Uxul

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Uxul , German: at the end , is a historic Maya settlement in what is now the state of Campeche in Mexico .

History and layout

Uxul was possibly already integrated into a network of connecting paths between the Mayan centers in the pre-classical period . While the dominant El Mirador , only a few kilometers away , was abandoned, Uxul was apparently able to develop into an independent city-state of the early classical period. The center of the city is the ritual-administrative center, which is grouped around the main square of 120 × 130 m, 11 buildings such as the Mayan acropolis and temple pyramids . The construction of the complex is dated to the middle of the 7th century. The architecture corresponds to that of other cities of Pétens , a large part of the buildings resembles comparable structures in Calakmul , 29 km away , which conquered the place around 630. While the hieroglyphic inscriptions only provide sparse information about dynastic relationships with the supraregional center Calakmul for the period from 622 to 692, the other preliminary findings on site suggest a long period of settlement up to the early post-classical period . In its heyday, Uxul had around 8,000 inhabitants.

A prince who died in 711 could be determined by grave finds, who most likely was not a direct heir to the throne. Six panels with portraits of rulers and hieroglyphs were found from other finds during excavations of the so-called K2 building . The princes Yuknoom-Ch'ein II, Yuknoom-Yich'ahak-K'ak and Yukonom-Took'-K'avil are named by name. In the periphery of the facility, an artificially created water reservoir with a capacity of 20,000 m³ was discovered. The city also had a sophisticated water supply system that integrated 14 caves and an underground lake. It is assumed that the population of the city could be supplied in this way for three months without precipitation. Water seems to have been an overriding resource for the city and its residents. In one of the man-made caves, the remains of 24 human victims were found during excavations , allegedly sacrificed to Chaak .

Discovery and Exploration

After the first archaeological discovery in 1934, the site was lost and was rediscovered by Ivan Šprajc in 2005 . The first research in Uxul took place in 2006, 2007 and 2008 under the direction of Nikolai Grube ( University of Bonn ). Their aim was to create the logistics for a large excavation project. The Proyecto Arqueológico Uxul of the University of Bonn explored the site under the direction of Nikolai Grube and Antonio Benavides (Centro INAH , Campeche) from 2009 to 2015 in annual excavation campaigns funded by the German Research Foundation.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Nikolai Grube (ed.): Maya. God kings in the rainforest . Könemann-Verlag, Cologne 2000, p. 51.
  2. ↑ Annette Bruhns : The Temples of Uxul: Under Serpent Power , Spiegel Online , April 1, 2014.
  3. ↑ Grube et al .: Under the rule of the snake kings: Uxul in the 7th and 8th centuries , Estud. cult. maya vol. 40 México 2012.

Coordinates: 17 ° 51 '24 "  N , 89 ° 58' 54"  W.