“The archaeological rescue of the Mayan Train was in accordance with international conventions”

The archaeological rescue of the Mayan Train involved more than four years of work with specialists to carry out the registration, conservation, restoration and recovery of heritage assets. 25 large detours were made in the railway section (between 2 and 4 kilometers) along the 1,525 kilometers that the route covers, “due to the presence of relevant pre-Hispanic monuments.”

Manuel Pérez Rivas, archaeologist responsible for the project, explained in an interview with The Day that the salvage and field work has already ended, but the laboratory analysis, conservation and restoration of the recovered pieces continue; In addition, a digital repository with more than 800 terabytes is being prepared that will contain the abundant information collected and generated with this infrastructure project, for which “new technologies were used and marked a change in the way of addressing priority works.”

Pérez Rivas said that there were four criteria – a kind of traffic light of attention, from least to most relevant, from one to four – on which they were based for the protection, rescue or conservation of the vestiges, whether domestic or ceremonial, even the architectural ones, “such as religious civic constructions, elite complexes and units for people of various statuses, as well as terraces and ridges, which show a very complex and extensive pattern.

“Currently there are pieces that are in laboratory study and others are part of the restored collections in museums such as the Ateneo de la Ciudad de Mérida, and some in the halls of the stations, and even in the Tulum airport; there pre-Hispanic objects rescued with this project are exhibited.”

The archaeologist stressed: “we did not touch the most relevant findings and we did not intervene, precisely because of this diversion protection measure; in section seven there are groups of large vaulted buildings. Our mission was to divert the work so that they would not be touched, and concentrate on the exploration of what was left in the right of way. Sites were protected and registration was made, among them there is a very large site in Campeche called Cruz de Rovira, with buildings of more than 12 meters, which remained unaffected.

“The field, exploration phase, has already ended. We are analyzing materials, as well as preparing reports, because it is an immense amount of data: nearly 23 thousand monuments that were intervened, and all the reports have to be integrated. The only pending field activity is to conclude the relocation process in the Balaam Tun Park, in Chetumal.”

Pérez Rivas clarified that the first guideline of the archaeological rescue project “is the preservation on site; However, there are cases, which are not exclusive to the Mayan Train – it also happens in the construction of roads and paths – in which the monument cannot be preserved for technical safety. Then the relocation process is resorted to; that is, explore the vestige, dismantle it in a controlled manner and move it to a location where it can be appreciated and preserved.

“This is something that has been done for a long time, it is an essential resource, if it cannot be conserved on site the vestige It is not desirable, but that is how it is done. The most emblematic example is the temple of Abul Simbel, in Egypt, along with more than 40 buildings, all of which had to be moved to other locations; This has also happened in Yucatán and Campeche, due to road works; In central Mexico there are temples recovered in deep excavations that have been dismantled and moved. In reality, what has to be done is exhaustive registration and careful relocation trying to preserve the cultural value of the monuments.”

The relocation of pre-Hispanic buildings, which in this case were close to 80, Pérez Rivas reiterated, “is not an illegal, destructive, nor unprecedented procedure. Cases have been illustrated on an international scale and also at the national level, both before and after the promulgation of the current federal law; it is a research project reviewed and validated by the INAH through its Council of Archeology that complies with the regulations. In this particular case of the relocation procedures, Its viability was analyzed and endorsed by this collegiate body.”

Also “acting has been done in accordance with the letters and conventions issued by international organizations such as the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization and the International Council on Monuments and Sites, which consider the procedure for transferring or relocating a monument viable when its safeguarding requires it or when reasons of national or international interest justify it.”

The archaeologist pointed out that the Baalam Tun Memory Park was planned, precisely, “to house and give appropriate social use to the transferred buildings, creating an interpretive space for sectors of the population. The archaeological heritage is distributed throughout the Yucatan Peninsula; we have more than 66 thousand archaeological monuments registered in the seven sections of the Mayan Train; 23 thousand of those were intervened and preserved on site more than 1,500.”