Chicanná
Chicanná is a Maya ruin site in the Mexican state of Campeche . The town around Becán was inhabited between 300 and 1100 and is home to buildings of the Chenes style and the Rio Bec style . During the classical period, the city benefited from its location on the central trade route between the Gulf coast and the Caribbean coast (in today's state of Quintana Roo or Belize ), which is still evident today in the buildings, some of which are ornate.
Becán was first described in scientific literature in 1934 by archaeologists Karl Ruppert and John Denison , who explored the site as part of an expedition from the Carnegie Institution , Washington. From 1969 to 1971 excavations were carried out by Jack D. Eaton of the Middle American Research Institute of Tulane University , which were continued after 1983 under the direction of Román Piña Chan by the INAH , with Ramón Carrasco Vargas entrusted with the work on site.
As in almost all localities in the Rio Bec region, Chicanná also consists of several groups of buildings. The buildings are only partially arranged around a courtyard.
Group A
The group is the largest in Chicanná with a fully developed courtyard formed by buildings on four sides.
Building I.
This building is the only one in Chicanná that has the massive towers characteristic of the Rio Bec style at both ends of the building, which have steep, inaccessible false stairs and false temples at the top. The building contains 10 rooms, 6 of which are accessible from the front. The remaining rooms are arranged on the sides. In each case, there are pairs of rooms in which the rear one can be entered through the front one. The back wall of the building is completely smooth.
Building II
The most famous building in Chicanná is on the east side of the courtyard. It comprises two parallel rows of 3 rooms each, the rear ones being accessible through the front ones. As a special feature, the outside rooms in the back row have been shortened somewhat, so that the remaining area was used as a very small, side room. The back of the building was once smooth, but has now crumbled completely.
The central entrance is designed as a snake mouth entrance, the sculpted stone masonry of which is of excellent quality. The two side portals simulate a stone-carved image of a palm leaf roof above the doorway. Cones protrude from the smooth upper wall surfaces in between, which once held stucco figures.
Group B
The only well-preserved building VI consists of a simple series of rooms. Only the middle room has a second room behind it, the position of which is continued in the western wing. A roof ridge with narrow vertical openings rises above the middle section. The wall decor consists of recessed fields with mask images.
Group C
Buildings X and XI stand on two sides on a common platform that suggests a courtyard. Building X has two rows of three rooms each. The characteristic sunken fields with mask representations can be found on both sides of the entrances. Building XI is made up of two simple rows of two and three rooms facing north and south. Between them, albeit not taking up their entire length, lies a double row of small rooms facing east.
Group D
Building XX has an almost square floor plan and comprises a total of eleven or four rooms on two floors, which are oriented on all four sides. The southern portal, from which one can climb to the second floor via two internal stairs, is remarkable. There are snake mouth portals both on the ground floor and immediately above. The corners of the building show cascades of Chaac masks, on both sides of most of the doorways there are recessed fields with flat masks. The stone benches in most of the rooms have faces modeled from stucco on their fronts. A side wing has not been excavated.
See also
literature
- Nikolai Grube (Ed.): Maya. God kings in the rainforest . Könemann-Verlag, Cologne 2000, ISBN 3-8290-1564-X
- Ramón Carrasco Vargas: Chicanná, Campeche, un sitio de la frontera sur, estudio arquitectónico . México, UNAM 1994. ISBN 968-36-3721-3 .
Individual evidence
Web links
Coordinates: 18 ° 30 '24.9 " N , 89 ° 29" 10.8 " W.