By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

              MEXICO CITY (AP) -- Ramon Pina Chan, a pioneering Mexican archaeologist
              who specialized in Mayan cultures, has died. He was 81.

              A family announcement said he died Tuesday evening after a short illness.

              Among his many works, Pina Chan discovered or excavated ancient Mayan cities
              and pyramids in Palenque, Bonampak, and Chichen Itza in southeastern Mexico, as
              well as other ancient cultural sites in western Michoacan state and Guanajuato, in
              central Mexico.

              Pina Chan wrote 19 books and numerous papers on his findings and field
              investigations. He also taught at the National Autonomous University school of
              anthropology and history, and served for many years as a top curator of the national
              Museum of Anthropology, one of the world's top pre-Columbian institutions.

              He is survived by his wife, Beatriz Barba, and three daughters.