This project aims to improve the quality of life of the inhabitants of La Blanca (Petén, Guatemala) by integrating them into the tourist circuit of the neighbouring archaeological site, an ancient Maya city with an exceptional cultural heritage that has been recently been excavated and developed. Several measures were proposed in order to enable sustainable cultural and natural tourism in the village, the creation of the necessary infrastructure to receive visitors and the training of its inhabitants to take on tasks that are likely to revitalise their economic system. As a result, visitors may take a guided tour of the archaeological site with local guides and visit the nearby village of La Blanca. They can also taste some of its traditional cuisine and other delicious products at the Valencia bakery and pastry shop.

Materia medica is a source of intangible heritage. Studying and accessing materia medica is key to promoting cultural identity and human development through new experiences of preservation, learning and dissemination of scientific stories of great historical and cultural transcendence in an educational and immersive way, as proposed by the HYGEIA–CHRH project.

This research project started in 2016 and is led by Dr Cristina Vidal Lorenzo (Universitat de València, UV) as Principal Investigator and Dr Gaspar Muñoz Cosme (Universitat Politècnica de València, UPV). It is funded by the Valencian Government through the PROMETEO programme for research groups of excellence (PROMETEO 2016/155 and 2020/066). The project includes documenting, analysing and disseminating Maya heritage using new technologies and cutting-edge archaeometric techniques.

The La Blanca project was launched in 2004 by a team from the Universitat de València (UV), the Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV) and the Universidad San Carlos de Guatemala (USAC), led by Cristina Vidal Lorenzo and Gaspar Muñoz Cosme. It is an interdisciplinary project that has brought together experts from a wide range of disciplines: archaeology, architecture, art history, conservation, topography, natural environment and development cooperation. The work focused on the recovery of the ancient Maya settlement of La Blanca, which had been abandoned and buried in the Guatemalan subtropical jungle for more than a thousand years. Since then, the in-depth excavation of the site and the restoration of its architectural heritage have been carried out continuously until 2019. During these years, fieldwork at the site and the study of materials in the project’s laboratory in Flores (Petén) were combined with desk work at the UV and the UPV. The team’s efforts throughout the project have brought to light an important cultural heritage that testifies the economic power of La Blanca in the Classical period, as well as its enhancement. At the same time, heritage documentation and archaeological research were carried out at the neighbouring site of Chilonché, 17km south-west of La Blanca.