Magnentic Gradiometry Surveys of the Upper and Lower Plazas at La Sufricaya, Guatemala

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Shallow geophysical prospecting methods have been underutilized in the Lowland Mayan regions due, in part, to the densely forested environment. Recent research at La Sufricaya, a Classic Maya site in the Homul region, has produced promising results using magnetic gradiometry to identify features buried below the plaza surface. Despite copious foliage and environmental obstacles, we were able to survey almost one hectare at La Sufricaya using magnetic gradiometry, and ground-truth many of the identified magnetic anomalies. One of these excavated anomalies appears to be a pit feature carved into bedrock. The regular shape and the depth suggested it was something similar to a chultun or storage pit. Another excavated anomaly revealed a cache with a lidded vessel. These results not only provide a wealth of new information about the site, but the successful results of the subsequent excavations suggest that magnetic gradiometry and other shallow geophysical methods may be more successful in heavily forested and heavily modified plaza areas than previously assumed.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 37196.0