Altar de Sacrificios
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Altar de Sacrificios
Location of Altar de Sacrificios in Guatemala
Altar de Sacrificios is a ceremonial center and archaeological site of the pre-Columbian Maya civilization, situated near the confluence of the Pasión and Salinas Rivers (where they combine to form the Usumacinta River), in the present-day department of Petén, Guatemala. Along with Seibal and Dos Pilas, Altar de Sacrificios is one of the better-known and most intensively-excavated sites in the region, although the site itself does not seem to have been a major political force in the Late Classic period.[1]
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Location
Altar de Sacrificios is located on the Guatemalan side of the international border with Mexico, which follows the Salinas and Usumacinta rivers.[2] It is 80 kilometres (50 mi) upriver from the important Classic period Maya city of Yaxchilán and 60 kilometres (37 mi) west of Seibal.[3] The site is located on a small island located among seasonal swamps along the south bank of the Pasión River near where it joins the Salinas River (also known as the Chixoy River). This island measures approximately 700 metres (2,300 ft) from east to west, with the ceremonial architecture located on the higher eastern end and the residential groups on the lower western end.[4]
History
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| Maya civilization |
|---|
| History |
| Preclassic Maya |
| Classic Maya collapse |
| Spanish conquest of Yucatán |
| Spanish conquest of Guatemala |
Archaeological investigations uncovered the long occupational history of the site and revealed that it was one of the earliest settlements in the Maya lowlands, having been founded before Tikal and other cities in the central Petén Basin, possibly by Mixe–Zoquean people who arrived from the west.[5] This appears to have occurred around 800 BC, at the beginning of the Middle Preclassic period.[6] Later in the Preclassic the site was settled by Maya peoples.[7] This site dominated the Usumacinta trade route circa 450 BC, and occupation continued to approximately AD 1000. Its peak period of occupation dates to the Late Classic although it was never one of the larger sites in the region. Ceramic evidence suggests that during the Terminal Classic the site was occupied by foreigners and prospered at a time when nearby Seibal was also experiencing a resurgence in its fortunes, in both cases linked to the collapse of the Petexbatún kingdom based at Dos Pilas.[8] It has been suggested that the arrival of outsiders as this time was due to Chontal Maya dominance of the Usumacinta riverine trade route at this time.[9] However, with the collapse of the major cities in the Usumacinta drainage, river trade declined drastically and was unable to be renewed by the newcomers.[10] Altar de Sacrificios, together with the few other surviving polities in the western Petén, declined into stagnating inwardly-focused polities in spite of their longer distance contacts.[11] By the 8th and 9th centuries AD, the population at Altar de Sacrificios was falling away.[12] By the Terminal Classic bone analysis has revealed that the health of the general population was suffering, with increased child mortality, decreased stature and the proliferation of disease, although the elite remained healthy.[13] At the same time the reduced population withdrew into defensible locations at the site.[14]
Rulers
At least ten rulers are recorded on the monuments of Altar de Sacrificios, and there were probably more. Three rulers governed in the period from AD 455 to 524, there was then a sixty-year hiatus. In 589 a new and youthful ruler took office, he governed until AD 633. In the period from 633 to 662 there were four more rulers governing in relatively quick succession, these were probably followed by at least two more rulers although the later monuments are the least well preserved.[15]
Modern history
The site was first discovered in the 1890s by Teoberto Maler.[16] Sylvanus Morley described the hieroglyphic inscriptions of Altar de Sacrificios in his 1938 work The Inscriptions of Peten.[17] The site was investigated by archaeologists A. Ledyard Smith and Gordon Willey of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology from 1958 to 1963.[18]
Site description
The archaeological site consists of about 30 large mounds arranged around three plazas in the site core, in an area of approximately 400 by 400 metres (1,300 by 1,300 ft). The site core is located on the higher eastern end of the small island supporting the site, with residential groups occupying the western end. The principal architecture includes a fairly large temple pyramid, several palaces and a ballcourt. Group A contains the palace complexes and Group B is the location of the main pyramid.[19]
The site possesses 29 inscribed monuments, most of them so badly eroded as to be unreadable.[20] Those dated monuments that are still legible span the period from AD 455 to AD 849.[21]
The Ballcourt is of an open-ended type similar to ballcourts dated to the Late Classic at other cities in the western portion of the Maya lowlands. The playing area measures 8.65 by 28.8 metres (28.4 by 94 ft).[22]
Temple B-1 is a step pyramid dating to the Early Classic period.[23]
Burial 96 is the burial of a woman who died in her twenties and was placed in a tomb in Structure A-III, some time later than Burial 128 in the same building. It was simpler than the latter and was accompanied by the offering of a polychrome ceramic vessel.[24]
Burial 128 is an elite tomb built into Structue A-III. It is stone lined with a wooden ceiling and contained the remains of a woman aged in her forties, placed on a straw mat. Offerings included ceramics and a number of artefacts made of jade, pyrite, bone and shell.[25]
Stela 1 bears a hieroglyphic date equivalent to August 662.[26]
Stela 4 is an inscribed monument with a date equivalent to December 642.[27]
Stela 5 is another inscribed monument, this one with a date equivalent to August 644.[28]
Stela 8 is inscribed with a date equivalent to February 628 and is the earliest known monument to bear the Altar de Sacrificios Emblem Glyph.[29]
Stela 9 bears a date equivalent to January 633.[30]
Notes
- ^ Houston (1993), p.14.
- ^ ITMB 2005.
- ^ Sharer & Traxler 2006, pp.435, 520.
- ^ Matthews & Willey 1991, 1996, p.41.
- ^ Sharer & Traxler 2006, p.407.
- ^ Valdés 1996, p.48.
- ^ Sharer & Traxler 2006, p.407.
- ^ Sharer & Traxler 2006, pp.407, 409, 520.
- ^ Sharer & Traxler 2006, p.529.
- ^ Demarest & Fahsen 2003, p.172.
- ^ Demarest & Fahsen 2003, p.172.
- ^ Demarest 2005, p.123.
- ^ Drew 1999, p.346.
- ^ Demarest 2006, p.160.
- ^ Matthews & Willey 1991, 1996, p.42.
- ^ Drew 1999, p.95.
- ^ Valdés 1996, p.48.
- ^ Sharer & Traxler 2006, p.407.
- ^ Matthews & Willey 1991, 1996, pp.41-42.
- ^ Houston (undated), p.2.
- ^ Sharer & Traxler 2006, p.407.
- ^ Taladoire & Colsenet 1991, pp.167, 169.
- ^ Valdés 1996, p.49.
- ^ Haviland 1971, p.103.
- ^ Haviland 1971, p.103.
- ^ Houston (undated), p.2.
- ^ Houston (undated), p.2.
- ^ Houston (undated), p.2.
- ^ Houston (undated), p.2.
- ^ Houston (undated), p.2.
References
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- Demarest, Arthur A. (2005). "After the Maelstrom: Collapse of the Classic Maya Kingdoms and the Terminal Classic in Western Petén". In Arthur A. Demarest, Prudence M. Rice and Don S. Rice (eds.). The Terminal Classic in the Maya lowlands: Collapse, transition, and transformation. Boulder: University Press of Colorado. pp. 102–124. ISBN 0-87081-822-8. OCLC 61719499.
- Demarest, Arthur A. (2006). The Petexbatun Regional Archaeology Project: A Multidisciplinary Study of the Maya Collapse. Vanderbilt Institute of Mesoamerican Archaeology Series. 1. Nashville, Tennessee, USA.: Vanderbilt University Press. ISBN 0-8265-1443-X. OCLC 63178772.
- Demarest, Arthur; and Fahsen, Federico (2003). "Nuevos datos e interpretaciones de los reinos occidentales del Clásico Tardío: Hacia una visión sintética de la historia Pasión/Usumacinta." (versión digital). XVI Simposio de Investigaciones Arqueológicas en Guatemala, 2002 (edited by J.P. Laporte, B. Arroyo, H. Escobedo and H. Mejía) (Guatemala: Museo Nacional de Arqueología y Etnología): pp.160–176. http://www.asociaciontikal.com/pdf/17.02%20-%20Demarest%20y%20Fahsen%20-%20en%20PDF.pdf. Retrieved 2009-02-14. (Spanish)
- Drew, David (1999). The Lost Chronicles of the Maya Kings. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. ISBN 0-297-81699-3. OCLC 43401096.
- Haviland, William A. (January 1971). "Entombment, Authority, and Descent at Altar de Sacrificios, Guatemala". American Antiquity (Menasha, Wisconsin, USA.: Society for American Archaeology) 36 (1): 102–105. ISSN 0002-7316. OCLC 482264559.
- Houston, Stephen D. (1993). Hieroglyphs and History at Dos Pilas: Dynastic Politics of the Classic Maya. Austin: University of Texas Press. ISBN 0-292-73855-2.
- Houston, Stephen D. (unknown). "Problematic Emblem Glyphs: Examples from Altar de Sacrificios, El Chorro, Río Azul, and Xultun" (PDF online publication). Mesoweb articles. Mesoweb: An Exploration of Mesoamerican Cultures. http://www.mesoweb.com/bearc/cmr/RRAMW03.pdf. Retrieved 2010-02-14.
- ITMB Publishing (2005). Guatemala (Map). 1:470000. International Travel Maps (5th ed.). ISBN 1-55341-230-3.
- Matthews, Peter; and Gordon R. Willey (1991, 1996). "Prehistoric polities of the Pasion region: hieroglyphic texts and their archaeological settings". In T. Patrick Culbert (ed.). Classic Maya Political History: Hieroglyphic and Archaeological Evidence. Cambridge UK; New York, USA and Melbourne, Australia: Cambridge University Press. pp. 30–71. ISBN 0-521-56445-X. OCLC 35225896.
- Sharer, Robert J.; with Loa P. Traxler (2006). The Ancient Maya (6th (fully revised) ed.). Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. ISBN 0-8047-4817-9. OCLC 57577446.
- Taladoire, Eric; and Benoit Colsenet (1991). ""Bois Ton Sang, Beaumanoir": The Political and Conflictual Aspects of the Ballgame in the Northern Chiapas Area". In Vernon Scarborough and David R. Wilcox (eds.). The Mesoamerican Ballgame. Tucson: University of Arizona Press. pp. 161–174. ISBN 0-8165-1360-0. OCLC 51873028.
- Valdés, Juan Antonio (November–December 1996). "Arqueología de la zona del río de La Pasión, Guatemala". Arqueología Mexicana (Mexico City, Mexico.: Editorial Raíces) IV (22): 46–53. ISSN 0188-8218. OCLC 29789840. (Spanish)
External links
Coordinates: 16°28′01″N 90°31′59″W / 16.467°N 90.533°W
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