger, outer platforms were removed, exposing the well-preserved inner structures. The films show the unique stucco decoration on the façade of the 7 Dolls as it appeared.  The films follow the uncovering of the Structure 38-sub vaulted temple in detail, showing how Str. 38 (the later covering platform) was removed."

Sources:

Andrews, E. Wyllys. “Dzibilchaltún:  Lost City of the Maya.” National Geographic Magazine.  January 1959, 91-109.

Marden, Luis.  “Dzibilchaltún:  Up from the Well of Time.”  National Geographic Magazine.  January 1959, 110-129.

Geopedia:

https://nglibrary.ngs.org/geopedia/1957sacredcenoteofdzibilchaltun

https://nglibrary.ngs.org/geopedia/1958-cenote-dzibilchaltun

https://nglibrary.ngs.org/geopedia/1959-sacred-cenote-dzibilchaltun

Films preserved with a grant from: