June 1996


We just finished our field season at el tigre in campeche. i'm director of 
underwater research and ernesto vargas of unam is doing the topside work. our 
first field season found ernesto and his crew mapping the ruins. they have 10% 
done and have already found 1000 significant structures.

our work is under the rio candelaria. underwater exploration and excavation of a river 
in mexico has never been attempted before so we are doing a lot of 
learning and improvising.

what we have found so far is amazing. varga's team did some dating last year 
and found that this chontal maya area dates back to 900 b.c.. he has 56 sites 
within a 50 km radius of el tigre also starting up around 900 b.c.. the area
 was heavily populated by 600 b.c..

i initially had trouble with these dates because of all the attention being 
given recently to the olmec. i emailed gillette griffen at princeton to see if 
he had problems with these dates. he said no but i should touch base with mike 
coe. coe said he and rich deihl had just published a paper dealing with this in 
a new princeton catelog dealing with the olmec. griffin sent me a copy. it seems 
that there are now schools of thought relating to the olmec--mother culture? or,
 just another culture existing along side other old cultures. looks like the 
latter is the case.

when i was in el tigre last summer to survey the place, i thought i had the 
port pretty well figured out. looks like i was wrong. instead of being 1000 feet 
long, it's 1000 meters. we started working at the eastern boundary where we 
found a huge ceramic port. we then moved west 300 feet at vargas' suggestion to 
look in the water just off the emmense western lower plaza. he said legend said 
that a bridge was built here for cortez in 1525.  at that time el tigre was 
known as itzamkanac--the home of the sky serpent. i can believe it. nothing 
else around--just one big island with prominents rising 50 m up from the river.

anyway we started diving and immediately found two huge mounds of rubble 
underwater at a depth of 23 feet. one of the mounds had worked stone blocks 
which probably came from one of the towering structures (now mounds) lining the 
river. we located some rather large sherds and look one for a sample. no one 
really looked at it until that night. we took in out of water for processing and 
found that we were holding a ceramic bat head which was one attached to a pot. 
detail was outstanding.

next morning we went back to the mound. i figured there were 3 other bat heads 
laying there. what i found instead was a completely intact ceramic vessel with 
another large bat head extending from one side. the walls of the pot are very 
thick 3-4 cm.. there are two small handles on each side where poles could be 
inserted as part of processional/ritual activity. the pot is fine orange and 
diagnostically linked to the late preclassic. our search also turned up another 
effigy vessel with a jaguar god of the underworld on the side in a 3-d applique. 
same age.

we did our next underwater mapping search at mid-port and came up with a wall 
descending 2 m down into the river at a 90 degree angle. some of the stones had 
come loose and were laying on the bottom. we found a number of piece of 
preclassic fine grey ware in this area which were ritually terminated. the 
incisions were done with great care.  we also found a large storage vessel and 
some plates stacked one inside another. aparently a canoe went down and its 
cargo gently landed on the bottom upright.

we began our mapping in this area and while swimming across the river i found 
house mounds with steps on the bottom and after three days figured out the 
entire southern half of the river at this point was a huge man made terrace. the 
keystones are diagnostic to the early formative period and now we are not at 
900 b.c. but 2000 b.c. and are floating over the first formative village ever found 
in mesoamerica.

we also found another huge ceramic distribution area at the north end of el 
tigre, a sacbe 12 m wide coming out of the ruins down to the river where a 
precolumbian bridge was located. the sacbe picks up on the northern side of the 
river and heads north for an unknown distance. we think it probably goes to a 
northern boundary of el tigre called las ruinas.

we have a full menu for our next season which we are in the process of 
developing. vargas wants to excavate the port topside and i do the river bottom. 
at first this seemed like a good idea. the bottom composition is such that 
organic material from corn to possible intact human remains would have been 
preserved. portions of the northern boundary are anerobic.

i've got a good lead on caves completely underwater, some island fortresses 
further upriver and a real mystery at a site named cerros de los muertos about 
4 km east of el tigre.

right now this is the hottest archaeological project in mexico and i've signed 
on for the duration. we guess the work will last 10-15 years.

paul pettennude