And among those reports we've received, the persistent suggestion is that members of Belize's Mennonite community have encroached on what should be sacred grounds of other Mayan temples in search of land for farming.
Jules asked Dr. Awe about that, and he recounted instances where he has observed exactly that type of destruction. Here are those comments:
Dr. Jaime Awe - Veteran Archaeologist
"It's a problem without a doubt. In fact, Jules, we just had the Belize Annual Symposium. There was a hiatus because of the whole COVID pandemic and during the symposium, a couple of people brought that up. In fact, one of the foreign archeologists has a permit to go into the area of Spanish Lookout, all the way practically to the Guatemalan border. And she and her team, both Belizeans and a couple of students from the U.S. have been not just documenting all the cases of sight destruction. I also should let you know that John Morris has now started - he had a small project that he had begun, and then it went into hiatus. But he's now working at Aguacate. The Aguacate Lagoon is just west of Spanish Lookout, and one of the things that they've been doing is meeting with Mennonite leaders, and Mennonite families, and requesting that they do not bulldoze many of the mounds out there. And in fact, they did two presentations that focused on that topic because it is of serious concern. You know, at the rate that land clearing is going on - You pointed out Little Belize. That's the northeastern part of Belize. I've been up there in fact, I went up there many years ago to look at this site called Cacantulich, and then also by the Blue Creek area, where there's greater expansion. In fact, your son, Scion, worked with an American archeologist up by Blue Creek. And Tom, because of his concern as well with site destruction, was able to raise funds in the US to purchase a property, a section of the property from the Mennonites in Blue Creek, to conserve a site. And so, you know, it's moving. We're starting to see several initiatives that are directed specifically to trying to protect sites as a result of destruction by agro development."
Jules Vasquez - Host
"Is this something that makes you lose sleep at night in terms of all the treasures of antiquity that have been lost?"
Dr. Jaime Awe
"Oh, yeah."
Uncut repeats tonight at 8:00 or you can find it on the Youtube Uncut Channel.
