Ek Balam
Ek Balam is an excavation site that has been uncovered since 1997 near the city of Valladolid on the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico . It is a legacy of the Mesoamerican Maya culture . The site is located in the jungle, 30 km north of Valladolid and 170 km from the coastal city of Cancun . The name Ek Balam is Mayathan (Yucatec Maya) and means “black jaguar ”. Depending on the pronunciation, “Ek” can also mean “star” and after the most recent excavations, star-like paintings were actually discovered in Building 1, which also enable the name Ek Balam to be translated into “Star Jaguar”.
history
The earliest traces of the settlement date back to between around 100 and 300 AD. It experienced its heyday in the years 700 to 1000. The descent of the cult center should have started around the year 1200.
The earliest information about Ek Balam can be found in a Relación Geográfica, a Spanish survey from the late 16th century, where the buildings are also briefly described. According to the statements of the locals contained in this document, the city belonged to an empire called Talol. The city's founder was called either Ek 'Balam or Coch Cal Balam. He is said to have come from the east with large numbers and ruled for 40 years before he was murdered. With his successor Heblaychac , his ruling dynasty also came to an end.
According to the inscription texts, an important ruler was Ukit Kan Lek Tok , who was in office between 770 and 801. He built building 1 (or parts of it), on the fourth level behind the snake mouth portal his remains were found. There is a miniature representation of him showing a severely deformed face. Osteological examinations of his skull have shown that the facial deformation is due to several deep infections of the teeth, which led to a decrease in height of the right side of the upper jaw and perhaps also to the fracture of the lower jaw.
The region was then ruled in the post-classic period by the Cupul , after whom the jurisdiction of the same name was henceforth called . One of the last rulers before the Reconquista was Nomon Cupul. Ek Balam was still inhabited after the Spanish conquest of the Yucatán. In 1579 the place was briefly depopulated, but later Juan Cupul was installed as governor of a small settlement in Ek Balam. The remains of an open chapel from this period are still there today.
Research history
One of the earliest visitors to Ek Balam was Désiré Charnay in 1886 , who also took some photographs. Modern research began in 1993 by George Bey and William Ringle and then by Leticia Vargas de la Peña and Victor R. Castillo Borges of INAH , who also carried out a large-scale reconstruction of the Acropolis .
Area
The center of Ek Balam, enclosed by a double ring of walls, is approximately 1.25 km² in size. Outside the walls, the settlement extends over an area of almost 12 km². Several passages lead through the outer wall ring, from which five sacbés start: the longer ones almost exactly in the main cardinal directions, the shortest to the south-southwest.
Important buildings
Three extremely huge buildings are arranged around the northern courtyard.
acropolis
Ek Balam is dominated by the building no. 1, which is mostly called the Acropolis today, whose old name is given in inscriptions as Sac Xoc Naj (White House of Learning). It is without doubt the largest surviving Mayan building in the north of the Yucatán Peninsula . The building occupies a rectangular area 160 m long and around 70 m wide. The highest component still protrudes 31 m above the site, but was originally around 6 m higher.
The building has 6 floors and, according to the current state of the excavations, comprises at least 72 rooms. The main facade is in the south, in the middle there is a staircase with multiple interruptions up to the highest floor, which has only been preserved in small remnants and consisted of only one room. The lowest floor above a base consists of two similar rows of 5 rooms each. The facade was completely covered with bas-reliefs on the cladding stones, but only a small part of these was found in situ and has therefore not yet been reconstructed. Halfway up on either side of the stairs is a room, the entrance of which was accentuated by a stucco relief, presumably a snake-mouth gate, preserved only in the lowest parts. Access was via the central staircase, which was more than three times wider. Immediately in front of the entrances, a stuccoed snake face can be seen on the stairs, the tongue of which extends down several steps contains an inscription referring to the inauguration of the building of the stairs by the ruler who had the entire construction carried out, Ukit Kan Le 'k Tok'. The entrance to the two rooms has been reconstructed.
On the second level, a long chain of rooms runs around the building on three sides. In a few interruptions, narrow stairs lead up to the roof level of these rooms, which form two courtyards, each taking up the entire depth of the building and a third of its width. So far only the courtyard on the western side of the building has been fully excavated. At its outer edge is a row of rooms that have only been preserved in the foundation walls and that closes it off to the west and north. On the north side a wide staircase leads up to another level that has been badly damaged. On the area of the courtyard there is a large, circular, brick-lined depression about 2 m deep, the meaning of which is still unclear.
From this courtyard a staircase that jumps over the western façades of the third and fourth levels leads up to the highest level on the side. A good four steps higher than this courtyard is a plinth that forms the base of the central part of the entire building. On the plinth, i.e. on the third level, there are rooms on three sides. The two rooms closest to the central staircase each have a portico made up of two thick brick columns. From this level, a staircase that was only preserved on the eastern part led to rooms on the fourth level.
The fourth level is dominated by a huge snake mouth entrance, which is characteristic of the Chenes style . It is executed as a stucco relief. It is unusual that the figures standing on stone slabs protruding from the facade are fully plastic. The genre-like figures present in individual parts are even more unusual. The Chenes style also corresponds to the fact that the facade with the snake mouth entrance is set in front of the rest of the building and is separated from it by a narrow gap, which should give the impression of a separate building.
The fifth level can only be partially recognized and consists of rooms with portico entrances made of thick, brick columns. The last and sixth levels only exist in the extension of the central staircase. It should have been a single room, which was given the function of a temple.
Buildings 2 and 3
At right angles to the Acropolis are two similarly designed (not yet excavated) building complexes with 80 and 110 m length and today still over 20 m high. Only individual parts of the wall are visible above the rubble. Both structures have not yet been archaeologically examined.
South courtyard
In the area of the southern courtyard there are a large number of very different buildings, which also come from different periods of time.
Building 18
At the city-side end of Sacbé 2, which leads to the south, there is a peculiar building on a three-tiered base, which actually only consists of four thick, rectangular parts of the wall, which together enclose a small interior space that opens on four sides through narrow or wide entrances was open. As an extension of the Sacbé, you take a ramp to the wide entrances, on the other sides stairs lead to the narrow entrances. The interior was originally covered, the vault was reconstructed.
Building 16
Next to the entrance structure described is a complex building also known as the oval palace. In fact, it is a longer rectangular building with a round section that was built in 6 stages. While the rectangular part is made up of rows of rooms on two levels, the round part is a mighty pyramid base with a small one-room temple on the top level, to which a wide staircase leads from the north.
Building 17
The twin buildings, two similar buildings on a high plinth, to which stairs lead up from the east, are located as an extension of the ball playground. The buildings each have only two narrow entrances that lead into a corresponding interior space. There is a narrow passage at ground level between the two buildings. The facade of these buildings was also covered with stucco decoration.
Ball court
The ball playground, which runs roughly in a north-south direction, is located between two older buildings, the rooms and facades of which it partially covers. It is a ball playground with very wide reflex slopes and a low vertical boundary wall. On the older buildings, stairs led from the east or west to a small temple building on the roof level. The older buildings have facades that are reminiscent of the Puuc style: They are designed with low columns and horizontal frieze bands with inclined elements.
Building 10
In the southeast of the southern courtyard is a very large platform with a very wide recessed staircase on the west side (only partially reconstructed). On the platform there is only a particularly small and low temple building, which is clearly reminiscent of the small temples on the east coast of Yucatán.
Monuments
Stele 1 was erected in 840 AD by the ruler K'inich Junpik Tok 'K'uh… nal, the last king of Ek' Balam. He can be recognized on the bas-relief in which he holds the scepter of the god K'awiil in his raised left hand , symbol of his royal dignity. Ukit Kan Lek Tok ', his ancestor and founder of the Ek' Balam dynasty, sits on a heavenly throne above his head and the high feathered headdress .
literature
- Leticia Vargas de la Peña, Victor R. Castillo Borges: Hallazgos recientes en Ek 'Balam. In: Arqueología Mexicana. 76 (2005) pp. 56-63.
- Alfonso Lacadena García-Gallo: Los jeroglíficos de Ek 'Balam. In: Arqueología Mexicana. 76 (2005) pp. 64-69.
See also
Web links
- Ek 'Balam Archaeological Zone (Yucatán)
- Maya site in Ek Balam
- Ek 'Balam on yucatan-guide.de
- Info on playa.info
- Ek 'Balam on goroo.mx (EN)
- Ek 'Balam on AmazingTemples.com (German)
Coordinates: 20 ° 53 '27.9 " N , 88 ° 8' 10.6" W.
Individual evidence
- ↑ INAH press release from January 4, 2009 ( Memento from February 23, 2015 in the Internet Archive ).
- ↑ Ralph L. Roys : The Political Geography of the Yucatan Maya. Washington 1957, pp. 125-127.
- ^ Keith F. Davis: Désiré Charnay. Expeditionary photographer. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque 1981, ISBN 0-8263-0592-X .
- ↑ George J. Bey III., Craig A. Hanson, William Ringle: Classic to postclassic at Ek 'Balam, Yucatan: architectural and ceramic evidence for defining the transition. In: Latin American Antiquity. 8 (1997) pp. 237-254.