Tren Maya: A Report from the Front Lines
with Dominique Rissolo, University of California, San Diego
An infrastructure project of unprecedented scope and scale has mobilized archaeologists across the Yucatan Peninsula. University of California teams have partnered with INAH to document cultural heritage sites along the right-of-way, with a shared goal of promoting and preserving Mexico’s patrimony. In October of 2022, Dominique Rissolo, Holley Moyes, and Scott McAvoy briefly joined INAH’s dedicated subterranean survey team, under the direction of Helena Barba, to scan caves and cenotes in the train’s path.
Dr. Dominique Rissolo has been conducting archaeological cave investigations in Mexico since 1995 with a focus on how the ancient Maya conceptualized, transformed, and interacted with subterranean environments. In addition to his recent and ongoing research on cave architecture in Quintana Roo, Dominique’s interests include Paleoamerican cenote use as well as Pre-Columbian coastal human ecology on the Yucatan Peninsula. After receiving his Ph.D. in Anthropology from UC Riverside, Dominique went on to teach at San Diego State University and later directed research and grant programs at the Waitt Institute and with the National Geographic Society. Dominique is currently an associate research scientist with the Cultural Heritage Engineering Initiative at the Qualcomm Institute at UC San Diego and is a co-director of the Hoyo Negro Project and the Costa Escondida Project.
