The third week of excavation at Caracol went smoothly in the three residential groups that we are investigating during the 2026 field season northwest of Caana.
In Fresco (C244B), Mo and Jacob kept everyone busy on the trench with three main results. First, a deep floor was discovered by Sotero in the eastern section of the trench that is well below the buried platform in the summit core, presumably indicative of quite early occupation at this locus. An articulating floor was found sloping down the length of the trench along the south side of the buried platform. Second, in the middle of the trench, the square feature was excavated and drawn; it is clearly a tomb whose vault would have extended higher than the current ground level. The tomb is 1.4 m in width with a bench on the eastern side and a deeper alley on the west. The rim of a complete vessel can be seen in the alley. After drawing, Mo and Jacob removed sherds and bone from the top of the bench in preparation for an extension of the excavation to the south, so as to excavate the entire chamber. At the base of the building, Nelson, Jorge, and Saul worked on exposing an extended supine burial at the base of the lowest step. The interment is head to the south with an additional bundled individual at the feet and an isolated jaw on one knee. There is one vessel in direct association with the burial and the base of another embedded in the eastern cist wall. Adrian scanned the burial and the photograph shows an almost complete skeleton in situ.
In Hevarti the front tomb in the north building (C245B) was completely excavated and recorded this week by Reynaldo and Andrew, but the materials have yet to be processed in the lab; any pottery vessels in this chamber were broken and scattered. The excavation into the summit of the north building (also C245B) was also completed this week by Julio, Ascel, and Reynaldo, reaching a depth of almost 3.5 m, at which point leveled bedrock was encountered throughout the base of the investigation. Of interest was a small complete spondylus shell pendent that had been discarded in the building fill. The plaza area in front of the tomb was also exposed down to large rubble beneath the plaza surface, revealing potential capstones running east-west on the southern side of the trench. Excavation also continued in the vicinity of the eastern building in Hevarti (C245C) with Alex doing most of the recording. The central rubble for the building was removed, revealing plaster floors and the burial cut for the crypt that is evident on the northern side of the excavation. Another rubble concentration running north-south was located in eastern part of the original excavation and may represent another burial. A separate extension over the first burial was laid out north of the original excavation over the area of the crypt, maintaining a 25 cm balk. This extension revealed a series of capstones that were removed by the end of the week (and also provides a beautiful cross-section of the crypt cap). The front crypt in C245C has well-constructed side walls and will be excavated next week.
Finally, a new axial trench, measuring 8.5 m by 2 m, was placed over the eastern building in Brie (C246B). Brie is a residential group that is located between Hevarti and Fresco. Excavation in Brie started this week with the removal of the humus by Edwin and Joel (as well as a massive palm tree that was located over the lower stairway in the axial trench – horrible root system!). Rumari and Gabriela recorded the features in this trench, which included a set of capstones on the front slope near the summit of the excavation. Half of a spiked globular incense burner was also recovered on the plaza surface in front of the lowest step.
Laboratory work continued all week with Egor concentrating on the various special deposits that have been excavated so that any recovered materials can be pieced together and drawn. Visitors this week included old UCF friends Denise and Jay, coming to Caracol for the first time after hearing about the site for the last forty years.
