Mais, oui! I'm back from Paris.

Paris was much more incredible than I was expecting. I was there for a Mayan Hieroglyphic conference which was RIGHT outside the Eiffel Tower. It was kind of shocking at first to walk right outside our class room and see the Eiffel Tower. This picture is at the museum I was studying at. Those are Mayan Glyphs.

I started my week by doing a free tour took me all around Paris. It was put on by the hostel I was staying at which was, by far, the best hostel I have stayed at anywhere. I made a lot of really good friends and we hung out most of the week. I think I met mostly Australians than anyone else (and a few New Zealanders that I was told are called Kiwis). At one time there were 15 Australians and me at a table talking.

The free tour took us to Notre Dame, the Eiffel Tower, The Louvre Museum (where the Winged Victory, Venus De Milo, and The Mona Lisa are all kept), around central Paris, and to a few other notable sites. The tour guide had some interesting stories to tell during our walk. Most were about history and so I listened very closely.

So throughout the week I went back to the places I saw on the tour and at the suggestion of my parents, I went to several other places. I have to say I was most in awe of the Louvre, Sacre Couer, and Versailles Palace.

At the Louvre I spent all day long walking around. That place is incredibly huge. I can't even fathom how many actually pieces of art and artifacts are in there. I was told by one person that if you stood in front of every work that they have on display (because that have another 30,000+ in the basement) it would take you 4 1/2 months! Thats a long time and a lot of art. So because time was pressing on me, I had to do a "quick" walk through of about 5 hours. The Egyptian stuff was great. But the Winged Victory statue and the Mona Lisa are just SO impressive to see with your own eyes. They really are just incredible works of art.

I got to see the Paris Opera house where the Phantom of the Opera book and musical are set. I have to thank my mom for telling me to try to get to this. What a beautiful building! I have been told so many times that you can really feel some sort of "Phantom" lurking in the shadows. Its very strange. I can't imagine designing a building like that. Its beautiful both on the outside and inside. I'd love to hear an opera in there. I looked into it but time (and money) prevented me from even thinking about trying to get an opera in during my trip.


My last full day I made my way out to Versailles Palace which is about 45 mins on the out skirts of Paris. A nice German couple sat next to me by chance and we spoke for a long time in German. It was actually kind of relieving to be able to talk a language I know (at least a little). They were very nice though.

Versailles has a long history. Many of France's kings and queens lived there including Marie Antoinette, Louis XIV, and Napoleon. This place was decked out from head to toe. Gold everywhere. The size of the palace was just insane. Living in a place like that would make a person feel like the master of the world. The Hall of Mirrors is a incredibly beautiful room with hundreds of mirrors making it seem like that room is endless. The gardens outside seem to go on forever and ever as well. Finally I just gave up trying to conquer them and went back to the train.


Another thing I saw that just was kind of awe inspiring was Napoleons tomb. Sure.....he was a dictator, and a tyrant, but whew.....what an incredible person. He took over nearly all of Europe and tried to invade Russia. He also took over Egypt. I just finished a book 2 weeks ago about Napoleon in Egypt. It was so interesting. Here is a story that I read about when Hitler visited Napoleons tomb. Because of the way that Napoleons tomb is situated below the viewing point, you have to look down on it and in essence "bow" to Napoleon the Emperor. Since Hitler was....well.....Hitler.......he refused to bow to look at the tomb and so he got several of his men to hold mirrors angled down to look at the tomb but they couldn't get the angle right from where they were standing. He started yelling at them and in the excitement of it all, he knocked his own hat off. Quickly, and without thinking, he stooped down to pick it up and before he realized it, he had gotten on his knee and bowed to Napoleon. The two men that were holding the mirrors were then shot. Insane huh?

So thats about it. I could go on and on about Paris, but you'd really have to go there to see it all and experience it.

Tips for staying at a hostel

I have been thinking about this lately. The last few times I have stayed at a hostel, people seem surprised by the things that I do to make my stay much more enjoyable. Here are some tips you can do to save money, time, and make your stay more comfortable.

1. Bring ear plugs. I can't tell you how many times I have stayed at hostels and there have been kids running up and down the hall very late at night and people snoring extremely loud in the dorm rooms. You can get ear plugs very cheap in airports and travel stores.
2. Always make sure the place you have includes a free breakfast. If you can get up and make it to breakfast, you might be able to snag some food for lunch. You'll save a lot of money in expensive cities like London and Paris.
3. Also make sure that the hostel doesn't charge for sheets. Some do, others don't. Some also don't allow you to use sleeping bags. I have no clue why.
4. Bring your own towels. Most hostels do not supply them. I use a backpacking towel when I stay at hostels. They are light, take up little room, and dry quickly.
   
5. If you have a laptop, try to stay somewhere that has free internet. If you don't have a laptop, stay somewhere that has cheap internet usage. If you stay for more than 3 days you'll want to use the internet.
6. Whether you are traveling by air or train, plan out your route through the city to your hostel. Once you check in and scope out the area, you can ask the front desk how to get to and from the hostel the quickest. Also find out where the nearest train/bus station is.
   
7. Sleep on the bottom bunk. It will save you the hassle of climbing down a ladder in the morning or when you need to go to the bathroom. Some ladders are also not very stable. You'll also have more room to store things (i.e. under the bed).
   
8. Try to get a bed near a electric outlet. Some rooms only have one, so if you need it, you'll be closer. And don't forget a electric converter for the country you are going to.

Back from London....

London was such a wonderful time. I can't believe how much there is to see and do there. The great part is that most of the museums are all free. So here is a run down of everything I did. I'll try to post pictures on here as well. The rest of the pictures on on my website Jasonglisson.com under "Pictures". There is a new file called "England".

The night that I arrived, I got to my hostel very late and had planned on going to a classical concert that night. So I threw my stuff down and and ran back to the Underground station (Subway). I finally arrived at the church St Martin-in-the-fields. Late....but I made it. I missed the first 2 songs which were Canon in D and a Mozart piece. The other pieces were Vivaldi and Bach.

After the concert I went back to my room and slept because I knew I had a long day the next day.

Friday, I spent nearly the entire day at the British Museum. It is mind boggling how much information and how many artifacts from all over the world they have there. I got to see the Rosetta Stone (the key to solving the Egyptian Hieroglyphics mystery), some very neat Mayan and Aztec artifacts which I took way to many pictures of, and some incredible artifacts from Japan, China, Iran, India, The Roman Empire, Greece, and most importantly Egypt.

There was so much to see at this museum that I will have to go back and finish the floors and side that I didn't even get to. I think I was most impressed by the Rosetta Stone, the Mayan Artifacts, and the Egyptian Mummies. But really......its tough to decide what was the most impressive. The entire museum is just incredibly large.

Later that night, Halloween night, I attended a concert of a British music group I like called Shpongle. They have a strange style of music and have been together for nearly 10 years but only played 2 concerts ever. This one was the 2nd concert they played.....so I was fortunate to hear them. They had a classical guitarist with them, a small orchestra, and two opera singers. The other instruments were 2 drums sets, key board, an electric guitar, bass, and two DJs that were mixing music and producing strange sounds from their laptops. It was a really good show. I learned about Shpongle from a song I hear on Youtube that was paired with some Mayan pictures. Then I found out that the man that records some of the music for Shpongle recorded music at some of the Mayan ruins and was using that on their CDs. So I was hooked after that. Here is a link if you'd like to give a listen. Just press the play button on the right side of the screen. Dorset Perception is one of my favorite songs. Dorset is a street and suburb in London.

Saturday I had planned on spending the day walking around London. Unfortunately, a bad storm blew through that day so I wasn't able to do so, and as a result, missed my chance to go inside Westminster Abbey. That was the only day I was able to fit it in. Instead of walking around London, I decided to do just a few things. One of them was go to the Tower of London. That ended up taking nearly all day.

While I was in line, I met some Germans who were standing in front of me. They were speaking German and I laughed at something they said. The woman turned to me and said "Verstehen Sie das?" That means "You understood that?". I said in German "Yes I understand German, but don't speak it very well. I'm a foreign exchange student living in German right now." They thought that was so cool and said my German is better than their English. That made me feel a little better. They also wanted to take pictures with me for some reason. It was strange but I laughed and then smiled for the pictures.

The Tower of London was interesting. Inside various towers in the castle (its not just 1 tower, its several towers) there is graffiti of the different people that were held captive there. Some of the carvings in the stone were impressive. They obviously had a lot of time on their hands. I also was able to see some of the torture devices they used. Yikes! That would certainly not feel well for 8 hours.

After the Tower of London, it was raining so hard and very windy, that I decided to go back to my hostel and rest a bit.

Sunday morning I left very early, around 6:30, to walk around London a bit and take pictures. I first walked to Buckingham Palace. Then to Big Ben and Parliament. Then I walked to the London Eye (which is a giant Ferris Wheel), but didn't have time to ride on it unfortunately. It was really amazing to see Big Ben though. It was beautifully carved all the way up to the clock at the top. And you recognize the tune every time it chimes (Westminster Chimes).
The Parliament building is just as beautiful.

Later in the day, I took a Beatles walk tour. If it weren't for my parents introducing me to the Beatles, I may not be playing guitar. My first song book ever was a Beatles Easy Guitar songbook. So I owe them a little. It was a very interesting tour. The tour guide (Richard) is known as the Beatle Brain of Britain. He knows A LOT about them and has met them several times. He took us around to so many sites. The theater where Beatle-Mania started. Paul Mccartney's London office. Apple Studios and the site of their famous unannounced rooftop concert. Abbey Road, one of the most famous album covers of all time and the most famous road crossing ever. Several people a year get hit in the road trying to take photos like the Beatles took. Ha! One girl in our group had a horn blown at her several times. So the whole tour was exciting and worth every dollar (or Pound rather, thats what they use there anyway).

For the rest of the day I walked around London and took more pictures. One thing that I wanted to see was the Peter Pan statue in Kennsington Gardens. There are 5 or 6 of them in the world just like this one, but this is the original statue. I love the story of Peter Pan. Always have and always will. Pirates, Indians, flying through the air, sword fighting, fairies, far away places. Its just a very neat story. So I finally found the statue with some help from a girl that was on my Beatles tour named Teneil. We asked so many people that LIVED in London and they never even knew there was a statue of Peter Pan there. You should have seen the looks on peoples faces when we asked....."Excuse me, but....where is Peter Pan?" :-P The author of Peter Pan, J.M. Barrie placed this statue here near a children's park. The statue was erected in secret during the night and 'magically' appeared on 1st May 1912. :-) Fitting isn't it? And its really quite beautiful too. There are animals and fairies all around it listening to Peter. Wendy is at the top closest to him.

Later that night I was suppose to go on a tour of London to hear ghost stories and visit the scenes of the Jack the Ripper murders, because it was just after Halloween. However, I also wrote a rather long paper on Jack the Ripper and Modern Forensics for an Anthropology class, so I was a little interested in the crimes. The tour never showed up and I waited 2 hours nearly. I read on the ticket that if there aren't enough people they will cancel to tour and refund my money. So that's what they did.

Monday was my last full day there but it was an exciting one. I got up early and met my tour group and headed out to Windsor Castle, Stonehenge, and the Roman Baths. What a day! The Queen was actually at Windsor Castle when I was there and I got to see her dog and I think her cat. It was a beautiful castle with armor from all of the kings that have lived there. Henry the 8th was buried there as well.

After that we headed to Stonehenge. I was so excited to see these pile of rocks. And thats what some people in our group thought of them. They just said "Rocks....ok....great." and got back on the bus. But I guess because I've always seen them in the National Geographic, on TV, and in every Archaeology book I have.....I was excited. They were incredibly large stones. Just the size and the surrounding hillside makes you stop and think "Why in the world???? And why here?"
It was really cold and windy out there too.

Lastly we visited the Roman Baths. These were built during the Roman occupation of Britain. They were very beautiful but we were warned NOT to touch the water because it has all kinds of terrible bacteria in it. It was beautiful with the flames lit around it and the steam rolling off the water. These are hot springs but they also had cold springs inside one of the buildings. The Romans really were ingenious to build such an amazing complex with running water, pipes, spas, saunas. The city it is near is appropriately called "Bath". We were told that Nicholas Cage has a house there among other international stars. Its a very beautiful city.

So that's about it. I could go on and on and on, but this is really long already. I have a TON of pictures on my website so go and check them out. If you have any questions about pictures, just send me an email with the number of the pictures. The number should be listed right under the pictures name. I would take the time to write what each one is, but there are just so many pictures, it would take me forever. Since I am in class and working on graduate school applications now my time is limited.

I am in Tübingen Germany......finally!!!!!

I arrived yesterday around 2 or 3 pm. It was a LONG day. I didn't do much but sleep when I arrived at the hostel.

First....before I start rambling.....
Here are some pictures for you that I took walking around.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2192572&l=ccdec&id=22225658

I hope they turn out.

Its been a good day today. In the mid 70s for most of the day. There is a mexican guy named Sergio that is staying at the hostel I am at. We have been walking around alll day looking at the town. Its very beautiful. There are so many old buildings around. The town square is amazing. The fruits and veggies (gemüse und öbst) look very good. The flowers were incredible.

So far everyone has been very helpful and nice. We were walking around trying to find a store called 'Kaufland' (kaufen means 'to buy'). We forgot the name of it and stopped two women and asked them where 'laufkin' was. 'Laufen' means 'to walk'. The woman said 'Wo?' (Where?). Then we explained and they laughed and helped us find it. It was funny. We have been saying Kaufland all day and laughing because we called it 'walk land'. We bought bread, tuna salad that was pre mixed in a can (and quite good I might add), cookies, fruit, and chips that look like pringles. All of it is great but the bread is incredible because it was warm when I bought it.

I have not been able to get into my dorm room yet because the place I need to go is on the other side of town and not with in a walkable range so I have to take a bus on Monday to go and pay for it.

Right now I am limited to using the internet cafe because there is no internet in the hostel. But soon I will add more on here about whats going on. Most of the weekend I am going to just get aquanted with the city and area so I know what I am doing. I've already decided that I am going to Vienna Austria either next month or in October. I'll let everyone know when I do that. I plan to visit somewhere new at least once a month, but right now I don't know how much free time I am going to have......but I think it will be a lot.

So.....until I get my own internet, I'll have to keep this short.

Until next time!

Tschüss! (pleasent\friendly way of saying goodbye!)

You Better Belize It! I'm Back!

So now I am back from the Belize Archaeology Field School. What a trip!!! I had a great time really getting into the field work experience and talking archaeology with some very interesting people. Before the field school...I went to Tikal and Copan, two of the largest and most important Mayan sites in central America. I also traveled to Antigua and Guatemala City. Antigua was a BEAUTIFUL Spanish Colonial city surrounded by awe inspiring volcanoes.

So....now on to more exciting things. During the field school, I inadvertently made a very incredible discovery. Here is the story:

Last year, the site director I worked for named Maria Martinez was working in a site called La Milpa. I love this site. It is a large Mayan site that is covered with jungle and is visited daily by Howler and Spider monkeys. Maria is working in a plaza called plaza 88. In the middle of this plaza, she had a 4 meter pit dug straight down to see if she could find the first occupation level of this site. While a worker was down there, he bumped the wall and a few rocks fell out of the profile of the unit he was in. When he looked at the hole the rocks fell out of.....it was a deep, dark, hole that seemed to go underground quite a way. After examining the hole, several people agreed that it was just a possible cavity in the limestone rock.

So this year....after we did a weeks worth of work, everyone wanted to go down in this pit to look in the hole that was found last year. I had to have my turn. When I got down there, I reached inside the hole to feel around. I noticed that I couldn't feel the ceiling or even see the ceiling. So I asked for someone to throw my digital camera down to me. I switched it to video and put the camera in the hole with a flashlight and pointed it up.

When I replayed the video, I saw a ROUND hole with a stone over it. It was a capstone. That is......a stone that had been carved to cover a hole for some reason or another. I showed the video to Maria and she couldn't believe it. A girl named Kelly also got down in the pit and took a video. After replaying hers, it looked like there certainly was a round hole there and it wasn't just light and shadow playing tricks on us.

So eventually, in the weeks to follow, the northern wall of the pit was taken down to about 2.5 meters and the capstone was removed. It left a hole about 45-50cm in diameter....just large enough to fit a person in. I was given the first opportunity to excavate inside the hole. There is a chamber inside that is nearly perfectly round and about 2 meters in diameter.

There were very large spiders inside as well called Scorpion Spiders. They are harmless but look very very strange. They are much larger than your hand.

In the days to follow I was moving a lot of dirt out of the chamber underground. Eventually, one of the buckets I handed to someone contained a finger bone. It was thought to be a monkey bone, but after more bones showed up and the project osteologist (Julie Sauls) was questioned she agreed that the bones were human and wanted to see them for herself. The first bone I found was a sternum. Later other bones were found by Angeliki, a Greek grad-student that ended up helping me out with her excavation and bone experience. The bones were anywhere from 900-1500 years old and thought to be from the late pre-classic Mayan era.

I had to leave before all of the excavation was carried out, but I was asked if I would be interested in writing a field report, which I am looking forward to doing. It was a very interesting experience and something that I will never forget. This last picture was taken the last day of digging. The entrance to the chamber is behind me.

In Central America........Again?!?!?!?!

So.....here I am ....again....feeling the stress, frustration, and excitment of traveling in Central America. I started out rough with missing my flight from Greenville, but things turned around when I landed and got right on a bus for Chetumal, south of Cancun. It took about 7 hours to get there......2 more than I was planning. So I ended up sleeping in the bus station for a few hours before I got on what ended up being a VERY long mini-bus ride from Chetumal to Belize City to Tikal. We left Chetumal at 5am. I got in Tikal at 4pm. No air conditioning. No food. No sleep. It was rough. Mom....you would have hated it......because I sure did.

When I got to Tikal I met 4 British "chaps" that were very nice. All 4 were medical students. After chatting a bit, we decided it would be cheaper for all of us if we pitched in and got a room togethe at the Jungle Inn.....literally a few yards from the entrance of Tikal.

We had a nice dinner and then decided to go for a sunset tour of Tikal. If you buy your ticket after 3pm it allows you to use the same ticket the next day. We had the entire park to ourselves nearly. And after the British guys found out that I am studying the Maya and archaeology.....questions on top of questions came up. But I LOVED answering them. On our tour today.....they basically got a recap of everything I told them. One of them came up to me and said "You don't lie do you Jason. You know your stuff well." That made me feel good. A also talked to our tour guide and he ended up introducing me to the entire group as the Jungle Inn resident archaeologist. I laughed and had to disclaim that before people started asking too many questions.

So we did the sunrise tour at 4:30am. It was worth it. Monkeys were all in the trees, a nice cool breeze was around, and it was misty everywhere. Later on it got so hot that we just left and laid in the shade for the rest of the afternoon. There were Howler Monkeys everywhere. I took a few videos of them so you can hear what they sound like.

I'm about to leave Tikal and fly to Guatemala City and then a bus to Copan very early in the morning. Sorry this is so short, but you have to pay to use the internet here and its not very cheap so I am typing VERY fast. Hope everyone is doing great!!

I'll be putting more pictures up soon.

Maya Meetings in Austin TX

I just returned from the Maya Meetings in Austin TX. It was a great time. I met some of the most interesting people in the field of Mayan Archaeology. Basically everyone that I have ever read an article by has authored a book that I have was there.

A few notable names:
- George Stuart, David Stuart, Michael Coe, Bill Fash and Barbra Fash, Stephen Houston, Fred Valdez, Karl Taube

The meetings started on Friday afternoon with a keynote by David Stuart. I was very interested in meeting him. He is basically "Mr. Mayan Hieroglyphic" and is responsible for discovering the meaning behind hundreds of glyphs.

Later that night came a lecture by Michael Coe. He was such a nice guy to talk to and has been working on Mayan Hieroglyphics for nearly 50 years if not more. In the picture here is Michaeol Coe (left) and David Stuart (right). I also asked Michael Coe to sign two of my books that I have read several times on the Maya.

Michael Coe spoke about all his work in Mayan iconography and identified some of the similarities in several cultures in Mesoamerica. I took a lot of notes. It was really awesome being able to say that I took notes on a lecture by Michael Coe.

The next day there were presentations starting very early in the morning. I had a quick breakfast at my hotel and walked to campus which was about a 25 min walk. Luckily, the weather was perfect.

Dario A. Euraque presented a very fascinating presentation on Honduras and how the people there are starting to get confused about their Mayan heritage. He showed some very funny slides of places around towns, newspapers, buildings, restaurants, etc that all had small Mayan drawings or objects placed here and there just to try to identify with the Maya. He also showed a church that had Mayan gods painted on the outside. To them its just pretty, but it really doesn't make much sense to have Mayan gods on a church, but again....most people have no clue what they mean.

Several lectures followed for the rest of the day. I became good friends with a guy named Alan that lives in Houston. We both had very similar interest and decided to have lunch that afternoon. We were both very happy with the meetings thus far and that we got to meet some of the most important people in the field.

That night we were treated to a movie. But not just any movie. The movie was called "Breaking the Maya Code" and it was the premier showing of it. The man that made the movie was there and spoke a little about it. It basically told the history of how the Mayan Glyphs were decoded. Most of the people in the movie were all there so it was very cool to watch for the first time together with hundreds of people that were just as excited about it as the next person.
The film was two hours long. It will be shown on NOVA on PBS April 7th I believe. Check your local listings. You don't want to miss this.

I took nearly 8 pages of notes at the conference and met some people that I have only read about for years. It is always so interesting to be able to start talking about some Mayan ruins or something related to the Yucatan and everyone there always knows what you are talking about.

I also got to meet up with George Stuart and his very nice wife Melinda. Both of them are so kind. We talked for a while off and on throughout the weekend. George is also in the "Breaking the Maya Code" movie as well as his son David. George got to tell everyone his stories of early archaeology in Mexico and the Yucatan. When he speaks....everyone always listens. Out of respect and because his stories are usually very amusing and funny.

For those of you that don't know, George Stuart was the staff archaeologist for National Geographic and made some incredible discoveries while working with them. I've learned a lot by corresponding with him for the last year and we have become good friends. He lives near Asheville and is constantly telling me to come up when I can. His book collection is incredible. He has hand written books by Spanish conquistadors and some books that are signed by the authors from the 1800s. Most all of them pertain the to Mayan. He is in the process of moving them all to UNC for safe keeping.

Caswell Memorial in Kinston NC

About 2 weeks ago, a friend from my archaeology class and myself drove to Kinston NC to help some of our professors at the Gov. Caswell Memorial. The caretakers of the site have never been sure where his grave was. Caswell is the first governor of NC so it seems slightly important that we know where his grave is.

It was an interesting day. Bitterly cold wind blew through the site. There were several grad students out there. Most either ignored us or made very small talk. Dr Randy Daniel and Dr Charles Ewen were out there supervising. I asked if there was anything I could do and told Dr Daniel that I was very eager to learn and wanted to help in anyway. So he let me help survey the site with a total station. After that, we used a ground penetrating radar machine (that looked kinda like a lawnmower) to go across the site in a "Z" looking to see if there were any anomalies under the ground. When we found one, we marked it with a flag and then mapped the flag in to our grid.

Thats about all we did with the time that we had. Soon I think we may go back out there.

Sounds kinda boring to most people, but I enjoyed it a lot. I guess this was my first real archaeological survey.

Tulane University Maya Symposium and Workshops

Its been a long day. I got on the road around 7:30 and got to the airport. Funny enough, I ran into a student from ECU that had just arrived as well. We had breakfast together and talked for a bit. She is also going to be going to the university in Germany that I have applied to, Tubingen.
So I landed in New Orleans a little early. I rushed through the terminal and got my bag and hailed a cab. e got me to Tulane as fast as he could. The traffic was AWFUL! The NBA All Star game is going on in New Orleans right now so there are "TONS of people here that shouldn't be here" to quote the cabbie.
I arrived at Tulane a little late. My workshop started at 1:30. I walked in at 1:45. I grabbed a seat in the back of the room, as the lecture had already started. This particular workshop examined the cave paintings and glyphs in the cave called Naj Tunich.
As I walked to the back, Dr George Stuart was sitting back there and just smiled as I walked towards him. We both greeted each other. The class was about 15 strong maybe.
The series of glyphs we looked at were examined first by Dr Stuart in late 1980. He published his findings in the Aug 1981 issue of National Geographic. The year and month that I was born. IRONIC!

Here are a few of the drawings we looked at. One of the more interesting is the one on the bottom. This was on the front cover of the Aug 1981. I was always curious as to what the figure was doing. Funny enough, the round object to his left was never really pictured before, so I didn't know it was there until today.


The round object is a ball. So the figure is thought to be a ballplayer. For anyone that doesn't know, the Maya played a ball game of life and death. Kinda like soccer, but a bit more intense. The figure also has knee pads on.

Above ball is a bar, and 4 dots. This, in Mayan number system, is the number 9. The bar equals 5 and the dots equal one each. We talked about what the numbers would mean, until finally the lecturer told us what he thought they probably where. He said they were the dimensions of the ball. 9 hand lengths in dimension. That is the tip of your pinky finger to the end of your thumb. Whether it was the diameter or radius, we never figured out. The only ball that I know of that has been found was brought up from the cenote near Chichen Itza, and it was in pretty bad shape.

The pictures continue through the cave system for a long ways. Dr Stuart shared with us that he found a foot print from the Post Classic Period (around 700 AD) in the back of the cave and he had one of those moments where you realize that you are the first person in that place for over 1000 years. I really long for that feeling. Must be pretty awesome. He said he actually started crying when he discovered some of the cave glyphs. They are very beautiful. The artist made no mistakes. They couldn't erase anything. Everything had to be perfect from start to finish. Pretty cool to think about it like that.

Later on today Dr Stuart presented a lecture on his 50 years in Mayan archaeology. It was a very impressive lecture. At the end of his lecture, he showed the picture from the cave that I have on this page. One this time, the glyphs were scratched up, smeared, and chiseled off. I gasped when I saw them. He had told me once that someone vandalized the glyphs in Naj Tunich, but I didn't think they had done anything like that. After the crowd groaned about the vandalism, Dr Stuart reminded us all that archaeology isn't just about finding neat stuff. Its about recording data. He said that every time we find something, we must record it. After the National Geographic published his story on the Cave Naj Tunich, the cave was on the map for looters and vandals.

Concluding his lecture, Dr Stuart said something that stuck with me. He said what we are doing is not just archaeology. Its recording data as perfectly as we can. Do not leave one detail out. If you do, it may be erased forever. When an archaeologist discovers something, that discovery is automatically in trouble. I often feel like archaeologist don't deserve to find these things so that they are never in danger. But then I think.......better us than someone who doesn't care or know what they have found. You can click on the picture of Dr Stuart if you want to read more about him.