The final week of the project was a blur of activity. All of our activities took place in camp, which was a blessing because of rain early in the week. The week was spent on finishing up the processing – especially cataloguing – all of the materials from the 2026 field season as well as packing up the items that were to go to the Institute of Archaeology, which was organized by Rumari (and delivered to Belmopan by her on Thursday afternoon). Diane came in from Houston on Sunday the 15th to help finish processing the skeletal material during the final week. Cataloguing, photography, and drawing continued until Thursday afternoon, when everything was packed up and appropriately stored for the next field season.
Early in the week, wood was collected from around camp and then incorporated into a traditional pyre located in the middle of camp. On Thursday night when all of the camp and personal packing was finished, everyone gathered for the final bonfire, which brought the 2026 field season to a formal end. Also on Thursday, David came in to help take down the electrical systems and to also place the permanent equipment into more secure storage. Finally, Brian arrived on Friday morning to help with the final arrangements and to bring everyone out of Caracol to San Ignacio Cayo.
Friday also saw the traditional end-of-season lunch for the project with the Institute of Archaeology in the San Ignacio Resort Hotel – with people generally relaxing with hot water and all of the traditional amenities that do not exist in the field camp. On Saturday, transport was provided to all project members to get to the Belize airport to fly back to Houston, thus concluding the 2026 field season for the Caracol Archaeological Project.
