Mayapan

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Mayapan: Ceramic incense urn in the form of the rain-god Chaac

Mayapan (Màayapáan in Modern Maya), (in Spanish Mayapán) is a Pre-Columbian Maya site a couple of kilometers south of the town of Telchaquillo in the state of Yucatán, Mexico, approximately 40 km south-east of Mérida and 100 km west of Chichen Itza. Mayapan was the political and cultural capital of the Maya in the Yucatan Peninsula during the Late Post-Classic period from the 1220s until the 1440s.

Mayapan is today a large archaeological site measuring approximately 4 square kilometers in area and containing over 4000 structures. The bulk of the site is surrounded by a substantial defensive stone wall pierced by several gates. The wall is about 9 km long and is roughly ovate in plan view. The ceremonial center of the site is located at the focus of the wide, western end. The ceremonial center is occupied by a tightly packed cluster of pyramid-temples and colonnades.

The main temple at Mayapan is called the Temple of Kukulcan. It is located at the rim of a cenote, which has caves radiating from it. In form, the Temple of Kukulcan (structure Q-162 on the site map) is a radial step pyramid that is generically similar to the Temple of Kukulcan at the site of Chichen Itza. There are a number of other major temples in the ceremonial center including several round ones, which are unusual for the Maya area.

The extensive residential zones of the site are composed of dwellings and ancillary domestic structures. The houses are often arranged in small patio groups surrounding small courtyards. There are many cenotes, perhaps as many as 40, in the residential areas of the site, and settlement tends to concentrate near them.

The ethnohistorical sources - such as Diego de Landa's Relacion de las Cosas de Yucatan, compiled from native sources in the 16th century - tell us the site was founded by Kukulcan (the Maya name of Quetzalcoatl, the Toltec king, culture hero, and demigod) after the fall of Chichen Itza. He convened the lords of the region, who agreed to found a new capital at Mayapan. The lords then divided the towns of Yucatán among them, and chose the chief of the Cocom family as their leader.

The ethnohistorical sources recount multiple different histories of the rise and fall of Mayapan. These histories are often confusing, chronologically implausible, and difficult to reconcile. For example, some sources say that the Maya revolted in 1221 against the Maya-Toltec lords of Chichen Itza. After a short civil war the lords of various powerful cities and families met to restore a central government to Yucatán. A decision was made to build a new capital city near the town of Telchaquillo, hometown of Hunac Ceel, the general who defeated the rulers of Chichen Itza. The new city was built within a defensive wall and named "Mayapan", meaning "Standard of the Maya people".

The chief of the Cocom family, a rich and ancient lineage that had taken part in the revolt against Chichen, was chosen to be king, but all the other noble families and regional lords were to send members of their families to Mayapan to play parts in the government. This arrangement lasted for over 200 years. (An alternative account is given in a Maya chronicle from the Colonial era, claiming that Mayapan was contemporary with Chichen and Uxmal and in alliance with those cities, but archeological evidence shows this version to be less likely.)

In 1441, Ah Xupan of the powerful noble family of Xiu became resentful of the political machinations of the Cocom rulers and organized a revolt. At the end of this most of the Cocom family were killed, Mayapan was sacked, burned, and abandoned, and Yucatan fell apart into warring city states.

Mayapan: Picture taken from "El Castillo" or "Kukulcan Temple"

Archaeological evidence indicates that at least the ceremonial center was burned at the end of the occupation. Excavation has revealed burnt roof beams in several of the major buildings in the site center.

Five years of archeological investigations at Mayapan were conducted by the archaeologists of the Carnegie Institution in the 1950s, including A. L. Smith, Robert Smith, Tatiana Proskouriakoff, Edwin Shook, Karl Ruppert and J. Eric Thompson. Their work was published in a mimeographed series of Current Reports. The final report was published by the Carnegie Institution as Mayapan, Yucatan, Mexico, by H. E. D. Pollock, Ralph L. Roys, A. L. Smith, and Tatiana Proskouriakoff (1962, Publication 619).

In the early 1990s, Clifford T. Brown of Tulane University carried out excavations in the residential zones of Mayapan as part of his doctoral dissertation research. Several years later, the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) began extensive architectural excavations and consolidation under the direction of archaeologist Carlos Peraza Lope. This work continues to the present and has resulted in the exposure and discovery of many important artifacts, murals, stuccoes, and architectural elements.

In 2001, further investigations were begun at the site under the direction of Dr. Marilyn Masson from the State University New York at Albany and Carlos Peraza Lope of INAH. Their research is described in more detail at [1].

References

Brown, Clifford T. (1999) Mayapán Society and Ancient Maya Social Organization. Ph.D. dissertation, Dept. of Anthropology, Tulane University.

Brown, Clifford T. (2006) Water Sources at Mayapán, Yucatán, México, in Precolumbian Water Management: Ideology, Ritual, and Power, edited by Lisa Lucero and Barbara Fash, pp 171-188. Tucson: University of Arizona Press.

Brown, Clifford T. (2005) Caves, Karst, and Settlement at Mayapán, Yucatán, in In the Maw of the Earth Monster: Mesoamerican Ritual Cave Use, edited by James E. Brady and Keith M. Prufer, pp. 373-402. Austin: University of Texas Press (The Linda Schele Series in Maya and Pre-Columbian Studies).

Bullard, William R., Jr. (1952) Residential Property Walls at Mayapán. Current Reports No. 3:36-44. Carnegie Institute of Washington, Department of Archaeology, Washington, D.C.

Bullard, William R., Jr. (1954) Boundary Walls and House Lots at Mayapán. Current Reports No. 13:234-253. Carnegie Institute of Washington, Department of Archaeology, Washington, D.C.

Proskouriakoff, Tatiana (1962) Civic and religious structures at Mayapán, In “Introduction,” in Mayapán, Yucatan, Mexico, by Harry E. D. Pollock, Ralph L. Roys, Tatiana Proskouriakoff, and A. L. Smith, pp. 87-164. Washington, DC: Carnegie Institute of Washington Publication No. 619

Proskouriakoff, Tatiana and Charles Temple (1955) A Residential Quadrangle – Structures R-85 to R-90. Current Reports 29:289-362. Carnegie Institute of Washington, Department of Archaeology, Washington, D.C.

Smith, A. Ledyard (1962) Residential and Associated Structures at Mayapán. In Mayapán Yucatan Mexico, edited by H.E.D. Pollock, Ralph L. Roys, Tatiana Proskouriakoff and A. Ledyard Smith, pp. 165-320. Occasional Publication 619. Carnegie Institution of Washington.