Moral Reforma
Moral Reforma (also known under the names La Reforma , Morales, etc.) is a Mayan ruin site from the Middle and Late Classical periods in the Mexican state of Tabasco . According to the barely legible date glyphs on the five previously known steles, it experienced its heyday in the years 600 to 750 AD.
location
The archaeological site is located in the alluvial land of the Río San Pedro Martír , near its confluence with the Río Usumacinta , approx. 3 km northwest of the small town of La Reforma and almost 50 km as the crow flies northeast of the city of Tenosique de Pino Suárez .
history
The decipherment of the inscriptions on the five steles gives only a limited insight into the history of the place. Stele 4 reports that in the year 565 a ruler was born, whose name is provisionally circumscribed as "falcon's head". As early as five years later, when he was still a child, he went through the ceremonies for gaining rulership; a year later this ceremony was repeated, depending on the ruler Yuknoom Ch'een II of Calakmul . Later (690) the ceremony was carried out again, but this time in Palenque , whereby the dependence of the place on the local ruler Kan B'ahlam II was documented. The fact that Calakmul had meanwhile lost its importance and could be subjugated by Tikal a few years later fits this change . Stele 1 tells of a ruler for the year 756, whose name is just as difficult to read as the old name of the ruins. The pictorial representation shows a ruler who kicks and beats a prisoner. The texts also speak of numerous wars against neighboring places.
The first mention of the site in 1907 goes back to Teobert Maler , who named the place La Reforma II . In the late 1930s E. Wyllys Andrews IV discovered Stela 1, Pavón Abreu then in 1945 Stela 2 and 3. Since 1992 excavations and restorations have been carried out in Groups 1 and 2. The location on a low elevation was only opened to the public in 2009.
Archaeological site
Since other stones were hardly available, the building material mostly consists of unprocessed, fist-sized river pebbles , the outer skin of which was usually covered with painted lime plaster ( stucco ).
Group 1
Group 1 lies around an elongated courtyard, the edges of which are not clearly delimited. It is formed by three small pyramids of different heights and also includes the ball playground .
Group 2
Group 2 consists of two connected pyramids with a maximum height of 27 m. Only a narrow staircase leads up to the higher, northern one, the southern one, which is preceded by a platform in the south, has a wide staircase. Only small remains of the temples at the top of the pyramids have survived.
Steles
So far, five poorly preserved limestone steles with Mayan glyphs and representations of rulers have been discovered within the ruins . Two are now kept in the Museo Regional de Antropología Carlos Pellicer Cámara in Villahermosa ; three more steles are located in the Museo Arqueológico José Gómez Panaco in the small town of Balancán de Domínguez .
Stele 1
Stele 1 (back)
Stele 2
See also
literature
- Simon Martin: Moral Reforma y la contienda por el oriente de Tabasco . In: Arqueología Mexicana 61 (2003) pp. 44-47
- Daniel Juárez Cossío: Moral Reforma, en la senda de Xibalba . In: Arqueología Mexicana 61 (2003) pp. 38-43
Web links
Coordinates: 17 ° 46 '8 " N , 91 ° 17' 53" W.