For the mid-point of the field season this was an appropriately busy week. Besides the normal excavation work, we also had filming at Caracol on Wednesday and Thursday by Roller Coaster Road Productions for a PBS documentary (tentative title: “Transparent Earth)” to be shown in the United States, Canada, and France in 2026. They undertook drone flights over our residential investigations and also obtained excellent footage pertaining to our recent archaeological deposits.

                Excavation in Canta residential group (Operation C241B) continued deeper with multiple deposits being recorded. After the rear chamber was completely emptied and drawn, the middle part of the summit was slowly removed with three floors and some associated architecture being recorded. Deep under the third floor in the rear of the structure, a new set of capstones was uncovered and drawn. The tomb in the front of the structure (under where the steps should have been) was slowly exposed this week with multiple layers of bone and vessels being drawn. Three plates and a bowl were found on the south side of the chamber (six vessels total) and what appears to be a flexed articulated individual was in the center of the tomb; the north end contained a jumble of bone that had been moved there in antiquity. To the front of the tomb, excavation revealed the legs of a very deep burial immediately west of the massive cache area excavated last week (one limestone bar was also recovered). At a different level, above and intrusive, the remains of another individual had been concentrated in a stone line cist on the south side of the excavation. Next week we will continue in the front of the structure and also hopefully remove the remaining summit area behind the front chamber.

                Work in Ayayayay also removed a sizeable amount to dirt and encountered new deposits. In the plaza area of the excavation, where the lowest step should have been, a set of north-south capstones was revealed, indicative of an underlying burial. Leaving this be, we cut into the front fill of the structure and revealed yet another set of capstones to the east of the first set; these were well-defined on the south end but had vertical slabs in the middle part that make it likely that the small chamber was re-entered in antiquity. Immediately in front of the vertical slabs (to the west) was an upside-down plate and a fluted cylinder with some bones and teeth. In between the two capstone sets slightly north of the building axis was another cache consisting of a small polychrome bowl with sherd lid set among and over more than a dozen paired finger bowls (some with fingers in them). Yet one more finger bowl was found north of this area in the section wall. Things were just as busy on the summit. The westernmost front crypt/chamber with its huge capstones (still in place on section) was completely cleared and recorded; it contained the scattered remains of multiple individuals, some with inlaid teeth, and four ceramic vessels (all in the southeast corner of the crypt). Initial work was also started on the lower chamber in the summit beneath the first chamber that was dug (just east of the west summit chamber that was cleared). In the rear chamber in the building (easternmost), at week’s end the remains of three polychrome dishes were found above the last capstone that needed to be removed; these were drawn and then we also removed the capstone so that the excavation of this chamber can be completed. Also of interest, the capstones for yet another chamber appear to be below the southern end of this easternmost chamber – another “double-decker” deposit in Ayayayay.

                Finally, work slowly continued in the Northeast Acropolis in C117H and is exposing some interesting artifactual material.