The illegal excavation of ancient architecture leaves its mark in multiple ways. We are not looking at the accidental encounter of a poor farmer whose luck will now turn for the treasure he will sell. The looting of the Maya forest is insidious. Links with other furtive activities that are easily hidden in the cover of the jungles, teams of commissioned workers fan out in search of treasures. To accomplish their goals, they have observed and perhaps even worked with archaeologists. Center trenching large mounds, the remains of household and civic ceremonal temples, are the stock in trade.
Looter's Trench
Looters, locally called Huecheros in the Maya forest after the Mayan word for armadillo, have destroyed most of the major temples of all known Maya centers with their burrowing. The rediscovery of sites, like El Pilar, reveal the systematic unchecked labors that mar the architectural integrity of the sites and destroy valuable information on the history of the ancient places. The looters' trenches are found not only in the major architecture of centers, but in most of the residential architecture as well, attesting to the well distributed luxuries from the top on down the hierarchy to the homes.
The excavations do not simply destroy the beautiful architecture of the ancient Maya; they remove the valuable treasures from the immediate context and with the booty, the clues to the Maya culture itself. Tombs and caches deposited in the dedication of the Maya temples have been redistributed from their intended sacred resting places into the auction houses of the developed world. Sales on the illegal antiquities market care little for the authenticity of their goods, asking no penetrating questions as to the actual origins. Collections after the UNESCO convention of 1972 and the US ratification in 1983 are subject to serious scrutiny. Yet artifacts can be restored and repainted, casting into doubt the veracity of their qualities. Examples abound of repainting and refurbishing. These pieces are difficult to evaluate, wrenched, as they are from their context and interpreted in more glamorous ways.

Vase... As Discovered

Vase... As Marketed