Xkichmook
Xkichmook is a small ruin site of the classical Maya culture in Yucatán in the transition area between Puuc style and Chenes style , the combination of which can be clearly seen here.
Edward Thompson reports his first visit to Xkichmook for the year 1886, from 1891 he carried out excavations, about which he published a report. Teoberto Maler , according to his own words, only found out about Xkichmook (which he calls Xkichmol) in mid-1887, clearly only after Thompson, but predated his discovery on a plan (probably for reasons of competition). Xkichmook is around 600 m south of the small hamlet of San Pedro Dzula and 46 km south of Oxkutzcab .
Like most settlements of the late classical Maya culture in the regions of Puuc and Chenes, Xkichmook consists of several groups of different sizes. They are arranged on the crests of several closely spaced hills. In Xkichmook, apart from the Thompson excavations, only minor consolidation work was carried out by the INAH .
Northwest Group
The largest and most important group is located in the northwest of the settlement directly on the northern slope of the hill, over which the place can be reached in a modern way. The slope is clearly terraced. The group consists of four or five rectangular courtyards enclosed by buildings. The numbering of the buildings is from Thompson. The openings of cisterns ( chultuns ) are mostly in the middle of the height, but also at the edges of the terraces , some of which have collapsed.
Building 1 or the palace
The building is the largest and most important in the place. It consists of a chain of 5 rooms that was attached at right angles to another chain that is made up of two by two rooms. In the middle there is a brick, perhaps later built, high platform pyramid with almost vertical, stepped and facade-like walls and a staircase facing south. On the upper platform is a small building made up of two rooms arranged one behind the other. The entrances to all rooms face the courtyard, except for the outermost room in the northwest, which has its entrance to the west. This is astonishing because there is no courtyard at this point, but the building there stands on a high and steep platform and there are no stairs in the rubble.
The structure of the building follows the principles of the Chenes style. In particular, the facade design of the longer wing, with slightly protruding parts and recessed, narrow ledges in the middle between the doors. Andrews suspects that the three southernmost rooms were added later, but probably after no longer interruption. However, it can also be a construction-related section.
The wings on both sides of the pyramid are characterized by paintings on the underside of the vaulted ceilings in the middle of the rooms, at least partially preserved. However, most of the stucco coating on which the painting was applied has fallen off. The narrow strip of cornice under the row of vaulted ceilings is made of thick stucco and has a sawtooth-like shape (similar to that in the nearby Santa Rosa Xtampak ). Also noticeable are the large curtain holders, designed as rings protruding from the wall, on the inner wall on both sides of the doors, and in some cases above. They replace the much smaller corresponding Puuc style devices.
The outer walls of the building, referred to above as the pyramid, face the courtyard in several registers , horizontal sections, covered with mask representations. At the rear of the building (north) the walls are smooth but slightly stepped. The upper building has cascades of masks on the corners of the smooth walls. The wall surface above the simple but protruding frieze is entirely decorated with mask representations.
Building 12
Diagonally across from the “palace” (mistakenly viewed as part of it by Thompson and designated as room number 12) is the building, which, according to its facade decoration, is called the House of the Rosettes. Two rooms at the southern end of the building have been completely preserved. The structure corresponds to the Chenes style, in that a narrow, recessed, apparent joint between the doors gives the impression of separate houses. The oversized curtain holders on the inside of the doors are remarkable.
- Facades
The lower wall surface is - so far preserved - smooth, in the southern part, which is very unusual, individual columns are inserted. The middle frieze is simple and tripartite. The upper wall surface shows groups of large, circular rosettes, also an otherwise unusual decorative form.
Southern group
Building 3
It is a building consisting of two rows of rooms with a total of five interior rooms, three of which are accessible from the front and two from the rear.
Building 4
Building 4 with 9 rooms, arranged around a core of rubble masonry, stands east of the building just described with only a small gap. Four smaller rooms are arranged in a row at the front. Three rooms can be entered from the rear, with another one behind the two outer rooms, which is accessible from them.
Building 5
A construction made up of a row of rooms extended by a space at the eastern end. Only a small piece of the facade with the meandering steps and the wide pillars framing this field is preserved.
Building 6
The building stands on the eastern edge of a large platform and extends in a north-south direction. Two rooms to the north of a small, pyramid-shaped elevation (which has only been preserved as a pile of rubble) have been preserved, on the other side of which, after Thompson's excavations, an identical building of two rooms existed.
- Facades
The lower wall surface frames the doors with groups of two columns. Between the door entrances, instead of the usual marking of an apparent separation of the buildings, there is a large, three-fold, flat mask. The middle cornice consists of two elements that frame a band of inclined elements. The very wide corner pillars and the painting remains on the underside of the large cover plates of the lower cornice above the corner pillars are remarkable. In the upper wall surface the continuous design is interrupted by a series of columns with large, very strongly modified masks. In addition to the nose, the deep eye sockets and the square ear pieces on the edge can be recognized.
literature
- Edward H. Thompson: Ruins of Xkichmook, Yucatan . In: Field Columbian Museum, Anthropological Series No. 2. pp. 209-229.
- George F. Andrews: Xkichmook revisited: Puuc vs. Chenes architecture . In: Cuadernos de arquitectura mesoamericana 1 (1984). Pp. 49-63
Individual evidence
- ^ Teobert painter : Península Yucatán . Edited by Hanns J. Prem . Gebr. Mann, Berlin 1997, ISBN 3-7861-1755-1 .
See also
Coordinates: 19 ° 53 ′ 51 ″ N , 89 ° 31 ′ 39 ″ W.