User:Gorhan21/Antonio Del Río

Antonio del Río (c. 1745 – c. 1789) was a captain who led the first excavation of the Mayan ruins of Palenque in Chiapas, Mexico during an expedition undertaken in 1787 for Charles III of Spain.

Early Life
Antonio Del Río was born in Spain in 1745. Little is known about his early life.

Military Career
Antonio del Río was an active duty captain of artillery in the Spanish Army stationed in Guatemala during Spanish colonial rule in the 1780's. In 1786, he led an expedition to Palenque, Chiapas, Mexico that had been commissioned by Don José Estacheria, Brigadier General and Governor of Guatemala.

=Background to del Rio's Expeditions= The expedition was spurred by discoveries made several decades earlier by a priest and his relatives who lived in went outTumbalá (a municipality of Chiapas). When Father Antonio de Solís became the local minister, his relatives surveyed the surrounding area and brought back stories of mysterious stone houses. Word of these structures continued to circulate until they reached Ramón Ordóñez, a priest in Ciudad Real who had heard stories of these stone houses as a boy. Armed with this information and a desire to discover what these structures, in 1773 he sent investigators to explore the ruins. In 1783, Ordóñez authorized Don Jose Estachería to investigate Palenque further. Estachería commissioned the first official Spanish exploration of the ancient Mayan Ruins at Palenque 1784.

Descriptions of del Rio's work appear in his own personal account of the expedition to Palenque in his own report to Don Jose Estacheria and in books such as In Search of the Maya by Robert L. Brunhouse.

Preliminary Expeditions
Antonio del Río's 1786 expedition to the ruins at Palenque was commissioned by Estachería and the Spanish Royal Crown. It followed two other expeditions. In 1784 José Antonio Calderón a local official of Santo Domingo de Palenque was given the task of surveying the site and writing a report of what he saw. Estachería was dissatisfied this work and commissioned another expedition in 1785 led by Antonio Bernasconi, the Royal Architect of the city of Guatemala. After another disappointing result, Estachería commissioned a third expedition under the direction of del Río. It took the team two weeks to dig, and it then spent three weeks studying the site. He was accompanied by Ricardo Almendáriz who created drawings of the ruins still considered scientifically useful.

Del Río's Account
In 1786 Estachería appointed Antonio Del Río as lead investigator for another expedition to palenque to survey the mayan Ruins. His appointment though was not merited though due to his very minimal archaeological knowledge and qualifications. The only qualifications attributed to him were based on references and positive comments given of him by people he knew. In addition to Del Río Estachería sent an Artist named Ricardo Almendáriz for a visual representation of the site. The two men then began there mission but did not arrive at the site until May 3, 1787 due to set backs involving the rain. Realizing that this task was much more arduous than he had first anticipated he left the site to go back to the village of Santo Domingo and Consult with Don Joseph Alonzo de Calderon, deputy of the district asking him to dispatch as many Indians and persons speaking the Spanish language, as could be collected, for the purpose of clearing all of the brush overtaking the ruins. Calderon granted his request sending him 79 men armed with axes and Machetes to help carry out the task of uncovering these ancient structures buried under brush at the site. Upon there second arrival at the site Del Río had the indians commissioned by Calderon cut down and excavate the great stone buildings buried under brush. This monumental task took all men involved 16 days to complete before it was possible to further investigate the area. First he investigated the palace describing what he saw to the best of his ability relating what he saw to structures he had already encountered. He described the stone buildings as sturdy and durable and similar to Gothic style. His report of the area was completed in june of 1787 along with a pictorial report made by Almendariz detailing the site with over 25 pages and 30 subjects. Unfortunately though due to his lack of Archaeological knowledge he relied on many pre qualified and biased beliefs he had to describe this site relating it to things that reminded him of egyptian as well as greek influences.

=References=