Documenting Archaeological Tunnels within the Copan Acropolis: Advances in Architectural and Geospatial Recording for Conservation

Summary

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

Investigations within the Copan Acropolis have provided an unprecedented source of data bearing on Copan’s origins as the capital of a Classic period Maya kingdom. The excavations conducted over years by multiple research programs in partnership with the Honduran Institute of Anthropology and History resulted in extensive tunnel exposures of stratified masonry architecture, representing the setting for the historical succession of rulers, their extensive courts, and dynamic political affairs. In recent years, the Copan Acropolis has sustained increasing seasonal impacts from hurricanes and other climate fluctuations. Decorated stucco and masonry facades of structures buried beneath the final phase of Temple 16 have experienced deterioration, and the preservation of sculpted iconographic panels and elaborate ornamentation has high priority in ongoing efforts by collaborating projects. Concerns for structural stability also challenge architectural conservation, and recent documentation efforts are helping to support the evolving program of architectural preservation within the Copan Acropolis. Using innovative technologies - including ground-based and handheld lidar combined with high-precision total station survey - collaborating projects are able to document, model, and analyze the changing conditions within the excavated tunnel network beneath Temple 16 and to contribute to conservation and preservation strategies at this World Heritage site.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

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

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 37465.0