Uaxactun

Uaxactun

Uaxactun (pronounced|waʃakˈtun) is an ancient ruin of the Maya civilization, located in the Petén Basin region of the Maya lowlands, in the present-day department of Petén, Guatemala. The site lies some 40 km (24.9 mi) north of the major center of Tikal. The name is sometimes spelled as Waxaktun.

which funded Morley's explorations.

Morley's initial investigation of the site mostly focused on the hieroglyphic inscriptions, after this Uaxactun was not visited again until 1924, when Frans Blom made a more detailed investigation of the structures and mapped the site. The Carnegie Institution conducted archeological excavations here from 1926 through 1937, led by Oliver Ricketson. The excavations added greatly to knowledge of the early Classic and pre-Classic Maya. The remains of several badly ruined late Classic era temple-pyramids were removed, revealing well preserved earlier temples underneath them.

For most of the Carnegie team's time at Uaxactun, communication with the outside world was via a 4 day mule convoy to El Cayo, British Honduras. Towards the end of the time an airstrip was opened up. Flights to Uaxactun continued and a small village grew here, as it became a center for gathering of chicle sap from the Peten jungle. In 1940 A.L. Smith and Ed Shook of the Carnegie project returned to make some additional excavations. In the late 1970s a rough road was opened up, connecting Uaxactun to Tikal and thence to Flores, Guatemala. Airflights were discontinued. In 1984 the road was much improved. Shook returned again in 1974 to oversee consolidation and restoration of some architecture excavated earlier. In 1982 Guatemala's "Tikal National Park" was expanded to included the ruins of Uaxactun within its protected area.

A War of Conquest: Tikal Against Uaxactun (378 AD)

Linda Schele, in "A Forest of Kings" devotes an entire chapter toa war between Tikal and Uaxactun, in which Uaxactun was defeated by forcesled by Smoking-Frog (Siyah K'ak') of Tikal. In this chapter, she also gives a brief overview of the known history of Uaxactun up to the final year of the war(378AD) and of the Uaxactun kings who claimed descent from Smoking-Frog. The combinedpolitical entity of Tikal/Uaxactun would go on to dominate the Guatemalan Peten for the next180 years.

References

: cite book |author=aut|Schele, Linda |authorlink=Linda Schele |coauthors= and aut|David Freidel |year=1990 |title=A Forest of Kings: The Untold Story of the Ancient Maya |publisher=William Morrow |location=New York |isbn=0-688-07456-1 |oclc=21295769 : cite book |author=aut|Sharer, Robert J. |coauthors=with aut|Loa P. Traxler |year=2006 |title=The Ancient Maya |edition=6th edition (fully revised) |publisher=Stanford University Press |location=Stanford, CA |isbn=0-8047-4816-0 |oclc=28067148

External links

* [http://www.authenticmaya.com/uaxactun1.htm Uaxactún Description and Photo Gallery]
* [http://www.anthroarcheart.org/uaxactun.htm Uaxactun on anthrarcheart.org] photos


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем написать реферат

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Uaxactún —   [u̯aʃak tun], Stadt der Mayakultur, 30 km nördlich von Tikal, Guatemala, besiedelt 500 v. Chr. 900 n. Chr. Ausgegraben wurden 6 Zeremonialgruppen (jeweils um einen Platz angeordnete Tempel und Paläste). Die älteste Pyramide (»E VII sub«), die… …   Universal-Lexikon

  • Uaxactún — Templo de las Máscaras o estructura E VII, el primer observatorio documentado en la civilización maya. Uaxactún, es un sitio maya, que se encuentra unos 25 km al norte de Tikal, en Petén, Guatemala. Su nombre en la antigüedad era Siaan Ka an, que …   Wikipedia Español

  • Uaxactun — Der „Tempel der Masken“ in Uaxactún Uaxactún ist eine Ruinenstätte der Maya im heutigen Guatemala. Die Stadt liegt etwa 23 Kilometer nördlich von Tikal. Der Name mit Bezug auf das Maya Zahlwort waxak wurde von Sylvanus Morley gegeben, weil er… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Uaxactún — Der „Tempel der Masken“ in Uaxactún Uaxactún ist eine Ruinenstätte der Maya im heutigen Guatemala. Die Stadt liegt etwa 23 Kilometer nördlich von Tikal. Der Name mit Bezug auf das Maya Zahlwort waxak wurde von Sylvanus Morley gegeben, weil er… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Uaxactun — 17°23′36.82″N 89°38′4.32″O / 17.3935611, 89.6345333 Uaxactun (prononciation « ouachaktoun » …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Uaxactún — Ancient Maya ruins, north central Guatemala. One of the oldest known centres of Maya civilization, it was occupied in the 1st millennium BC; by с 300 BC–с AD 100 a number of ceremonial buildings had been erected, including a temple reminiscent of …   Universalium

  • Uaxactún — ► Centro arqueológico maya, en el N de Guatemala, al NO de las ruinas mayas de Tikal. Posee el observatorio astronómico maya más antiguo. * * * Antiguas ruinas mayas situadas en el centro norte de Guatemala. Uno de los centros más antiguos… …   Enciclopedia Universal

  • UAX — Uaxactun, Guatemala internationale Flughafen Kennung …   Acronyms

  • UAX — Uaxactun, Guatemala internationale Fughafen Kennung …   Acronyms von A bis Z

  • Вашактун —     (Uaxactún), церемониальный, центр в Гватемале, здесь получена стратифицированная и датированная последовательность стилей керамики майя, начиная с посуды Мамом предклассического периода. Построек этого периода не обнаружено, но к следующему… …   Археологический словарь

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
… Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”