European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - September 23, 1989, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Unravelling the mysteries of the by William Booth Washington Post in the swamps of Northern Guatemala archaeologists have just uncovered one of the most heavily Lor Lilied Sites in the ancient May world a lost City of lowering Walls surrounded by Moat designed to repel the invaders who came to capture victims Lor the sacrificial altar. At a nearby site in the ruined City called Dos Pilas the researchers have found concentric rings of hastily constructed ramparts and the remains of a desperate siege some 1.200 years ago. There is also evidence that the populace withdrew into the ceremonial Center of Dos Pilas and camped upon the very monuments built to glorify the mutilation and sacrifice of enemies captured in Battle a Fate the refugees of Dos Pilas might have shared the discoveries of death and destruction in the Pele Batun swamps May allow scholars to answer one of the greatest mysteries in archaeology. Why did the Maya Empire which dominated me Skamenca in the centuries before the Spanish Conquest suddenly collapse the collapse has something to do with changes in warfare. We Are seeing a photograph of a moment in time a snapshot of crisis when the entire system seemed to fall apart said Arthur Demarest. An archaeologist from Vanderbilt University who is leading a Large expedition to Guatemala funded by National geographic society and the Harry Frank Guggenheim foundation. Their site which includes the moated City of Punta de Chimino and the regional Center of Power. Dos Pilas is situated in a dense and largely uninhabited Jungle thai is Lour Days journey by plane jeep Canoe and mule irom Guatemala City. Ii is probably one of the Lew Sites where the stereotype of archaeology is accurate Demarest said it s like Indiana Jones and Temple of doom " Demarest said that researchers knew for some time that there was a Maya ruin in the area of Punta de Chimino. But they assumed it was a simple settlement. It was almost completely covered by Jungle Demarest said. The team was surprised to find thai the settlement was actually a Small City surrounded by earthworks and a Moat it has everything that a Maya City must have Only it is smaller including a bal court a Temple a funerary staircases with hieroglyphics carved into them and an acropolis Demarest said the Maya were fanatic players of ballgame a bit like soccer the losers were Ollen sacrificed. During the past digging season the archaeologists also Rappel led into a sinkhole and explored one of the Many caves that underlie the ruined cities they discovered ritual Oll rings of broken pots and Flint knives As Well As Iho mummified remains of a Young boy who had been sacrificed and painted with red ocher. The Cave just keeps going i Don t know How far i was in there for three hours until the batteries in my flashlight ran out. I did t see the end of it Demarest said in an interview it was one of the first times i had found myself irrationally exhilarated " the work of Demarest and his Loam is at the Center of a heated debate among scholars about the cause and effect of warfare in the pro Industrial world. According to Don Rice an archaeologist at the University of Virginia the conflict is this did the Maya go to War to fight Over land and resources As Many saturday september 23, 1989 deep in the dense Jungles of Northern Guatemala archaeologists Are at work uncovering ruins of the Maya Empire. Anthropologists bcliove7 or wore the Maya somehow different from most Othor societies did they wage War purely Lor political propaganda and the aggrandizement of Kings Over the years the Maya have been the sub act of c re it  and shilling interpretations several decades ago it was fashionable to think of the Maya As peaceful and cerebral theologians Conlen to build pyramids in the Jungle and study the slats but recent studies highlighted by the work of Art historians Linda Schele of the University of Texas and Mary Ellen Miller of Yale show thai the Maya were anything taut peaceful they were preoccupied with blood warfare was endemic. Dressed in Jaguar pelts or Bird co slums bearing Woven Shields and lances. The Noble Elile were constantly at each other s throats captives were prize these enemies were stripped of their Battlefield finery and dragged Back to the conqueror s City. There. The luckless captives were bound by ropes Lor lured by mutilation and bloodletting and Cven Lually their heir i u were Cut out and they were beheaded the fundamental purpose of War was not to immediately kill but to capture Loos of High social rank according to Schele and Miller the greater the social status of the captive the greater the prestige of the captor. These foals were illustrated and recorded in great detail on huge monuments and upon the stairways loading to temples. A common image would show a ruler standing upon the Backol his humiliated foe work by Epig Raphers is in lonely focused on translating the Maya s records of warfare and captive taking Maya rulers fought almost constantly but they Ollen did nol attempt to conquer their rival s territory. While warfare was important to the elite it was not destructive Demarest said. Another Maya scholar David Freidola of Southern methodist University in Dallas dubbed Iho Maya style of conflict peace through  Demarest notes that images of War in Maya Art never include scenes of burning temples or houses and the number of warriors depicted is Small most Maya cities were not Lort lied and were placed in indefensible locations. We Are left. Then with a  Demarest said a warlike people who relished Battle yet a people who did nol pay much attention to effective  Many Maya scholars vigorously disagree with this inner relation of ritualized warfare. You always hear about the mysterious Maya the Maya lists love mystery Bui As an anthropologist i look at the Maya in the context of other cultures said David Webster of Pennsylvania stale University what caused warfare was intense Competition Lor land and  Webster said he thinks that As population pressures increased and resources dwindled the Maya fought Over control of agricultural lands peasants and Trade routes. Webster agrees thai taking captives May have been important to the elite but thai the primary motivation for warfare was material not spiritual. Webster and others argue that the Art of the Maya cannot to trusted to give archaeologists an accurate picture of the Maya world the monuments were pure propaganda. They were All lies said Webster Bolh sides however agree thai there was a profound change in the intensity and practice of War toward the end of the Maya reign in the 8th Century. In the lowlands of Guatemala the rulers of Dos Pilas conquered an area covering 680 Square Miles an enormous stale for a single Maya ruler to control and one that contained Large rival cities such As Seibal. But following this Brief period of Hegemony the Dos Pilas Empire collapsed and the Region Taal Kanizer into tiny a arring  Demarest believes that the defensive ramparts at Dos Pilas were erected at this Lime. Soon alter All monumental construction hailed. Demarest and a dozen colleagues from the United states and Guatemala will spend the next five years excavating seven ancient cities and testing their theories of warfare against the evidence of the Maya downfall. We want to learn Why the Bubble burst Demarest said. The stars and stripes Page 17