Information AboutCival |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT CIVAL | |
| maya sites in guatemala | |
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The site flourished from about the ). It may have had a peak population of some 10,000 people. The site is about 25 miles (40 km) east of Tikal , on a ridge over the left bank of the Holmul river. The site has temples on step pyramids and plazas arranged to point to Astronomical events such as the Equinox Sunrise , and is surrounded by a defensive Wall . The site's largest step-pyramid is 27 metres high and 70 x 40 metres wide. Some buildings were decorated with Stucco sculptures depicting Mesoamerica n Deities . The site was long lost in the Jungle , and was discovered and partly plundered by looters around 1980 . It was first mapped by Explorer Ian Graham in 1984 , who gave it the name ''Cival'' after a local word for " Lagoon ". The ancient name of the site is currently unknown. Archaeological excavations of the site began in 2001 and are ongoing As Of 2004 , led by Dr. Francisco Estrada-Belli. The project there originally began as part of investigations at the nearby Classic Maya site of Holmul , but attention was shifted to Cival as Civil's age and importance became apparent. The excavations are sposored by Vanderbilt University and the National Geographic Society , the Foundation For The Advancement Of Mesoamerican Studies , the Ahau Foundation, ARB, Interco Tire, PIAA and Warn Industries . Investigations at Cival have added to knowledge of the Pre-Classic Maya, including revealing the earliest inscriptions with Maya Calendar dates and showing Dynastic succession of Monarch s. Some news reports have incorrectly stated that Pre-Classic Maya cities were previously unknown. Pre-Classic buildings in the Peten have been excavated by archaeologists since the work at Uaxactun in the 1920s , and the major breakthrough which revealed that the Pre-Classic Maya were more highly developed and urbanized in this era than had long been thought was the archaeological project at El Mirador starting in the late 1970s . EXTERNAL LINKS
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