When you walk among the ruins of any ancient city what you are usually looking at is the last stage of construction at that particular city. We sometimes call this the last occupation, because it was the last layer of construction at the site, builit closer to the date when the site was ultimately abandoned. In other words we see the city as it was left at the time it was abandoned. When your interest lays on what is beneath, as it is with most archaeologist, there are many difficulties researchers must face in order to go deeper into the structures. The idea may be to complete the history of a certain site, understand the different construction phases, or study the architectural techniques. All of these studies often have a very high cost in time, resources and, as was usually the case with "old" archaeology, with lots of damage to the top layers of a building.

The first explorer at the site to notice the potential for destruction the course of the river had on the structures at the Acropolis was Sir Alfred Percival Maudslay. He knew the river was a great threat and decided to study the structures he thought were most prone to being destroyed by the river. He cut the vegetation around the Acropolis and drew a map of all structures within the Acropolis. Later explorers kept working on the aforementioned structures, but it wasn't until significant parts of the structure had fallen into the river that any measures were taken to divert the course of the river. The most important research carried out at the Archaeological Cut was done before it was consolidated and preserved, and the course of this consolidation efforts left a series of tunnels that had been dug into the bottom layers of the Acropolis (to get from the Jaguar Court to the river's edge). There traces of masonry platforms, human remains and evidence of domestic activities were found, suggesting that in very ancient times this area of Copan didn't serve as a ceremonial center but were dwellings, probably the homes of important people that later became the Copan ruling elite .

In 1989 as an offshoot of the Copan Acropolis Archaeological Project (PAAC) another research project was launched, named the Early Acropolis Archaeological Project (PIAT) the primary objective of which was to establish the history of the early stages of construction at the Copan Acropolis. The project's goals included the preservation and consolidation of the Acropolis, as well as connecting the information gained with the information obtained by PAAC, including iconographic and epigraphic studies. Some of the results obtained included a precise time frame of construction for 6 platforms (numbered I through VI) each with a radiocarbon dating as well as hieroglyph dating. These dates give a starting time around 400 AD for platform VI and 700-800 AD for platform I. Still within the scope of PIAT is filling the history and chronology of a pre dynastic Acropolis. As it is obvious now that there had been some development in the Copan Valley before the Early Classic Period, and if not as a monumental center at least as a residential zone as described by Murillo (1989).

The on going studies of these 6 platforms that make up the Acropolis have yielded amazing results, especially among platforms II and I (the earliest platforms). The preliminary conclusions of PIAT state that there were 3 construction phases for Structure 21, all during Division I of the masonry platforms, in a span of about 56 years during the 8 th century AD, (715- 775 AD) during this period the epigraphy of Copan states that 3 rulers came into power (rulers 13- 16, Waxaklajuun Ub'aah K'awiil, K'ak' Joplaj Chan K'awiil, K'ak' Yipyaj Chan K'awiil or Yax Pasaj Chan Yoaat ) so the accepted theory is that Structure 21 is paying homage to Waxaclajuun Ub'aah K'awiil, or 18 Rabbit as he is also known. It may have well been commissioned by one of his successors. The last dynastic king, Yax Pasaj Chan Yoaat, cannot be discounted altogether as responsible for commissioning the building, but the quality of constructions during his reign were of a rather lower quality than Structure 21, which may seem to point at it being commissioned by another king. As work continues around Structure 21 the chronology of events at Copan and of the Acropolis' construction phases will be further refined and one day we may have definite answers to our questions about how the Acropolis was built.

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