Archaeological excavation at Copán begins

Background. Copán is an archaeological site of the Maya civilization located in the Copán Department of western Honduras, near the border with Guatemala. The site includes a ruined citadel and imposing public squares that reveal three main stages of development before the city was abandoned in the early 10th century. These features provided the context for the 19th-century investigation.

Expedition Context. John Lloyd Stephens, an American explorer and diplomat, was commissioned as Special Ambassador to Central America in 1839. He traveled with architect and draftsman Frederick Catherwood, an English artist known for detailed drawings of Maya ruins. Their expedition began in 1839 and continued through the following year, visiting dozens of ruins and resulting in the detailed description of 44 sites.

Documentation and Publication. Stephens and Catherwood visited Copán and included a description, map, and detailed drawings in Stephens' Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas and Yucatán, published in 1841. The book featured text by Stephens and engravings based on Catherwood's drawings. This publication documented the site's features and contributed to scholarly understanding of the Maya civilization.