El Tintal

El Tintal is a Maya archaeological site in the northern Petén region of Guatemala, about 25 kilometres (16 mi) northeast of the modern-day settlement of Carmelita, with settlement dating to the Preclassic and Classic periods. It is close to the better known sites of El Mirador (20 kilometres (12 mi) to the north), to which it was linked by causeway, and Nakbé (20 kilometres (12 mi) to the northeast). El Tintal is a sizeable site that includes some very large structures and it is one of the four largest sites in the northern Petén; it is the second largest site in the Mirador Basin, after El Mirador itself. El Tintal features monumental architecture dating to the Middle Preclassic similar to that found at El Mirador, Nakbé and Wakna. Potsherds recovered from the site date to the Late Preclassic and Early Classic periods, and construction continued at the site in the Late Classic period.

The causeway system linking the sites of El Tintal, El Mirador and Nakbé involved a significant labour investment and an enormous quantity of construction materials, indicating an accomplished engineering programme in the Preclassic Period.

Although the site's existence was known to archaeologists for decades, due to its remote location no thorough investigation of the site took place until 2004, when the Mirador Basin Project carried out the first systematic excavations.

El Tintal is located in the north of the department of Petén, in a remote area still covered by dense virgin rainforest and only accessible by mule trails. The site occupies a hill, with four swampy areas within the site core. The swamps of the Mirador Basin appear to have been the primary attraction for the first inhabitants of the area as evidenced by the unusual cluster of large cities clustered around them.

Ceramic analysis has revealed that El Tintal was most heavily occupied during the Late Preclassic (300 BC – AD 150) and in the Late Classic. Preclassic ceramic finds are of a type found throughout the Mirador Basin, but Late Classic ceramics are of a type distinct from those found at other sites in the basin, suggesting cultural diversion as population levels fell after the Preclassic.

El Tintal was first visited by Heinrich Berlin in the 1950s but it was not until 1970 that test pits were excavated by archaeologists Ian Graham and Joyce Marcus, of the universities of Harvard and Michigan respectively. In 1990 Richard D. Hansen carried out a rescue excavation around Stela 1. The Mirador Basin Project carried out the first systematic excavations at the site in 2004.

The site has been heavily looted, with 2154 looters' trenches cut into the mapped structures, averaging 2.54 trenches per structure. The looters unearthed thousands of burials and have left human remains, ceramics and other artifacts judged of lesser value scattered throughout the site. A great deal of damage was done by looters mistakenly looking for Classic Period burials in Preclassic structures, resulting in extensive digging when such burials were not found.

The Mirador Basin Project mapped 9 square kilometres (3.5 sq mi) around the monumental architecture of El Tintal, recording 850 major structures reaching up to 50 metres (160 ft) high. Wide causeways connected various parts of the site, as well as connecting the city with a network of other sites in the Mirador Basin.