Modern History
The ruins of Seibal were probably discovered around 1890 by loggers working for the Hamett Mahogany Company. Federico Artes first reported the existence of the ruins in 1892 after he was sent to Petén by the Guatemalan government in order to find material to be displayed in the Guatemalan exhibit for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. He took molds from some of the stelae and the resulting casts were displayed in the Exposition, bringing the recent discovery of the ruins to the attention of archaeologists for the first time. Two years later, in July 1895, Seibal was explored by Teoberto Maler on behalf of the Peabody Museum of Harvard University. He made a site plan and discovered a new stela to add to those already discovered. He returned to the site for further investigations in August 1905 but discovered no new monuments. The Peabody Museum published Maler's work in 1908, including good quality photos of the stelae.
Seibal was next investigated by Sylvanus Morley in 1914 on behalf of the Carnegie Institution of Washington. Dr Barnum Brown visited the ruins in 1948, and members of the Altar de Sacrificios Expedition of the Peabody Museum made visits in 1961, 1962 and 1963.
In 1964, the Peabody Museum returned to the site with a thorough investigation that continued until 1968, led by Gordon R. Willey as Director and A. Ledyard Smith as Field Director. Further excavations were carried out from May to June in 2006 by the Proyecto Arqueológico Ceibal-Petexbatun (Seibal-Petexbatun Archaeological Project).
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