On Friday, October 16th, 2015, I attended lectures by Dr. Richard Hansen, University of Utah, and Dr. Michael Coe, Yale. The event was the first biannual Mesoamerican Talks Conference sponsored by the U of U Department of Anthropology.
The conference was subtitled "A Tribute to Dr. Michael Coe, Yale University."
Hansen's presentation was very similar to the one he gave at the Library of Congress in April, 2014. You can watch a video of that presentation
here. If you download the transcript, beware that it is machine-generated and therefore riddled with errors. A portion of Hansen's presentation is abstracted in the article "
Founding Civilizations." Hansen did his undergraduate work at BYU, received his PhD from UCLA, and was a Fulbright Scholar in Guatemala. He heads the massive Mirador Basin Project and has authored more than 300 academic publications.
Some points in Hansen's lecture I found interesting:
- All remains recovered by the Mirador Basin Project are processed at a lab in Guatemala City.
- The site of El Mirador is 50 trail kilometers (36 air kilometers) from the nearest supply depot at Carmelitas. You get to El Mirador by helicopter or by walking for 3 days. This is yet one more data point supporting our deduced value for the Book of Mormon standard unit of measure "one day's travel." See the article "Land Southward Travel Times."
This map shows the locations of El Mirador and the closest town with a road.
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| El Mirador 36 air kilometers from Carmelitas |
More points from Richard Hansen:
- The Mirador - Calakmul Basin contains 51 sites mapped so far. Results from a recent LIDAR survey (38 hours in the air, 700 square kilometers analyzed) are just now coming in, so that number will undoubtedly increase.
- Corn was being grown in the basin as early as 2,600 BC. We know that from pollen samples found in lake sediment cores.
- El Mirador, the largest site in the basin, began ca. 1,000 BC, reached apogee ca. 300 BC, and was abandoned ca. AD 150.
- A temple with a roof comb was erected in the basin during the 720 - 600 BC time frame.
- From 1,000 BC to 800 BC sea shells were being used as money. Sea shells as a form of currency also show up in Cahal Pech, Belize during this same time period.
This map shows El Mirador and Cahal Pech in context.
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| El Mirador, Peten and Cahal Pech, Cayo |
Additional points made by Richard Hansen:
- Olmec sites were generally aligned N/S. Early Maya sites were usually oriented E/W.
- Sites in the basin have clear site alignments oriented to solstice and equinox points on the horizon. This is yet one more corroboration of our proposed Book of Mormon directionality system described in the article "Test #5 North South East and West."
- El Mirador has 52 square kilometers of monumental architecture connected by causeways.
