Kowoj
The Kowoj even Ko'woj , Ko'woh , Couoh , Coguo , Cohuo , Kob'ow , Kob'ox or Kowo , formed a political-ethnic group of Maya which in the Postclassic in the wake of the upheavals in Yucatán according Petén attracted and to the end of there Konquista between lake Petén Itzá and Yaxha -See unfolded independently.
history
The centers of the Kowoj were Zacpetén on Lake Salpetén, Ixlu between the Petén-Itzá and Salpetén Lakes, and Topoxté on the Yaxha lagoon. There were secondary towns on the islands of Cantè and Poxte . In the east their territory bordered that of the Itzá , with whom they were enemies until almost their submission in 1697. In the southwest, the Yalain , allies of the Itzá, were their neighbors and in the northeast was the cuchcabal Chactemal , which, however, went under at the end of the 16th century.
The Kowoj were ruled centrally by an Aj (aw) .
In the 1690s the military pressure of the Spaniards became so great that many settlements and towns were abandoned and the population moved to Tipuj in Belize or to the Mopan . In 1695 there was another break and war with Tayasal . Nevertheless, there were always agreements and partial alliances in the fight against the Spaniards. After the fall of Tayasal on March 13, 1697, the Aj and the Kowoj nobility were imprisoned by the Spaniards. Still, isolated groups continued to oppose the Spaniards. The remaining Kowoj population was resettled in colonial cities. Nevertheless, the nobility managed to start a new, well-organized uprising in 1704, during which they almost succeeded in retaking Tayasal, which was ultimately crushed.
The Kowoj are linguistically and ethnically absorbed into the Itzá . However, the family name Kowoj can still be found in the San Andrés area .
architecture
Particularly in Topoxté and Zacpetén, the two successive residential cities of the Kowoj, architectural and ceramic features can be identified that show clear parallels with Ich Paa . Characteristic are C-shaped squares in or at which the elevated temple was not erected centrally, but to the west at a right angle to the complex. Post-classical buildings are only preserved in Topoxté in the entire Petén.
Topoxté
Topoxté (post-classic)
Central facility in Ixlu (classic)
literature
- Timothy W. Pugh: The Exemplary Center of the Late Postclassic Kowoj Maya. In: Latin American Antiquity. 14/4, pp. 408-430
- M. Rice, Don S. Rice: The Kowoj: Identity, Migration, and Geopolitics in Late Postclassic Petén, Guatemala , 2012