#uaxactun

Detail of mural, Structure B-XIII, Uaxactun.

A Maya personage painted in black greets a visitor costumed as a Teotihuacan warrior. To the right is a palace scene with seated noble ladies.

Tzakol culture, Early Classic period.

By Simon Burchell - Modifications made by Simon Burchell. Sources:ITMB Publishing (1998). Guatemala (Map) (3rd ed.). 1:500000. International Travel Maps. ITMB Publishing Ltd. ISBN 0-921463-64-2. CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=40476910

The Maya lived in what is now Mesoamerica from about 2000 BCE until 1697 CE, from southeastern Mexico, through Guatemala and Belize into western Honduras and El Salvador. They developed settled agriculture focused on maize, beans, chili peppers, and squash and early villages that became a complex society with the first cities developing around 750 BCE and monumental architecture around 500 BCE and hieroglyphic writing around 300 BCE. The last city of the Maya, Nojpetén, fell to the Spaniard colonizers in 1697, though many villages remained, too remote for the Spanish authorities, that maintained the Maya way of life while incorporating steel tools to improve agriculture while practicing their traditional crafts and maintaining their traditional language and beliefs despite the efforts of Catholic missionaries, with millions remaining today.

By Davidgermain - Own work, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2573277

Uaxactún was a sacred site located in the Petén Basin in Guatemala was known as Siaan K'aan, or 'Born in Heaven', to the Maya, with the modern name given when it was rediscovered in 1916 and it's Maya name not known until the 1990s. The modern name is from the Maya words meaning 'Eight Stones', which comes from an inscription with the date 8th Baktún, making it at the time the oldest known Maya date, as well as sounding like 'Washington', home of the Carnegie Institute, which funded the explorations of the area. It is 19 km north of Tikal, one of the largest sites and urban centers that was likely known as Yax Mutal to the Maya.

Source: https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/maya-complex-uncovered-guatemala-1234743891/

Los Abuelos is approximately 21 km from Uaxactún and dates back about 3000 years. It covers about 15.5 sq km and has pyramids and stone figures of a man and woman who are 'thought to be symbolic of an ancestral couple', giving the site 'cultural and symbolic meaning' and leading to the name Los Abuelos, which means 'The Grandparents'. One of the pyramids, which is about 33m tall, has two chambers that have been well preserved and are decorated with red, white, and black murals. There is also a nearby astronomical observation arrangement of structures that are likely older than similar structures in the area, giving researchers further information on the development of the Maya calendar and ritual practices. It is thought that the purpose of the site was ceremonial rather than political.

Cylinder vase

Maya

Late Classic Period, A.D. 650–800

Place of Manufacture: El Petén, Guatemala, Tikal-Uaxactún area

Black background vase with a painted scene of heart sacrifice of a male figure who may be Hun Hun Ajaw (the Maize god). Rising from his open chest cavity is an effigy incense burner topped by an offering plate containing burning strips of paper and a ball of copal incense. The sacrificed figure lies atop a stone altar, and a female figure seated in front of the altar bends forward at the waist and hides her head between her extended arms. Two buildings, rendered in profile, flank the sacrifice scene, their stone roofs embellished with the heads of the supernatural Paddler Twins. Inside one building a male figure sits on a red-painted bench throne, and a red-painted figure dances in front of the other building. He pulls on a white umbilicus-like cord that is held by a person inside the building and behind a codex that rests on a low zoomorphic bench or stand. An elderly male wearing a long cape made of feathers and knotted cording stands next to the sacrificed person on the altar. Six other figures, including two dwarfs, the Principle Bird Deity, and six animals (five rats and one bat) also are present. Hieroglyphic texts include the Primary Standard Sequence around the vase’s rim and short phrases within the scene. One records the mythological Calendar Round date of the event, the phrase continuing to a second glyph block to the right that contains the verb (eroded) describing the event. A third short text names the red-painted figure pulling on the cord.

The Maize god is sacrificed in the Underworld, setting the stage for renewal through resurrection.

Uaxactun was one of the great Mayan cities of the Petén (Guatemala).  It is about 19km north of Tikal.  “Uaxactun” is its modern name (from the Mayan words waxac and tun, meaning “Eight Stones”).  Its original name was something like Siaan K'aan (”Born in Heaven”).

The earliest date that has been deciphered [as of 1976] is 328 AD (just before the Classic Period), but the city was certainly in existence before that.  New buildings were still being built in 850 AD (near the end of the Classic Period).

Uaxactun has one of the earliest examples of Mayan stonework: a temple from the 100′s AD, preserved because a pyramid was later built around it.  It was a series of platforms, with (originally) a wooden temple/shrine on top, with a thatched roof.

There are similarities between this temple & the temples of Kaminaljuyu - it was used for burials, with a new floor being added after each one.

Uaxactun also has some of the earliest Mayan sculptures & frescoes.  Their frescoes are second in quality only to those of Bonampak.

In 378 AD, Siyaj K’ak’ (Fire is Born) of Tikal defeated Uaxactun in a war between the two cities.  The two cities joined in a combined political entity, and dominated the Petén area for the next 180 years.

Siyaj K’ak’ may have been a Teotihuacán war general who had already conquered Tikal earlier that year.

Around 600 AD, Uaxactun had no architectural/ceramic activity - this was around the same time as the decline of power for Tikal & Teotihuacán.  From 554-711 AD, no dedicatory monuments were built.  However, there was a revival after that, including population increase, building of new structures, and remodelling of old ones.

Towards the end of the Late Classic Period (830 AD), there was a population decrease.  The last recorded date is from 889 AD, and soon after that, the city appears to have been abandoned (as was Tikal).

However, there are burials at the old sties at later dates, so Uaxcatun or the area around it was still inhabited by people who carried out the old traditions.

North side of the Temple of the Masks.

Temple of the Masks.

A pyramid.

Temple E-10 in Group E.

Cylinder vase

Maya

Late Classic Period, A.D. 700–800

Object Place: Uaxactún area, Department of El Petén, Guatemala

Two depictions of an artist grace each side of this vase, the renderings separated by a vertical line of undeciphered hieroglyphs, which also are repeated around the rim of the vase. The figures sit on a bundle-like cushion whose %-like motif (known as a cimi [pronouned kee-mee] sign) indicates an underworld location. The two seated figures are identified as artists by the paint pots on their laps and paint brushes in their raised right hands. They may represent the Maize god in his role as one of the gods of Creation, implied by the particular haircut and panache of maize foliage atop their heads.

All Mayan languages use the glottal stop, and it is written is an apostrophe.  For example, kab (earth) has no glottal stop, but k'ab (hand) has one before the “a”.

The “b” sound is always glottalized, but this is not written as an apostrophe.

Whether a vowel is long or short (or modified in some other way) is also important.  Recent research suggests that this was indicated in the script, too.  When romanized, long vowels are written as a double vowel.  For example, chak (great/red) has a short “a”, but chaak (name of the rain god) has a long “a”.

There are also soft & hard “h” sounds, pronounced as the English “h” and German “ch” respectively.  The hard version is romanized as “j”.

The letter “x” is pronounced as “sh” – for example, Xunantunich is pronounced “shu-nan-toon-ich”.

An older spelling system persists in many place-names, in which “c” is pronounced as “k”, and “u” is pronounced as a “w”.  Therefore, Uaxactun is pronounced “wa-shak-toon”.

Many archaeological sites have Spanish names, so for these places, a “j” is also pronounced as a German “ch”.