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<< Our Photo Pages >> Uxul. - Ancient Village or Settlement in Mexico in Campeche

Submitted by davidmorgan on Wednesday, 01 August 2012  Page Views: 11248

DigsSite Name: Uxul.
Country: Mexico Region: Campeche Type: Ancient Village or Settlement
Nearest Town: Escárcega
Latitude: 17.861667N  Longitude: 89.988333W
Condition:
5Perfect
4Almost Perfect
3Reasonable but with some damage
2Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site
1Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks
0No data.
-1Completely destroyed
 no data Ambience:
5Superb
4Good
3Ordinary
2Not Good
1Awful
0No data.
 no data Access:
5Can be driven to, probably with disabled access
4Short walk on a footpath
3Requiring a bit more of a walk
2A long walk
1In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find
0No data.
 1 Accuracy:
5co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates
4co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map
3co-ordinates scaled from a bad map
2co-ordinates of the nearest village
1co-ordinates of the nearest town
0no data
 4

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Uxul.
Uxul. submitted by bat400 : "The principal building of the royal palace complex, as seen from the north, in the Mexican jungle." From "Tomb of Mayan Prince Discovered in Jungle Ruins", 30 July 2012, courtesy of http://www.livescience.com/21967-tomb-of-mayan-prince-discovered-in-jungle-ruins.html. In 2012 excavators found the tomb of a young man (probably lesser royalty) beneath the floor in a room of this building. ... (Vote or comment on this photo)
Ancient Settlement in Campeche, Mexico. During its heyday in the Classical period (250 to 900 A.D.) Uxul was located in a densely populated area between the big Maya cities of El Mirador to the south and Calakmul to the northeast. It had trade connections as far as present-day southern Guatemala and the Central Mexican Plateau.

Inscriptions report that, around 630 A.D., Uxul was annexed under the rule of Calakmul, which was at a distance of about 26 kilometers.

Information from Eureka Alert.

Detailed map of the site at the Carnegie Institution.

Bonn University excavation website (in German and Spanish).

Note: Tomb of Maya 'Prince', Bonn archaeologists find tomb in Uxul Royal Palace - see comment.
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 14.5km SSE 147° El Mirador* Ancient Village or Settlement
 25.8km SE 140° Nakbe* Ancient Village or Settlement
 34.3km NE 35° Calakmul* Ancient Village or Settlement
 40.2km S 185° La Florida* Ancient Village or Settlement
 56.0km SW 228° La Corona. Ancient Village or Settlement
 64.2km SE 144° Uaxactun* Ancient Village or Settlement
 67.4km SSE 162° El Zotz* Ancient Village or Settlement
 71.0km ESE 119° San Bartolo* Ancient Village or Settlement
 77.5km N 3° Balamkú* Ancient Village or Settlement
 78.3km SSW 212° El Peru - Waka* Ancient Village or Settlement
 80.0km NE 41° Hormiguero* Ancient Village or Settlement
 80.5km SSE 152° Tikal* Ancient Village or Settlement
 80.7km ESE 118° Xultun Ancient Village or Settlement
 89.2km NE 36° Chicanná* Ancient Village or Settlement
 91.3km NE 37° Becan* Ancient Village or Settlement
 94.3km WNW 288° El Tigre (Campeche) Ancient Village or Settlement
 94.8km NE 40° Xpuhil* Ancient Village or Settlement
 96.2km SE 125° Cival Ancient Village or Settlement
 97.3km SE 129° Holmul Ancient Village or Settlement
 98.2km SE 141° Nakum* Ancient Village or Settlement
 100.8km NE 36° Chactún.* Ancient Village or Settlement
 101.7km S 177° Nixtun-Ch'ich' Ancient Village or Settlement
 103.9km SSE 162° Ixlú Ancient Village or Settlement
 104.1km S 174° Nojpetén* Ancient Village or Settlement
 107.9km SE 145° Yaxha* Ancient Village or Settlement
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"Uxul." | Login/Create an Account | 3 News and Comments
  
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Tomb of Mayan Prince Discovered in Jungle Ruins of Uxul by bat400 on Wednesday, 01 August 2012
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Excavators have uncovered what they believe to be the 1,300-year-old remains of a Mayan prince entombed within a royal complex of the ancient city of Uxul, located in Mexico near the Guatemalan border.

The man, who researchers estimate was between 20 and 25 when he died, was found lying on his back, with his arms folded inside a tomb 4.9 feet (1.5 meters) below the floor in a building within the city's royal complex.

When the researchers first slipped a camera into the tomb to peek at what was inside they saw ceramics at the feet of the skeleton, said Kai Delvendahl, field director for the project with the University of Bonn.

They found a total of nine pieces of ceramics, including a plate painted in the distinctively black-lined Mayan Codex-Style covering the man's skull. At Mayan sites, it is not uncommon to find plates placed over the skulls of the deceased, Delvendahl, said.

The other ceramics offered additional clues. One bore hieroglyphics reading: "[This is] the drinking vessel of the young man/prince." A second vessel also bore a mention of a young man or prince. However, if this young man had been a prince, he did not appear to be in line for the throne, the researchers believe, since certain status markers, such as jade jewelry, were not found.

One of the ceramic vessels bears a scene, which includes a date that corresponds to the year A.D. 711.

For more, see http://www.livescience.com and photos.
[ Reply to This ]
    Re: Tomb of Mayan Prince Discovered in Jungle Ruins of Uxul by bat400 on Tuesday, 04 September 2012
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    Another article on the same subject from National Geographic:

    Excavating a remote Maya palace in the ruined city of Uxul, archaeologists in Mexico have uncovered the ancient tomb of a young prince—and a rare artifact. The floor of an entrance building within Uxul's 11-building royal complex concealed the entrance to the small chamber, which held the remains of the 20- to 25-year-old man and nine ceramic objects.

    On one cup, "there was a simple message ... in elegantly modeled hieroglyphics that read: '[This is] the cup of the young man/prince,'" team member Nikolai Grube, an anthropologist at Germany's University of Bonn, said in a late-July statement.

    Another cup bears a date, which Grube and colleague Kai Delvendahl interpret to mean the year A.D. 711, giving some indication as to when the prince lived and died.

    It's common for Maya artifacts to refer to their owners, Grube said. But all previous princely drinking vessels have been excavated "illegally, without controlled excavation, by looters. This is the first time we have found such a vessel in an archaeological context."

    Despite its obvious archaeological attractions, the small tomb at Uxul (ooh-SHOOL) is noticeably lacking in jade jewelry—suggesting the prince was not in line for the throne, experts say.

    If he had been, archaeologist Jennifer Mathews said, "you would see very lavish objects like jade masks made in the individual's likeness, jade earspools, or other elaborate jade objects.

    "We don't see that in this particular case, so they think that this was a guy who was part of the royal family but who was not in line for the throne," added Mathews, of Texas's Trinity University, who wasn't part of the project.

    Until 705, Calakmul, a Maya metropolis about 16 miles (26 kilometers) away, had ruled Uxul in today's Campeche state. After that time Calakmul's influence receded, and the prince's family became the local rulers of Uxul.

    Thanks to coldrum for the link. For more, and photos, see news.nationalgeographic.com.
    [ Reply to This ]

Mayan Water Reservoir in Mexican Rainforest: Archaeologists Find Huge Artificial Lake by Andy B on Monday, 30 August 2010
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Archaeologists from the University of Bonn have found a water reservoir the size of a soccer field, whose floor is lined with ceramic shards, in the Mexican rainforest. It seems that in combination with the limestone on top, the shards were supposed to seal the artificial lake. The system was built about 1,500 years ago. It is the first example of this design found for the Maya. It is not yet known whether the reservoir's entire floor is tiled.

Since 2009, researchers from Bonn and Mexico have been systematically uncovering and mapping the old walls of Uxul, a Mayan city. "In the process, we also came across two, about 100 m square water reservoirs," explained Iken Paap, who directs the project with Professor Dr. Nikolai Grube and the Mexican archaeologist Antonio Benavides Castillo.

Such monster pools, which are also known from other Mayan cities, are called "aguadas." Similar to present-day water towers, they served to store drinking water. But the people of Uxul seem to have thought of a particularly smart way to seal their aguada. "We conducted a trial dig in the center of one of the water reservoirs," explains Nicolaus Seefeld, a young scholar. "We found that the bottom, which is at a depth of two meters, was covered with ceramic shards -- probably from plates -- practically without any gaps. But we don't know yet whether it's like this throughout the entire aguada."

If so, that would be a minor sensation -- merely due to the quantity of ceramics required. The aguadas in Uxul were each as large as ten Olympic-size pools. Maybe there used to be even more artificial lakes. After all, the precious commodity had to be enough to last a population of at least 2,000 through the 3-month dry season.

The Mayan term "uxul," by the way, means "at the end" in English. Karl Ruppert and John H. Denison from the Carnegie Institution of Washington, who discovered the city, had named it that in 1934 -- exhausted and sick after a long expedition through the jungles of Mexico's Yucatán peninsula. The city's original name remains unknown to this day.

If Uxul was "at the end of the world" in the 1930's, not much has changed today. "You can only get to the ruins via 120 km of jungle paths clear across the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve, far from modern roads and settlements," explains Dr. Iken Paap. These are difficult conditions for the archaeologists and the German-Mexican excavation team. This year, they spent three months in the forest to explore the Mayan city.

Flourishing trade center

What is becoming more and more obvious as the excavations progress is the fact that Uxul was nowhere near "at the end" or isolated in the jungle during its heyday in the Classical period (250 to 900 A.D.): Uxul was located in a densely populated area between the big Mayan cities of El Mirador to the south and Calakmul to the northeast. It had trade connections as far as present-day southern Guatemala and the Central Mexican Plateau.

Uxul was settled for several epochs of the Mayan culture. So much was concluded by the Bonn scholars after analyzing the dig and its settlement layers. "This year, we were able to excavate a sequence of layers that was over three meters deep, ranging probably from the late Pre- to the End- or Post-Classical periods," explains Iken Paap.

Inscriptions report that, around 630 A.D., Uxul was annexed under the rule of Calakmul, which was at a distance of about 26 kilometers. To what extent was life in the city and the surrounding area affected and influenced by such changes in power? Did Uxul have its own trade connections that continued to exist during Calakmul's rule? Did the population experience the crises of the elites directly in their own daily lives? Or were these disputes between the ruling powers, which have been given more importance due to being recorded on steles and altars than they were accorded by contemporary strata of the population?

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