Anthropology professor Payson Sheets, in the middle with his arm raised, took Forever Buffs t-shirts to his excavation site at El Ceren, El Salvador last month. Ceren is a well-preserved ancient Maya village that was buried by deep volcanic ash 1,400 years ago. Payson discovered it in 1976. The men in the photo do the excavation work, and he says they’re “super dedicated and hard workers.”  The women help in the lab cleaning artifacts and cataloging them.  “And a few of their children were so excited,” Payson says, “to be a part of the photo and get a CU t-shirt that there was no way I would have excluded them.”

Check out Payson’s extensive website with slide shows and visualizations of the Ceren site.

Go here for the 2008 article by Payson, “Armageddon to the Garden of Eden: Explosive Volcanic Eruptions and Societal Resilience in Ancient Middle America.”