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THE FOUNDATION RESEARCH DEPARTMENT Piedras Negras |
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Photographic Archive of the Piedras Negras Project, 1997-2000 Our project excavated at Piedras Negras, Guatemala, over a span of four seasons, from 1997 to 2000, usually beginning in late March and finishing in late May or early June. During that time Zachary Hruby, our project photographer, took hundreds of images in a variety of formats, many in 35 mm. Ektachrome (Canon camera), others in medium format black-and-white (Pentax 6x7). Lighting conditions at Piedras Negras were often poor, with the problem of having to deal with dappled light coming through the jungle canopy. As a result, Hruby had to take most of the images before work began (7:00 am) or was compelled to wait until the late afternoon when dappling became less intense. We first experimented with high ladders, but these proved unwieldy -- hardwood ladders made by our workers could only be moved by half a dozen men. Hruby made do by climbing trees for his overhead shots. He was tireless and resourceful, often having to adjust to extremely difficult condition. All project members owe him a large debt. After completing fieldwork in 2000, Houston and Escobedo decided to digitize the entire set of images and manage them within a database. Skousen, an MA student in Art History at BYU, was hired to undertake that work over a two-year period. The database presented here results entirely from her hard labor, in which she labeled and improved images with surpassing diligence and care -- many images were at first difficult to identify, yet Skousen was able to deduce the exact context of most images. Where possible, the database also registers contextual information that relates to our system of numbering operations: "PN" for "Piedras Negras," followed by the number of "operation" (a sector of excavation), "sub-operation" (an area within that sector), "units" (a far smaller areal designation, often no more than 2x2 m in size), and "lot," an entity used in collecting artifacts, always from contexts less than or exactly equivalent to an archaeological stratum. Our objective as archaeologists has been to collect and share evidence. We are merely the stewards of research results at Piedras Negras, not its owners. For that reason, our database is to be used by anyone and everyone, provided their intent is scholarly. (Non-academic use should be cleared by FAMSI, the sponsor of this web-site, in consultation with Houston and Escobedo.) Crediting should go to: Piedras Negras Archaeological Project, Brigham Young University and the Universidad del Valle, our respective institutions. Users are warmly invited to send comments and corrections to theNone of this work would have been possible without generous donations from FAMSI, Lewis Ranieri, President, Sandra Noble, Director, and a permit authorized by Juan Antonio Valdes and other Directores del Patrimonio Cultural in the Republic of Guatemala. Other support came from: the National Geographic Society; the Ahau Foundation, Dr. Peter Harrison, President; Dr. Kenneth Woolley and family; Mr. Spencer Kirk and family; the Ashton Family Foundation; the Fulbright Commission; the National Science Foundation; the Heinz Foundation; the Rust Trust; the Shallit Trust; the Jesse Knight University Professorship held by Houston; the Department of Anthropology, Brigham Young University; Dr. Gary Hooper, Vice-President at Brigham Young; and a host of other funds, including those given to graduate students and to Prof. David Webster, Pennsylvania State University. Search the Piedras Negras Image Archive For more information on the research at Piedras Negras, follow the links below:
In the Land of the Turtle Lords: Archaeological Investigations at Piedras Negras, Guatemala (2000)
Among the River Kings: Archaeological Research at Piedras Negras, Guatemala (1999)
Between Mountains and Sea: Investigations at Piedras Negras, Guatemala (1998)
The Piedras Negras Project, 1997 Season (1997)
The following PDF files require Adobe Acrobat Reader.
PROYECTO ARQUEOLOGICO PIEDRAS NEGRAS: INFORME PRELlMlNAR No. 1, PRIMERA TEMPORADA 1997
PROYECTO ARQUEOLOGICO PIEDRAS NEGRAS: INFORME PRELIMINAR No. 2, SEGUNDA TEMPORADA, 1998
PROYECTO ARQUEOLOGICO PIEDRAS NEGRAS: INFORME PRELIMINAR No. 3, TERCERA TEMPORADA, 1999
PROYECTO ARQUEOLOGICO PIEDRAS NEGRAS: INFORME PRELIMINAR No. 4, CUARTA TEMPORADA, 2000
SOIL CHEMICAL ANALYSIS OF ACTIVITY AREAS IN THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITE OF PIEDRAS NEGRAS, GUATEMALA, 2001
Bridging the Gap Between Arcaeological and Indigenous Chronologies:
Dental Analysis of Classic Period Population Variability in the Maya Area (2004)
Settlement and Population at Piedras Negras, Guatemala (2005)
INFORME DE LAS INTERVENCIONES EN LA ESTRUCTURA K-5 DE PIEDRAS NEGRAS (2005)
La Cerámica del Clásico Temprano de Piedras Negras (2005)
La Secuencía Cerámíca del Período Preclásíco en Píedras Negras, Petén (2006)
Power, Production and Prestige:
The Organization of Chipped-Stone Economies at Piedras Negras, Guatemala (2006)
Piedras Negras Archaeology Project La Cuarta Temporada de Campo del Proyecto Arqueológico Piedras Negras, 2000 (Spanish Version only)
Piedras Negras - Piecing Together the Past |
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Text links to all pages at this site are available at the FAMSI INDEX |
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