Tonight we take our final look at the archaeological exhibit “Maya: Hidden Worlds Revealedâ€￾.  We’ve seen the show in three US Cities, and wondered about the wellbeing of these ancient artifacts which have been on the road for four and a half years now.  Here’s what we found out:…

These artifacts or, in this case, replicas, still have the power to transfix and mesmerize - and well over one million persons have already seen them. 

But in the past four years, they have logged about 7,500 miles of travel crisscrossing the United States, from coast to coast, and they are already on contract to make two more stops.    That's a lot of miles and years for objects that are over a thousand years old:

Jules Vasquez
"These antiques, these pieces have lot of miles on them. How are they holding up?"

Sherilynne Jones - Tech Director, Museum of Belize
“They are holding up very well.  Like i said we have experts from the Science Museum that travels to every venue. Each time we unpack an object it is meticulously reviewed and conditioned to ensure that the safety of the object is paramount to the exhibition.â€￾

"While it is four years, four and a half years that they have been on tour, they are in the best condition and in the best care possible."

Alexis Salazar - Director, Museum of Belize
"The process of going and inspecting all of these artifacts is a tedious one that is done ahm by the Minnesota Museum, by the Institute of Archaeology, and of course, the technical director. So, it’s a long process and what you see here is has passed through, so each artifact you see has passed through a number of different inspections and the importance is that it is our national heritage that we have on display, so we have to have the utmost of protocol when dealing with these artifacts."

Paul Martin - Science Museum of Minnesota
"It’s our charge now to safeguard these collections and make them accessible to the public, but safe while we do that and that takes a great deal of care and a fair amount of resources to pull that off."

As we saw in Boston, these relics are packaged with extreme precision and care.  And, while they travel long distances by road, in practical terms they are better taken care of here than in the storage area in Belize:

Sherilynne Jones
“They are in a much better place. Even when they are locked up in our storage in between venues when they are traveling from venue to venue, they are in a much better place than the conditions we have in Belize. The storage facilities in Belize need to be addressed; that’s of paramount importance to NICH and to the government and so for now while the objects are on tour they are in the best care ever.â€￾

Adele Catzim - CEO, Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture
"We have prioritized the establishment of a proper storage facility for our own cultural artifacts as well as the development of the national museum.â€￾

There’s no timeline for that right now - so, all things considered, this traveling exhibit may be the highest purpose these artifacts can currently serve.

Dr. David Stuart - Archaeologist and epigrapher
"This communicates what we do. And that’s really important. It's not worth digging and studying the ancient Maya if we don’t make that public, if we don’t communicate it to everybody."

The show will run in Dallas until August and after that it goes to Salt Lake City, Utah.