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City of the Serpent Kings: Calakmul, Mexico

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City of the Serpent Kings: Calakmul, Mexico Reports from the Field City of the Serpent Kings: Calakmul, Mexico BY SIMON MARTIN f you were to fly low over the forests of southeastern Mexico, about 35 km from the border with Guatemala, you would see two immense mounds rising high above the canopy. These ruined pyramids announce the presence of Calakmul, one of the greatest cities of Classic Maya civi- lization (300–900 CE). Beneath the trees lie 6,000 more structures, including additional temple pyramids, wide plazas, a ballcourt, and residences ranging from grand palaces to humble households, in a dispersed sprawl cover- ing some 33 km2. This is my twentieth year of research at Calakmul and, together with my colleagues from Mexico’s Maya script blossomed in the 1980s and we soon began to Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, we are still read long-enigmatic inscriptions and gain major insights trying to unravel its many mysteries. into the history and culture of the region. My research I wanted to work at Calakmul because it lies at the end focuses on ancient Maya politics and these developments of a trail of hieroglyphic clues. The decipherment of the opened an entirely new vista on the topic. We learned that there were as many as a hundred petty states forming a dense mosaic in the Classic era, but also that they were by no means equivalent in power. Tikal, Guatemala—where the Penn Museum excavated between 1956 and 1970—was one major center, but it had a rival of even greater influ- ence. This was the kingdom of Kaanul “Snake” which, from its rise in the 6th century until its decline in the 8th century, was the leading political force in the Classic Maya lowlands and the hub of a network of hierarchical ties that made many other kingdoms its vassals. Back in 1994 there was already Calakmul Structure 1, suggestive evidence that Calakmul was partly restored, emerges above the forest the home of those “serpent kings,” but canopy. Calakmul is we lacked proof. The problem was the IN T located in the Mexican poor quality of Calakmul’s limestone, state of Campeche, near the border with which erodes easily and renders the Guatemala. vast majority of its 117 carved monu- SIMON MAR 10 EXpedition Volume 56 Number 2 In 2005, Mexican archaeologists led by project director Ramón Carrasco discovered a buried “painted pyra- mid,” a small temple cov- ered with well-preserved murals. BELOW, one of the painted scenes shows people serving and drinking the maize- drink ul atole. ments illegible today. New excava- I suspect that they adorn a temple tions played a leading role in finding dedicated to a surrounding com- the names and titles of serpent kings, mercial district, evidence for Cal- known from elsewhere, and finally akmul’s efforts to control economic settled the matter. activity in its region. Since then we have been fortunate Thousands more mounds lie in enough to make some important discoveries that both refine the forest and some of them doubtless hide surprises of and expand our picture of life in a great Maya capital. To equal scale. Although the heat, humidity, and barrage of choose just one, in 2005 my colleagues began to unearth an biting insects make work at Calakmul arduous at times, unprecedented “painted pyramid,” a three-tiered structure that the sight of new inscriptions emerging from the ground had been protected beneath later construction. Its outer surface compensates for any perceived hardship. Ä is decorated with 39 scenes of people displaying, exchanging, and consuming different goods, all in remarkable preservation. SIMON MARTIN is Associate Curator and Keeper of Collections Hieroglyphic captions label many of the participants and de- in the American Section. In October 2014, Simon will be scribe them as “salt person,” “tobacco person,” “maize person,” investigating the newly cleared and cleaned third tier of the and the like. The meaning of these murals is still debated, but painted pyramid at Calakmul. FOR FURTHER READING Carrasco, Ramón, Verónica Vázquez, and Simon Martin. “Daily Life of the Ancient Maya Recorded on Murals at Calakmul, Mexico.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 106.46 (2009): 19245-19249. Martin, Simon. “Deciphering the Ancient Maya: Hieroglyphs, History and Politics.” Current World Archaeology 3.6 (2008): 28-33. Martin, Simon. “Hieroglyphs from the Painted Pyramid: The Epigraphy of Chiik Nahb Structure Sub 1-4, Calakmul, Mexico.” In Maya Archaeology 2, edited by Charles Golden, Stephen D. Houston, and Joel Skidmore, pp. 60-81. San Francisco: Precolumbia Mesoweb Press, 2012. Martin, Simon, and Nikolai Grube. Chronicle of the Maya Kings and Queens: Deciphering the Dynasties of the Ancient Maya. Second edition. London and New York: Thames and Hudson, 2008. EXpedition Fall 2014 11.
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