Labná
Labná is a Mayan ruined city in Mexico . It is located on the Yucatán Peninsula , around ten kilometers east of Sayil - another important Mayan ruin.
The name Labná means something like “old house”, although the city was only given this name in modern times when it was rediscovered. The original name is unknown. The city's heyday was probably in the 7th to 9th centuries AD and it is believed that it was inhabited by around 2,000 people.
Research history
Labná was rediscovered by the research duo John Lloyd Stephens and Frederick Catherwood in 1842. Catherwood's drawings from this period are among the best-known motifs of Mayan culture (especially the drawings of the archway). A later visitor was Teobert Maler here in 1886 , followed by Edward H. Thompson the next year . A modern in-depth investigation is by Harry ED Pollock . Since the mid-1990s, a Mexican archaeological project under Tomás Gallareta Negrón has been exploring Labná and the surrounding area and carrying out reconstruction work.
The palace (Gran Palacio)
The palace stands in the middle of a flat surface on which most of the settlement is located, on the southern slope of a few meters high rock elevation. This is where the first buildings were built, later the space between the back wall of the building and the surface of the hill was filled, creating an area for several independent buildings, which in this way gives the impression of a second floor. This work was not yet completed when the construction activities were abandoned. The palace extends over a width of 110 m and should contain 67 rooms.
In contrast to other palace buildings in the Puuc region, the palace has not grown organically over a long period of time due to constant additions and changes. In broad terms, one can say: the higher up the hill, the younger the construction phase.
South wing
The oldest part of the building is entirely on the same level, at the lowest level of the palace platform, and runs roughly north to south. It is kept simple, consists of five rooms with entrances from the east, whereby the northernmost room was only added during the course of construction. The design of the facade with smooth walls with irregularly cut and placed wall stones and a simple strip of cornice that jumps up over the doorways and has a very small line of mosaics assign the part of the building to the Early Puuc style.
Middle part
The first section of the palace, consisting of three rooms, was built on a slightly higher part of the platform, but without the fourth room, which was built later. The sacbe crossing the plain aims at him. This centrally located component also stands out due to the lavish decor and should have been the most important part of the palace. The plinth (two-part, simple) and cornices (three-part with a central row of columns) correspond to the usual, in the upper wall surface meanders alternate with column fields and wide Chac masks above the entrances. There are trunk masks at the corners. What is striking, however, is the lower wall surface: next to the doors, three pillars with threefold ties are reminiscent of houses made of perishable material. On the smooth wall surfaces next to it are vertical fields with a braided pattern. This is undoubtedly a play on words, because the woven mat shown is referred to as pop on Mayathan , which also refers to the appropriately manufactured seat of a ruler, and identifies the building as popol na , as a consulting house for the local upper class. The bundle of three thicker corner pillars underlines the importance of this component. The protruding room has entrances from all three sides and, as wall decoration, pillars in the wall surface and at the corners. The base is four-part, with bulging pillars in the second row alternating with meanders and other motifs. The back wall of this room is unusually richly decorated: meander steps, rows of squares standing on top and, very unusual, short column drums set horizontally, which are probably supposed to be reminiscent of wooden buildings. The rear half of the room is raised by three steps and designed as a platform, the front of which is designed as a four-part cornice. One has to imagine that the consultations to be expected in the popol na took place there.
West wing
A little later, a building consisting of three rooms but only two entrances was added to this building in the west, which partially covers the corner mask of the previous one. While he continues the facade decor of the previous building in the upper wall surface and the cornices, the lower wall surface is completely smooth and thus particularly emphasizes the popol na . This component connects to a three-room building at the western end of the palace, which started a little earlier, but was completed in connection with the construction of the part just described. In this western component, a smooth wall surface follows a three-part base with a continuous row of columns in the middle. The middle cornice and the upper cornice resemble the base. The upper wall surface is a slightly modified continuation of the one adjoining to the east.
East wing
The east wing of the palace was added with an arch that was later added to form a passage. The floor plan is L-shaped, with the shorter, north-facing branch having rooms one behind the other, but only one entrance. Behind the rooms, an inaccessible room was set up as a cistern in the old days, probably from the beginning.
The long wing of six rooms is only well preserved near the western corner, the eastern part has been heavily reconstructed. The building has a three-part base with a middle row of very high columns, in order to bridge the resulting difference in level with the interior spaces, a large entrance platform with two to four steps was built in front of each entrance. The lower wall surface is mostly smooth, but there are groups of three simple pillars on both sides of the entrances, only the pillars of the bundle of three at the corners are thicker and have a binding motif. The central cornice is unusually designed: it consists of three bands, the lower one is smooth and protruding, the middle one is recessed and consists of an uninterrupted series of T-shaped elements, above which there is a smooth band on which rosettes with hands are occasionally attached are. The upper wall surface shows lavish decor: meander steps, chac masks and individual human figures, only remnants of which have survived. Above the only entrance on the west side is a large mask, the twisted trunk of which bears a date that corresponds to September 18, 862 (Julian). At the corner, the base has a plastic design with a human face. The middle cornice shows an open reptile throat from a mask, with a face peeking out. Next to the entrance to the westernmost room there is a staircase to the level of the upper floor, which went over the facade.
North wing
The outermost wing, which runs north from the east end on the side of the hill, was never completed. The walls extend maximally to the base of the vault, there is no rubble from a broken vault with its characteristic vaulted stones. The façade, preserved in small remains, showed fields with cross stones in the lower, mostly smooth half of the wall.
First floor
The part of the palace that appears as the second floor actually consists of four buildings that were erected on the hill at the height of the roof of the first floor. The two southern buildings have almost the same floor plan. There are four rooms in a row, the middle of which has an entrance supported by two pillars with capitals. Only behind the middle rooms there is another one that is accessible through them. Of these two buildings, only the eastern one has been preserved, namely in its central part. The facade is smooth in the lower part, with cladding stones of medium processing quality. The middle cornice is made up of three limbs, the middle of which is the widest, filled with saw-stones facing up and down. The upper wall surface is only halfway up, it shows alternating fields with cross stones, groups of two columns with (originally three) ties and above the middle of the entrances Chac masks. It is a simple implementation of the mosaic style. There were remains of a ridge on the building. The back, like that of the upper half of the wall of the western building, consists of unworked stones, which led to the assumption that an extension was planned but not carried out here. However, since the wall cladding for the planned interiors has not already been carried out, as in such cases, it is more likely that a further terrace with a core of rubble should be added on which perhaps another floor could have been built.
The third building is further back and completely collapsed. This may have been due to the fact that the walls are noticeably thinner than usual. The middle section that still stands up describes an entrance with two columns and capitals. The floor plan is angled. Pollock guessed 11 rooms. The middle room is unusually wide. The facade is made of relatively small, imprecisely worked stones. The only decoration to be mentioned is the simple central cornice consisting of a protruding band, which jumps up two stone widths above the column entrance. Above the pillars, a row with simple decoration made of triangular stones. The upper wall surface is slightly set back and also smooth in the same stone quality, an assignment to the Early Puuc style is beyond doubt. Farthest to the rear is a small, L-shaped building with four rooms. An east-facing entrance with a column and capital has been preserved and partially uncovered, leading into a relatively small room, from which a side door leads into the room in the corner of the two legs. Parts of the façade have not been preserved, so an assignment to the Early Puuc style is not certain.
Temple (El Mirador)
The temple stands on a 13 meter high pyramid , which was presumably stepped on the sides, while a monumental staircase led up to the facade of the temple from the south side. The temple originally had four rooms in an unusual layout: In the middle there are two rooms behind each other, with the rear (northern) room being entered through the southern room. On both sides of this room there are narrow rooms arranged at right angles, the entrance of which is on the southern narrow side. Only the western of these entrances to the side rooms is preserved. The temple building corresponds to the early Puuc style, which is characterized by the smooth facade and simple cornice. The upper half of the wall shows numerous protruding stone blocks that once supported figures and other decorations. A remnant of a figure is still preserved on the southwest corner. The roof ridge sits directly on this wall surface without any further cornice and, as usual, is pierced by numerous slot-like openings. It was not clad with stone, but with figures and ornaments in stucco, of which small remains are still visible. Early photographs seem to show players playing ritual ball games. Halfway up the former staircase there is a single, badly damaged room on its western side, which must have belonged to an earlier construction phase and was filled with rubble before the current temple was built.
Archway (Arco Triunfal)
The approximately 14 meters wide and seven meters high archway is constructed as a cantilever vault . This is considered to be one of the most important architectural achievements of the Maya. The arch served as a decorative passage between two courtyards. Passages of this type can be found in numerous places in the Puuc area, for example in Uxmal , Kabah , Oxkintoc , Xbanqueta and Dzekabtun. The two sides of the archway of Labná are designed very differently in the upper wall surface: the south side has angular, opposing meanders over a background of columns and small, ascending and descending relief squares in between. The north side shows high representations of houses with palm leaf roofs (similar to the nuns' square of Uxmal and Chacmultún ). These little houses are accompanied on both sides by fields with crossed ribbons. The three-part cornices are the same on both sides: in the middle band of the middle cornice there are sloping saw stones running up and down, and in the upper cornice there are upside-down stair motifs. A roof ridge once rose above the gateway, of which only barely noticeable remains are left.
Pillar building or L-shaped building (Edificio de las Columnitas)
The L-shaped building stands on a two-meter-high lower building southeast of the palace and probably served as a quarter for the upper class. The room layout follows a pattern that is common in L-shaped buildings. The longer leg of the building has 6 rooms, of which only five have an entrance from the outside, so that the symmetry principle (uneven number of entrances) is preserved. The last room, which is located on the inside corner, is only accessible through the adjacent room. The short leg has 2 spaces. This leg and the last room of the long leg seem to have been added later, because you can see the original northern side facade on the inner wall of the last room. The two rooms at the ends of the building collapsed today and restoration is still pending. The pillar-style façade gave the building its name, because all of the building's decorative elements consist of uninterrupted sequences of pillars: the middle bands of the tripartite cornices and the upper wall surface.
Sacbé
The street running almost 1 meter high above the site with bricked side borders connects the palace with the Mirador temple and the neighboring courtyard.
Twin buildings (Grupo de los Gemelos)
Around 700 m south-south-west of the archway are two small, largely identical buildings on a slope, which are characterized by a particularly magnificent facade. The entrances are framed with columns with multiple binding decorations and other ornaments. The middle cornice shows either the snake rattle motif or bulging pillars that alternate stepped meander. The upper half of the wall contains columns and meander steps. Another peculiarity is that an extension by another room was structurally prepared for both buildings, but this was not implemented. Access to this building group located in the dense forest is currently not open.
Xcanelcruz
Outside the area of Labná, which is open to tourism, is a little more than a kilometer north of the palace on a hill, the small palace of Xcanelcruz (in the older literature often under the name Chuncatzim, but which belongs to another site located nearby).
The building is a well-preserved and very typical example of a four-sided, two-story building around a massive rubble core. A chain of rooms consisting of three rooms may have been the first component. The rubble core was attached to it in the middle of the back, around which a room was attached on each of the three sides. Directly behind the rubble core is a smaller component made up of three rooms that was probably added later. Each of the rooms has direct access from the outside. A staircase jumps over the facade and the entrance to the central room to the roof level, leaving a passage along the facade. The second floor consists of four rooms, two on the side and a central one with a second room behind. The facade corresponds completely to the pillar style: the middle cornice consists of three sections: a smooth band, which is framed by two obliquely protruding bands, it can also be found on the building on the second floor. The upper wall surface is completely filled with columns without any further decoration. The upper cornice is tripartite, with a continuous row of low columns between two smooth bands. The top, sloping cantilever row has not been preserved. The corners of the component described here as the second construction phase are formed by thick, three-quarters of the free-standing columns. At the rear, the cornice protrudes unusually far.
Individual evidence
- ↑ John Lloyd Stephens : In the Cities of the Maya. Travels and discoveries in Central America and Mexico 1839-1842 . Du Mont, Cologne 1980. ISBN 3-7701-1215-6 .
- ^ Teobert painter : Península Yucatán (ed. By Hanns J. Prem ). Gebr. Mann, Berlin 1997. ISBN 3-7861-1755-1 .
- ^ Edward H. Thomson: The chultunes of Labna , Memoirs of the Peabody Museum, Vol. 1, Harvard University, Cambridge 1897.
- ↑ HED Pollock : The Puuc. An architectural survey of the hill country of Yucatan and northern Campeche, Mexico . Peabody Museums of Archeology and Ethnology, Cambridge, Mass. 1980, ISBN 0-87365-693-8 .
- ↑ Harry ED Pollock : The Puuc. An architectural survey of the hill country of Yucatan and northern Campeche, Mexico . Peabody Museums of Archeology and Ethnology, Cambridge, Mass. 1980, ISBN 0-87365-693-8 . Pp. 20-24.
See also
Web links
Coordinates: 20 ° 10 ′ 19.4 " N , 89 ° 34 ′ 44.2" W.