Conservation and Maya Architecture in Petén, Guatemala

Abstract

The northeast portion of the Guatemalan Peten has a unique concentration of prehispanic sites, part of the
“Central Maya Lowlands”. A reference to this territory is Tikal. From this thousand-year-old city, the authors,
for more than 20 years, have made reconnaissance trips through the jungle to determine the condition of
prehispanic built heritage. Heritage in situation of archaeological ruin interspersed with the tropical jungle. They
are constructions that can reach an exceptional category as a world heritage site and, at the same time, be
imbued in a continuous jungle of equal local, regional and global importance. The concept of work in this territory
was the subject of a doctoral thesis at the Polytechnic University of Valencia and several works published, in
part, by the German Archaeological Institute in Bonn. In this contribution we make a retrospective view of our
fieldwork. We present the method used and the results obtained, the advances and conclusions regarding the
architectural restoration of prehispanic buildings in tropical climate zones.