Archaeological operations have been conducted on Uxul since 2009 and this is primarily being managed by the University of Bonn in Germany and independent Mexican researchers.[2]
Digging was first concentrated on uncovering and mapping the old walls of the city, which led to the discovery of two very large water reservoirs, known as aguadas. These aguadas were particularly remarkable in that the bottoms were sealed intricately with ceramics, which would have been an epic undertaking of work for those involved, given that the pools are each as large as ten Olympic-sized swimming pools.[2]
The researchers at the site had expressed a worry that any tombs potentially located at the site might have been already raided by grave robbers searching for jewellery or ceramics.[2] These fears were alleviated during an extraordinary find in August 2012; excavating a palace in the ruined city, archaeologists uncovered the ancient tomb of a young prince, alongside a rare artefact.[3] A concealed entrance to a small burial chamber was found in the royal palace, leading to the remains of a 25-year-old man and nine ceramic objects.[3] On one of the cups found, it contained a simple message saying, “[This is] the cup of the young man/prince”.[3] Another of the cups bore a date thought to be 711 A.D., giving some indication of when the monarch was alive.[3]
A mass grave of prisoners of war, or nobles from Uxul itself, decapitated and dismembered around 1,400 years ago, was discovered in an artificial cave in Uxul, reported in 2913.[4][5][6][7]