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“The fact that you can find a city like Chactún that
nobodyknewexisted ismind-boggling,”saysChicago-based
philanthropist Ken Jones,who helped fund Šprajc’s 2014
trip.“Theyarenot finding these things inEgyptorEngland,
but in theMayaworldwe’re still findingmajor cities that
were centers of civilization.”
BothLagunitaandChactún featurebrokenmonuments,
upended and repurposed, that point to political fracture
and invasion.As Šprajc puts it over his fortifying
desayuno
Maya
, “We aremapping political geography.Two of the
most powerful dynasties were ruling fromCalakmul and
Tikal, and they were always enemies.And now it is get-
ting clearer what coverage their governments had.There
are questions of history,development, evolution, and even
collapse.”Hemodestly callshiswork “details,”saying,“We
need thedetails tounderstand thebigpicture.”
Elusive funding allows a research trip only about every
other year,which iswhy themost polite archaeologist you
could ever hope tomeet apologized, earlier via email, that
he couldn’t takeme on one, noting, “To get to any of our
sites would take several days.”But in a rare gap between
guiding a group of Slovenian tourists around theYucatán
and aMexican government research projectmapping the
astronomical orientation of Maya coastal ruins, he has
offered toaccompanyme toCoba,aLateClassic ruinwith
at leastasimilar“jungleenvironment,”about30miles inland
from the town ofTulum, to survey the big picture, blank
spots and all.But beforewedepart he requires sustenance,
and a cigarette tapped from a crumpled pack, and aword
about that Indiana Jones thing.
“The only thing I don’t know is what
an archaeologist does with a bullwhip,”
heoffers, foldinghis long frame intoour
rental RAV4. “With the machete, you
never get lost.”
From top:
a tunnel
near Coba’s
entrance;
Šprajc at
Nohoch Mul
Chichén Itzá
Late andPost-
ClassicMaya city
that continued to
thrive after the
fall of Calakmul
Coba
LateClassic
ruinwithone
of theYucatán’s
tallest temples,
NohochMul
Tulum
Post-Classic trad-
ingportwalledon
three sides and
perched atop a
40-foot cliff
Calakmul
Biosphere
Reserve
2,800-square-
milepreserve
where Šprajc
discovered
Chactún and
Lagunita
Calakmul
Classic period
superpower of
more than6,000
buildings and
50,000people
Tikal
Calakmul’s
historic political
rival
ILLUSTRATION BY GARY VENN
