Archaeology is the study of how people lived in the past. People who study archaeology are called archaeologists and they are interested in everything about people from the past: how they built their houses, their art, religion, food etc. They don t only want to know how the rulers and their families lived, but also what common people ate or how women dressed.
Archaeologists learn about the past investigating remains of buildings and the artifacts they find within them. These are all remains of past cultures. They can be pieces of ceramics, bones, buildings, murals or any other object. The archaeologists learn most from these artifacts if they find them exactly on the spot where they were left behind. If you find for example a piece of pottery in what used to be a kitchen, it s logical to think that the pottery comes from some pot that was used to cook. But a piece of pottery without any information on where it was found could just be anything!

Every archaeologist will probable tell you he or she has the best job in the world! And sure enough, it is very exciting to try to reveal the mysteries of the ancient Mayas and other peoples; to crawl through tunnels hidden under temples; to find royal tombs or decipher Maya glyphs & Sometimes the work is dangerous and there are encounters with hairy spiders and poisonous snakes. And how amazing and wonderful to discover that one special object or building that sheds a whole new light on what we knew about the Mayas...

Archaeologists are very happy when they find a place where people from the past deposited their trash, because it can give them a lot of information. Imagine a future archaeologist going through our trash: he'll know exactly what we like to eat from what he finds: chips bags, soda bottles, candy wrappers & And he'll also know that we don't always use the trash can to deposit our waste.

When the first archaeologists came to Copán they were impressed with the glyphs they found, but they had no idea it was a way of writing. They thought the glyphs were just for decoration. Nowadays, the archaeologist can decipher about 85% of the glyphs and that is incredibly important, because these glyphs give us a lot of information, such as dates and the names of the rulers.
Because of all the new discoveries we think now very differently about the Mayas than a hundred years ago. But the archaeologists still don't know everything. It is very possible that tomorrow s discovery will change archaeologists' theories yet again!

Since the ruins of Copán were first discovered, the place has always attracted visitors. The first explorers came to the dense jungle to look for the mysterious buildings and statues. Then scientists came who took a close look at the monuments and artifacts. When the town of Copán grew bigger and the roads were getting better, more and more people found their way to Copán to see with their own eyes the traces of the Maya past.
Today, thousands of visitors from all over the world come to the beautiful archaeological park of Copán. It's a gorgeous place where you can marvel about Maya culture or just enjoy the natural surroundings. Of course the archaeologists keep working in this site, but more than anything it has become an important tourist destination.
In the past, people traveled on horseback and had to cross many a river or creek. They spent the night in the small village of Copán Ruinas in the houses of local farmers and shared their food.
These days, the visitors arrive by bus or car and stay in one of the many hotels in town. They eat in restaurants and buy souvenirs at the market or in the shops. Copán Ruinas has changed a lot in the last few years and all of it because of the heritage of its Maya ancestors. If it wasn't for the Mayas, all these people would never visit the town!