Friends and colleagues: Interpreting archaeological sites requires an understanding of landscape and environment.  And sometimes in saving one we also save the other, as exemplified by Saving the Cradle of Maya Civilization: Mirador Basin, Guatemala, the latest video feature on our nonprofit streaming-media Web site, The Archaeology Channel (http://www.archaeologychannel.org).

The Mirador Basin, Guatemala, is noted for its many pre-Classic Maya cities and monuments, predating the Classic Maya sites of nearby Tikal by 800-1200 years.  La Danta pyramid, at El Mirador, may be the largest in Mesoamerica.  The Mirador Archaeological and Wildlife Preserve, proposed by the Global Heritage Fund and others, may be the only chance to save the last forests of the Maya Biosphere, of which 70 percent has been cut and burned in the past decade, from an environmental catastrophe similar to that seen by the ancient Maya.

This and other programs are available on TAC for your use and enjoyment.  We urge you to support this public service by participating in our Membership (http://www.archaeologychannel.org/member.html) and Underwriting (http://www.archaeologychannel.org/sponsor.shtml) programs.  Only with your help can we continue and enhance our nonprofit public-education and visitor-supported programming.  We also welcome new content partners as we reach out to the world community.

Please forward this message to others who may be interested and let us know if you wish to be removed from our mailing list.

Richard M. Pettigrew, Ph.D., RPA
President and Executive Director
Archaeological Legacy Institute
http://www.archaeologychannel.org

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