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<< Our Photo Pages >> Cancuen - Ancient Village or Settlement in Guatemala

Submitted by john_op_stap on Saturday, 02 November 2013  Page Views: 3712

Multi-periodSite Name: Cancuen Alternative Name: Place of serpents
Country: Guatemala
NOTE: This site is 61.308 km away from the location you searched for.
Type: Ancient Village or Settlement
Nearest Town: Raxruja  Nearest Village: La Isla
Latitude: 16.013130N  Longitude: 90.04044W
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
 2 Ambience:
5Superb
4Good
3Ordinary
2Not Good
1Awful
0No data.
 2 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.
 3 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
 5

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john_op_stap visited on 2nd Mar 2004 - their rating: Cond: 2 Amb: 2 Access: 3 At Raxruja on the main road there is a big sign. Staying at Raxruja does have some hazard, as too many men walk around with 9mm guns on their hips - and they tend to get drunk at night. The area is (was) known as a drug trafficker base. Collectivos go to La Isla regularly, from their its a 20 min walk to the river. Getting across by lancha.

Cancuen
Cancuen submitted by john_op_stap : Cancuen 02/03/04 Cancuen, palace excavation Image copyright: john_op_stap (John Schelstraete), hosted on Flickr and displayed under the terms of their API. (Vote or comment on this photo)
Ancient Town in El Petén.
Cancuén is a Classic era Maya city in the south of El Petén at the start of the navigable course of the Rio Pasión. Longtime disregarded for excavation as there are no pyramids, thus thought of as a minor site. Recent excavation however has found it must contain the biggest Maya palace ever build, plus a wealth of inscriptions adding new pages to the Mayan history of the late Classic turmoil.

My picset and some more background.

The site now appears to be open to visitors as excavations continue. The site includes a small visitor's center and a camping area.
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Cancuen
Cancuen submitted by john_op_stap : Cancuen 02/03/04 Cancuen Image copyright: john_op_stap (John Schelstraete), hosted on Flickr and displayed under the terms of their API. (Vote or comment on this photo)

Cancuen
Cancuen submitted by john_op_stap : Cancuen 02/03/04 Cancuen Image copyright: john_op_stap (John Schelstraete), hosted on Flickr and displayed under the terms of their API. (Vote or comment on this photo)

Cancuen
Cancuen submitted by john_op_stap : Cancuen 02/03/04 Cancuen, on top of a roof, it might actually be 3 stories high. Image copyright: john_op_stap (John Schelstraete), hosted on Flickr and displayed under the terms of their API. (Vote or comment on this photo)

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"Cancuen" | Login/Create an Account | 4 News and Comments
  
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Re: Cancuen - Looting by john_op_stap on Saturday, 02 November 2013
(User Info | Send a Message)
Cancuén Ballcourt Marker
Author: Donna Yates

Classic Maya stone sculpture from the site of Cancuén, Guatemala; looted in 2001 and recovered in 2003. Note: the piece was sometimes referred to as an ‘altar’ in the press.

Ballcourts are found at most major Maya archaeological sites. They were once the staging ground for the pan-Mesoamerican ball game, an extremely significant sporting activity that appears to have been tied to both religion and regional politics. Two ball courts have been located at the site of Cancuén, Guatemala, each of which would have originally housed three ballcourt markers. The exact purpose of Maya ball court markers is unknown, but they appear to factor into the rules of the game. Many of these markers are undecorated but some are finely-crafted bas-relief sculptural pieces which depict individuals, often with accompanying hieroglyphic inscriptions.

Full article.
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Re: Cancuen by john_op_stap on Saturday, 02 November 2013
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Inscriptions found at a 1000-year-old sacred ball court provide insights into the Maya civilization's final days

By David F. Salisbury
Published: May 7, 2004

Important new stone monuments covered with historical texts dating from a period just before the collapse of the classic Maya civilization have been unearthed by archaeologists from Vanderbilt University and the Guatemalan Ministry of Culture who are excavating a thousand-year-old sacred ball court with support from the National Geographic Society.

The discoveries were announced on Friday, April 23, by Guatemala 's Minister of Culture, Manuel Salazar Tezahuic, after a visit to the Cancuén Archaeological Project on April 16. The minister, himself a Kaqchikel Maya, and U.S. Ambassador John Hamilton assisted the archaeologists in the excavation of a 500-pound altar stone.

Full article.
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Re: Cancuen by john_op_stap on Saturday, 02 November 2013
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Vanderbilt archaeological team unearths buried Maya royal palace

By David F. Salisbury
Sept. 8, 2000

A team of archaeologists from the United States and Guatemala has determined that a structure previously identified as a minor palace is not only one of the largest and most elaborate residences of ancient Maya kings discovered but also one of the best preserved.

With more than 170 rooms built around 11 courtyards in three stories, this eighth century royal palace is about the same size as the central acropolis in Tikal (Guatemala), says Arthur Demarest, the archaeologist from Vanderbilt University who heads the expedition with Tomas Barrientos from the Universidad del Valle in Guatemala. But what is most incredible about this site is that most of the palace is buried virtually intact. No one has found anything like this since the turn of the century.

The vegetation-covered royal palace sits in the center of the ruins of an ancient city named Cancuen, which means "place of serpents". It is located in a remote area of the Peten rainforest (sic) of Guatemala that has been largely overlooked by archaeologists...

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Re: Cancuen by bat400 on Saturday, 02 November 2013
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john_op_stap writes:

In 2004 I visited the site on a whim, not knowing if it was open to public, turned out it wasn't. I was greeted by a guy carrying a shotgun, who led me to the archaeologists at work. They assured me it was for both mine and the site's safety. What actually was going on I learned only later, as the story of the Ballcourt Marker in the comments will explain...
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