Hochob
Hochob is a small Mayan ruins in Mexico . It is located on the Yucatán peninsula in the state of Campeche , 38 kilometers southeast of Hopelchén and about 7 kilometers south-southwest of Dzibalchén . The site is probably the best example of the Chenes style of Mayan architecture. The place is on a narrow ridge that borders a wide savannah in the north. Accordingly, the ruins are not arranged on the surface, but rather follow a linear pattern.
The first description of Hochob comes from the year 1887 by Teobert Maler . The next in-depth report was written by Harry Evelyn Dorr Pollock fifty years later . Ricardo de Robina also gives a good description. After 1980 excavations and restorations were carried out under the direction of Ramón Carrasco.
Several buildings are grouped around an almost rectangular square. The buildings on the western side have not yet been exposed, as have the groups of buildings behind them around several courtyards. Several heavily damaged and unexcavated buildings also follow to the east.
Building I.
This is a relatively tall pyramid with a two-room building on top. Everything has been badly damaged and has not yet been exposed.
Building II
In the typical Chenes style, the unusually well-preserved three-room building gives the impression of being three individual buildings standing next to each other. This impression is reinforced by the fact that the middle part is shifted slightly backwards.
The middle part is around a meter higher than the side wings because the entrance platform is very high as the lower jaw of the snake's mouth that is pushed forward. The entire facade of the central part is taken up by the snake mouth decor in its full height. The decor is executed over stone in very hard and finely cut stucco. The middle section is framed by two semi-sculptural representations of houses with palm-leaf roofs that are heavily distorted vertically due to lack of space and extend over the entire height of the facade. The middle part of the wall of these houses is provided with stone lattice work. Large, naturalistically designed faces, framed by tendrils, rose above the roofs of the houses. They were stolen from robbers' graves. The well-preserved graffiti in the central area was removed during the restoration work and is now in museums.
The east side wing of the building only has decor on the upper wall surface. Four Chac masks, placed one on top of the other, protrude from the corner . Above the entrance there is an upper part of a serpent's jaw, which is very similar to that of the central room, but does not extend to the lower wall surface. It is no longer possible to determine with certainty whether the western side wing was also designed in this way.
The facades on the back are kept simple. The problem of the different heights of the three components was bridged by an additional wall surface on the side wings. The middle cornice consists of two sections: a narrow band and below it an unusually high sloping surface with a sunken field. The upper cornice is designed in a similar way, only that above it there is still a band sloping in the opposite direction without indentation.
The construction technology corresponds to the Puuc architecture with cladding stones over a wall core made of poured mortar and other structural details. However, the processing quality of the cladding stones is not as good as further north, but this is covered by a thick stucco coating. The entrances were spanned with several wooden door beams, the sides of the entrances consist of stones set in masonry, as in the Proto-Puuc style. The technique of the vault with little worked vault stones and heels is also different from the Puuc style. On the roof of the middle room there was a ridge of which only small remains are left. The vertical parts showed people standing in stucco.
Building III
This building, referred to by Pollock as "Structure 1", fell into disrepair between Pollock's visit in 1936 and the early 1960s. In particular, the snake mouth portal, which was initially well preserved, is only preserved in its lowest parts. It is a three-room building in a row, with another room behind the middle room that Pollock overlooked. To the south is a very small building (IV) that is not dealt with here.
Buildings V and VI
Between buildings V and VI there is a building without its own numbering, which consists of two parallel chains of three rooms each, with the front rooms opening onto the courtyard and the rear rooms being accessed through these rooms. Originally, the building had five rooms twice, with the rooms at the ends being covered by steep pyramids in a second phase.
On the upper surfaces of the two pyramids there is a small, two-room building with entrances from both sides. The facade is completely smooth in the lower wall surfaces, above it cornices follow the same structure as on the back of building II. Numerous stone pegs protrude from the upper wall surface, which must have served to attach stucco decorations. An openwork roof ridge sat on the temple building. The eastern of these pyramids (building V) has a very steep staircase on both sides, which is difficult to climb (but should not be confused with the Rio Bec style stairs that are deliberately inaccessible . The eastern and western side walls of this temple building have The western building (VI) is apparently built over the westernmost of the original rooms of the flat building and structurally corresponds to building V. However, the stairs are less steep and easy to climb. The side walls of the temple building are smooth and without niches .
tourism
The site is open to tourism. Driveway from the village of Chenkoh (branch off the bypass) to the parking lot at the small visitor center, then a short climb to the ruins themselves.
Individual evidence
- ^ Teobert painter : Península Yucatán . Ed. Hanns J. Prem . Gebr. Mann, Berlin 1997, ISBN 3-7861-1755-1 . Pp. 106-109.
- ^ HED Pollock : Architectural notes on some Chenes ruins . Papers of the Peabody Museums of Archeology and Ethnology, Harvard University, vol. 61, part 1. Cambridge, MA. 1970. pp. 9-18.
- ^ Ricardo de Robina: Estudio preliminar de las ruinas de Hochob, Municipio de Hopelchen, Campeche . Editorial Atenea, México 1956.
- ↑ George F. Andrews: Historic preservation in the Maya area: Hochob, Campeche, Mexico. A case study . In: Cuadernos de Arquitectura Mesoamericana 3 (1984).
See also
Web links
Coordinates: 19 ° 24'32 " N , 89 ° 46'14" W.