Arthur Demarest
Treasures are not found at random
As a young, newly graduated archaeologist, Arthur Demarest defied his teacher's warnings and headed to excavations in El Salvador. It was a restless, dangerous region, as the murder of the Archbishop had caused chaos in the country. Left-wing guerrillas and right-wing extremist death squads rendered a war for decades. Thanks to his Spanish skills, Arthur Demarest was able to communicate with various parties and local people. He learned to negotiate and handle dangerous situations calmly. Once the house he lived in was burned down by guerrillas. Arthur Demarest was not harmed in this incident but his key tool, the Suunto KB-20 compass, suffered some damage - which, in retrospect, turned out to be a lucky coincidence, as Demarest tells us.
Even after that, Arthur Demarest has headed for expeditions in dangerous areas. One of them is Peten in the rainforest lowlands in Guatemala, home of the ancient Maya town of Cancuen. The landscape mainly consists of jungle and swamp. The area has been the frontier of a long-lasting guerrilla war and is also pestered by drug dealers, grave-robbers and thieves. On the other hand, Professor Demarest has found several indicators of the findings from the area being unique. He believes that the most dangerous areas are also the least explored ones, and research into them might result in extraordinary findings; safer targets are, naturally, more popular.
Explorers face many dangers in rainforests, and the biggest threat is getting lost. Professor Demarest notes that if only you can see the sky, you will eventually find signs that point you in the right direction. But the rainforest is a different environment. A few steps in the wrong direction may find you in a dangerous position, in the middle of impenetrable jungle where heavy vegetation blocks the sky. Orientation is equally demanding in the cave systems under limestone rocks. You may end up in a rapidly flowing river in the cave and once you make it out of the water, you don't know which bank you are on and where your entrance was. Satellite positioning is not available in large areas of the rainforest, and caves are completely out of its reach. The only reliable aid is a solid positioning and direction-finding device that resists water and impacts, and is always on hand. Professor Demarest has one and he states that it has saved his life in numerous occasions.
Professor Demarest always carries a Suunto KB-20 compass. He tells us that he has purchased at least forty of them, but they seem to be so great that they disappear easily. Demarest has often loaned a compass to a colleague and never gotten it back. He believes that many of his fellow archaeologists use a Suunto KB-20 compass - his compass. Whenever a group of archaeologists meets to dine and chat, they may first talk about women but eventually they always end up comparing compasses, Professor Demarest says. However, he notes, archaeologists don't refer to the tool as a compass, but rather as an orientation device.
No matter how many compasses Professor Demarest has lost, he always has one with him. No one is interested in that one; it is bruised and fuzzy and doesn't work unless you hit it with something. It is the compass he had as a young, newly graduated archaeologist living in the house burned down by guerrillas in El Salvador.
Text by Kastehelmi Nikkanen
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Profile
Ingram Professor Arthur Demarest is the Director of the Vanderbilt Institute of Mesoamerican Archaeology at the Vanderbilt University in Tennessee. He was granted his Ph.D. in archaeology and anthropology at Harvard University and has been the Professor of these subjects at the Vanderbilt University since 1984. Over 25 years, Professor Demarest has led a number of archaeological excavations studying ancient civilizations in Central America. He is considered one of the world's leading experts in the early Olmec culture and, in particular, the Maya culture and its mysterious collapse. Expeditions in the restless rainforest areas of Central America are not just any adventures - they require hard work, and the element of danger is also present. Therefore Professor Demarest has been given the nickname "Indiana Jones" and, as a matter of fact, he can be considered the model of this popular imaginary archaeologist. |
