EO - Since 1992, Dr. Dunham has led an archaeological project in Belize, on the Yucatan Peninsula just below Mexico. What's it like working there?

PD - Basically, what you have there are canyons in the jungle. You also have sheer towers of stone, so the environment is really a glorious one. It's also for those very reasons, however, a very challenging one. It's very hot, very humid. When you get into these canyons there's no breeze whatsoever, and you have to carry a pack full of your gear, and it gives you a real sense of the terrain. Along one of the rivers, this one river in particular is one of the most beautiful hikes I've ever seen anywhere: the water is sort of like liquid turquoise.

EO - Regardless of the surroundings, archaeologists dig - are there any changes forthcoming regarding how archaeologists work? Brian Redmond:

BR - The development of instruments to detect archaeological deposits below the ground without digging, where we can actually go out and survey a site, look for artifact concentrations and identify and map them without doing a lot of digging - which essentially, every time we dig something, it's destroying it. It's kind of controlled destruction, but that part of the site is gone when we're done. Also, it'll help do some of these large scale surveys in the advance of construction and development, and get a better idea of what's there, and maybe save more things before they're destroyed.

EO - Discovery, preservation, understanding: archaeologists are helping us find out who we are through knowledge of who we were.