Río Azul (Mayan Ruins)

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Río Azul is an important archaeological site of the classical Mayan culture in the Río Azul National Park in the Department of Peten , Guatemala not far from the border with Mexico and Belize .

Brief description

For Río Azul, middle-class buildings have been documented. With Tikal , Yaxha , Dzibilchaltún , Yaxuná , Cuello and Cahal Pech it is one of the centers of this time. There is also evidence of amelioration measures in the local swamps for the extraction and management of arable land. Río Azul was able to rise to an early regional power, but lost its sovereignty like the surrounding centers early to Tikal. Teotihuacan had a strong influence in the 4th century . The emissary from Teotihuacan, Siyaj K'ak ' , installed Nuun Yax Ayiin I in 379 as ruler of Tikal and ruler of the princes of Uaxactún and Río Azul.

A particularly beautiful example of the cosmological link between the Maya and death are the graves of the 5th century in Río Azul. In ruler's grave no. 12 below building A-4, the edges were painted with red paint and the walls with hieroglyphics adorned. Among other things, this includes the name glyphs according to the orientation of the cardinal point. A nobleman of the upper class was also buried in grave no. 23, it is characterized by extensive grave goods in the form of clay vessels and the name glyph of the moon goddess .

In Río Azul, which was also an important local and long-distance trade center, over 5000 buildings were built on both sides of the river. In the 9th century the place was completely deserted.

exploration

The site was discovered in 1962 and was the target of numerous robbery excavations from the 1970s to the early 80s. From 1981 to 1987, Ian Graham and Richard Adams successively and independently of one another advanced the exploration and documentation of the archaeological site.

literature

  • Nikolai Grube : Maya, god kings in the rainforest. Potsdam 2012, pp. 51, 77, 107, 289, 319 and 447

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Ian Graham: Looters Rob Graves and History. In: National Geographic . Vol. 169, No. 4, 1986, pp. 420-451.
  2. ^ Richard EW Adams: Archaeological Research at the Lowland Maya City of Rio Azul . In: Latin American Antiquity 1, 1990, pp. 23-41.

Coordinates: 17 ° 37 ′ 0 ″  N , 89 ° 29 ′ 0 ″  W.