LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, HOST:
Mexican archaeologists have announced the discovery of a trove of Mayan artifacts beneath the ancient city of Chichen Itza. Local residents played a key role, pointing the researchers to the cave that held well-preserved items - ceramic incense holders, decorated plates and other objects that appear to date back to 1000 A.D. Archaeologist Guillermo de Anda helped lead the team. He's a National Geographic Explorer and the director of the Great Mayan (ph) Aquifer Project. And he joins us now from Mexico City. Welcome.
GUILLERMO DE ANDA: Thank you very much. How are you?
GARCIA-NAVARRO: I'm very well. So how important was this discovery?
DE ANDA: Well, we believe it's very important, especially because we have a good amount of archaeological material in an excellent state of preservation. We're talking about one of the most important cities in the Maya world. So that gives another dimension to the discovery.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: So this cave has been known to local residents. And about 50 years ago, they told an archaeologist about the cave. And then he just, apparently, ordered it sealed up. And then it seems to have been forgotten. And then the residents told your group about the cave?
DE ANDA: Yeah. Yeah. Your story's correct. We discovered the cave, once again, by accident kind of because we were looking, actually, for a connection between flooded caves to try and to access a cenote that's supposed to be under the main pyramid called The Castle in Chichen Itza. Anyway, we were looking for these connections. And the locals told us, well, my granddad told me about this cave they discover. And I know how to go there. And there was just a little entrance. We managed to go in there. And we found this amazing, amazing discovery.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: Yeah. And I read that you performed a six-hour purification ritual before entering the cave system.
DE ANDA: That is amazing. You know, it's amazing that the Maya culture is still so alive. The Mayas said, you know, this is a sacred place, especially because you're looking for these artifacts. And they are guarded by the spirits of the cave. They say we need a priest - the Maya priest they call shaman, which means, like, wise man. And yeah - we did perform this six-hour ceremony. It was amazing - anthropologically, was very interesting for me. And it was also very moving because you can see the fervor that nowaday Maya still have for all that.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: Yeah. Amazing to see the culture alive and well and the connection between the past and the present.
DE ANDA: Yeah. That's an amazing thing for an archaeologist, for an anthropologist. It gives a lot of clues and a lot of information.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: And then getting to the actual artifacts wasn't easy, right?
DE ANDA: It was not easy at all. We were looking for some passageways. And the fifth day, we found this very small, narrow passageway. And we decided to do it. It's a journey. It's a...
GARCIA-NAVARRO: You had to crawl on your stomach for hours, right?
DE ANDA: You have to crawl on your stomach. And then where you're lucky, you can just kind of go a little higher - yes - using your feet and hands. It's all worth it, let me tell you. That cave is teaching us a lesson. For us, it was very hard. But thinking about Maya in ancient times, going there through those passageways, crawling with a big incense burner and a torch - how they manage to do that. I mean, you do have to think about them with even more respect than we have always had because you see how important these caves were for them.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: You found at least 200 artifacts. Can you just take me to the moment when you saw these artifacts and you made this discovery, which I imagine for an archaeologist is such a momentous occasion?
DE ANDA: I should say this is the brightest moment in my career. I was by myself because my colleagues - the photographers and everybody - I told them, but let's see if this is worth it, if this goes. And let me go check for 30 minutes. And I'll be back. Now they say we were there for three hours and a half. I guess lose sense of time because when I get to the first offering, which is about an hour and a half crawling from the entrance, you know, the thrill that I feel - I started crying, actually. And I realized I was in a very, very, very sacred place. You, of course, are an alien on that area in all senses - very hard to describe this feeling.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: Guillermo de Anda, archaeologist and director of the Great Mayan Aquifer Project, congratulations. And thank you very much.
DE ANDA: Thank you very much. It's a pleasure to talk to you and all your audience.
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