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Information about Cival

Cival is an archaeological site in the Petén Basin region of the southern Maya lowlands, which was formerly a major city of the Pre-Columbian Maya civilization. It is located in the present-day Department of Petén, Guatemala.

The site flourished from about the 6th century BC through the 1st century, during the Maya Pre-Classic Period (see: Mesoamerican chronology). It may have had a peak population of some 10,000 people.

The site is about 25 miles (40 km) east of Tikal, on a ridge over the left bank of the Holmul river.

The site has temples on step pyramids and plazas arranged to point to astronomical events such as the equinox sunrise, and is surrounded by a defensive wall. The site's largest step-pyramid is 27 metres high and 70 x 40 metres wide. Some buildings were decorated with stucco sculptures depicting Mesoamerican deities.

The site was long lost in the jungle, and was discovered and partly plundered by looters around 1980. It was first mapped by explorer Ian Graham in 1984, who gave it the name Cival after a local word for "lagoon". The ancient name of the site is currently unknown.

Archaeological excavations of the site began in 2001 and are ongoing as of 2004, led by Dr. Francisco Estrada-Belli. The project there originally began as part of investigations at the nearby Classic Maya site of Holmul, but attention was shifted to Cival as Cival's age and importance became apparent. The excavations are sposored by Vanderbilt University and the National Geographic Society, the Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies, the Ahau Foundation, ARB, Interco Tire, PIAA and Warn Industries.

Investigations at Cival have added to knowledge of the Pre-Classic Maya, including revealing the earliest inscriptions with Maya calendar dates and showing dynastic succession of monarchs.

Some news reports have incorrectly stated that Pre-Classic Maya cities were previously unknown. Pre-Classic buildings in the Peten have been excavated by archaeologists since the work at Uaxactun in the 1920s, and the major breakthrough which revealed that the Pre-Classic Maya were more highly developed and urbanized in this era than had long been thought was the archaeological project at El Mirador starting in the late 1970s.

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The Petén Basin is a geographical subregion of Mesoamerica, located in the northern portion of the modern-day nation of Guatemala, and essentially contained within the department of El Petén.
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The pre-Columbian era incorporates all period subdivisions in the history and prehistory of the Americas before the appearance of significant European influences on the American continents.
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Maya civilization is a Mesoamerican civilization, noted for the only known fully developed written language of the pre-Columbian Americas, as well as its spectacular art, monumental architecture, and sophisticated mathematical and astronomical systems.
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Petén is a department of the nation of Guatemala. It is geographically the northernmost department of Guatemala, as well as the largest in size — at 12,960 square miles (33,566 km²) it accounts for about one third of Guatemala's area. The capital is Flores.
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Motto
Unofficial: "El País de la Eterna Primavera" 
"Land of Eternal Spring"
Official: "Libre Crezca Fecundo"
"Grow Free and Fertile"
Anthem
Himno Nacional de Guatemala
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Mesoamerican chronology divides the history of pre-Columbian Mesoamerica into a number of named successive eras or periods, from the earliest evidence of human habitation through to the early Colonial period which followed the Spanish colonization of the Americas.
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equinox can have two meanings:
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Mesoamerica or Meso-America (Spanish: Mesoamérica) is a region in the mid-latitudes of the Americas, namely the culture area within which a number of pre-Columbian societies flourished before the Spanish colonization of the
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Ian Graham
Personal Info
Birth January 5, 1943,
Recruited from
Height/Weight 187 cm / 80 kg
Playing Career
Debut 1963, Collingwood vs.
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lagoon is a body of comparatively shallow salt or brackish water separated from the deeper sea by a shallow or exposed sandbank, coral reef, or similar feature. Thus, the enclosed body of water behind a barrier reef or barrier islands or enclosed by an atoll reef is called a
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The Maya calendar is a system of distinct calendars and almanacs used by the Maya civilization of pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, and by some modern Maya communities in highland Guatemala.
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