Naranjo - Discovery of Naranjo

Discovery of Naranjo

The site was rediscovered by Teoberto Maler in 1905. He spent 3 months exploring, mapping, and photographing the site. In the 1910s further investigations of the site were made by Sylvanus G. Morley and Oliver Ricketson. Naranjo was one of the earliest sites to suffer from large-scale looting, as sculptures were illegally removed for sale to collectors. By the 1920s, many of the ancient sculptures had already disappeared. The problem worsened during the 1960s, when many of the site's large sculptures were smashed into fragments by looters in order to remove and sell the fragments. Some of the city's monuments are known today only from photographs taken by the early explorers; even when the looted monuments are subsequently brought back into circulation, their uncertain provenance makes it very difficult for them to be placed in an appropriate context.

European and North American collectors continued to support the removal of artifacts from the site, the problem intensifying during and after the Guatemalan civil war of the 1960s and 1970s. It is claimed that the military governments of the time were complicit. Even now, archaeologists excavating the site are from time to time forced to abandon their work because of the lawless activities of the well armed looters.