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Return to Paradise: An Introduction to the
2012 Chan Chich Archaeological Project
Brett A. Houk
Between 1996 and 2001, I had the pleasure
of directing five seasons of the Chan Chich
Archaeological Project (CCAP). Following
the departure of the managers of Chan Chich
Lodge, Tom and Josie Harding, after our 2001
field season, the project ended, and I moved
on to other projects and places. Chan Chich,
however, always remained near and dear to me,
and it was my good fortune to be invited back
to the site in 2012. This report documents the
return of archaeology to Chan Chich after an
11-year hiatus.
Chan Chich is in the southwestern corner of
the 135,000-acre Gallon Jug Ranch, which is
owned by Bowen and Bowen, Ltd. and operated
as Gallon Jug Agro-Industries. The boundary
between Gallon Jug Ranch and Yalbac Ranch
passes through the ruins of Chan Chich, south
of the Upper Plaza. The site is approximately 4
km east of the border between Guatemala and
Belize. In 2012, the CCAP conducted research
at Chan Chich and the nearby site of Kaxil
Uinic, also known as E’kenha (Figure 1.1).
Project Timeline
In 2006, I was hired as an assistant professor at
Texas Tech University, and from 2007 to 2011
I took Texas Tech archaeological field schools
to work at La Milpa, only an hour’s drive
north of Chan Chich. In 2010, Zander Bowen,
who had become the manager of Gallon Jug
Ranch, approached me about bringing a field
school back to Chan Chich. With an existing
commitment to work at La Milpa in 2011, Zander
and I did not begin serious discussions about
renewing the archaeological investigations at
Chan Chich until May 2011. Over the course
of several months, we agreed on a rather smallscale
project to run for about a month in 2012.
Unfortunately, Zander departed Gallon Jug for
other opportunities at the end of March 2012,
but by then all the arrangements were in place,
and the Chan Chich Archaeological Project
resumed its scientific study of the ruins in May.
The project began with my arrival in Belize
on May 21. The project staff arrived on May
22, and the field school students (12 in total)
arrived on May 26. The field school students
spent 25 nights at Chan Chich, departing on
June 20. The project’s field component ended
on June 25, when the project staff departed
Chan Chich.
Project Staff
In addition to myself, the project director, the
professional staff included Dr. Chet Walker,
an archaeo-geophysicist who worked with us
before the field school students arrived, and
Kevin Miller, a professional archaeologist from
Austin, Texas, who worked for the first two
weeks of the season as an assistant operation
director at the Upper Plaza at Chan Chich. Two
Texas Tech graduate students, Matthew Harris
and Krystle Kelley, were operations directors at
Houk, Brett A.
2012 Return to Paradise: An Introduction to the 2012 Chan Chich Archaeological Project. In The 2012 Season
of the Chan Chich Archaeological Project, edited by Brett A. Houk, pp. 1–6. Papers of the Chan Chich
Archaeological Project, Number 6. Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Work, Texas Tech
University, Lubbock.
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