Tazumal

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Tazumal - view past the "Small Pyramid" to the "Great Pyramid"

Tazumal is a Mayan ruin site in the west of what is now the Central American state of El Salvador . It is one of the most important Mayan sites and the most important in El Salvador.

Toponym

The place name Tazumal comes from the Quiché -Maya language and means something like "place of the cremation of the victims"; Whether the current name corresponds to the original name of the place is doubtful - not only in the case of Tazumal.

location

Tazumal is only a few hundred meters outside the 650  m high town of Chalchuapa , in the Department of Santa Ana . It is almost 80 km (driving distance) to the south-east to the capital San Salvador . The nearest major Maya city of Copán in today's Honduras is about 300 km (driving distance) or 200 km (air line) away.

history

Not much is known about the history of Tazumal - it is likely that the city was first settled around 100 AD. Based on later finds, it is assumed that there were mercantile and cultural relationships with Copán and central Mexico during the heyday (approx. 600–900 AD) . Comparatively late, i.e. H. around the year 1200, Tazumal was abandoned. However, some finds from later times suggest that cultural-religious life continued at this point into the 15th century.

The Maya site was examined by American archaeologists in the 1940s and restored or reconstructed in the 1950s. Parts of the outer walls were covered with cement plaster - for the purpose of stabilization and in memory of the formerly existing stucco covering . On October 18, 2004, after heavy rainfall, one of these panels slipped off and tore part of the pyramid to the ground.

Ruin site

Two temple pyramids stand out among the buildings of Tazumal, which are scattered over an area of ​​approx. 10 km² : While the gradations of the rectangular and approximately 23 m high "Great Pyramid" run predominantly at right angles, in the restored or reconstructed architectural structure the approximately 12 m high “Small Pyramid” a Talud-tablero scheme can be recognized, which can ultimately be traced back to central Mexican influences (originally Teotihuacán , later also Tenochtitlán and others). Nothing has been preserved from the temples formerly at the top of the two pyramids.

A ball playground that has not been restored can be seen in its basic features. Steles with inscription or date glyphs or other free-standing monuments are in vain in Tazumal.

museum

In the local museum, there is an almost life-size statue of Xipe-Totec , the Aztec god of spring, from around 1450, clad with the stripped skin of a sacrificed person . Other exhibits are also presented, including two figural steles, several unhewn boulders with small figural reliefs, a zoomorphic sacrificial stone , a yoke stone (yugo) , painted or carved sacrificial bowls (possibly grave goods) and some smaller ceramic figures.

meaning

The lack of script and date glyphs as well as the natural large stones with small relief representations suggest a temporal relationship to similar ceremonial centers in the area of ​​the Pacific cultures of Guatemala , in particular the Cotzumalhuapa culture .

and display information about the image
“Great pyramid” (structure B1-1) and “small pyramid” (structure B1-2) in the background

See also

literature

  • Kato Shinya: Proyecto de Investigación y Restauración de la Estructura B1-2 de el Tazumal. El Salvador, 2005.
  • Gregorio Bello-Suazo Cóbar: La Arqueología de El Salvador. El Salvador: Arqueología Mexicana.

Web links

Commons : Tazumal  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 13 ° 58 ′ 46 "  N , 89 ° 40 ′ 27"  W.