Oxtankah's Plaza of Columns

Structure X is a palace with four columns along its front at the top of a broad staircase. The columns prompted archeologists to give the Plaza de Columnas its name. The palace is one of five structures surrounding the plaza, which is one of Oxtankah's two main ceremonial areas. The other is the Plaza de Abejas, seen previously. In this posting, we will take a close look at the pyramids, palaces, and temples that surround the Plaza de Columnas. As you may remember from the previous posting, the names of both plazas, and of Oxtankah itself, were given by the archeologist who excavated them back in the 1930s. Their original, pre-hispanic names remain a mystery.


Overview of the Plaza de Columnas

Plaza de Columnas is surrounded by a large pyramid, two palaces, and two un-named structures.  The plaza's orientation is south-to-north and west-to-east.  The north side, at the bottom of the schematic, contains Structure X (in Roman numerals, X=10). This is an edifice that I will call the North Palace. Above it, on the left (east) side, is Structure VI (=6), a large pyramid from which multiple human remains and many grave goods were recovered. On the top (south) side of the plaza are two un-named pyramids about which I have no information. Structure IX (=9), which I will call the West Palace, is located on the right (east) side. It has a broad staircase on the side facing the plaza and multiple rooms along its top. When excavated, one of of these rooms was found to be a kitchen. We will begin our tour of the plaza with the Structure X palace and proceed clock-wise around the plaza. Since I could find no information or names for the two structures on the south side, they will not be included in this posting.

I had to allow this handsome guy his 15 minutes of fame. Everyone deserves at least that. A visitor to Oxtankah will encounter iguanas of various sizes and hues throughout the ancient city's ruins. This one is known to scientists as Ctenosaurus similis and is the largest iguana within the genus Ctenosaurus. It can be found throughout Central America and parts of the Yucatan peninsula. Although this species is able to run faster than any other lizard, this one remained motionless for the entire time I was taking its picture. While the focus of my Oxtankah series is on the two main ceremonial plazas, there are numerous others, mostly unexcavated. One of the smaller plazas was dubbed Plaza de Iguanas.


Structure X: The North Palace

The North Palace, viewed from atop Structure VI. This palace contains three rooms on its top and two more at the rear. These were apparently the dwellings of rulers and their families. This is one of the few major structures at Oxtankah that contained no human remains when it was excavated.

Stucco mask of an elite male, possibly one of Oxtankah's actual rulers. He wears an elaborate, feathered head-dress, long jade earrings, and a jade necklace. All this indicates a person of very high status. His lower jaw and cheeks are painted, or possibly tattooed. color. There was no explanatory sign, but the mask may have had a funerary function. It might also have decorated a wall in the North Palace or elsewhere. The mask can be seen in the small museum at the entrance of the site.

Rear view of the North Palace. The two rooms at the rear of the palace can be entered from the doorway seen above. The rear rooms were added sometime after the palace was originally built. This might have occurred at the end of the Early Classic Era (200-600 AD), just before the interval of abandonment, or during the Post-Classic Era (1000-1520 AD) when the site was re-occupied.

Tripod vessel found at Oxtankah. This is definitely high-status pottery and could well have been used by the city-state's ruler. The pot bears a striking resemblance to Teotihuacán's tripod vessels. Teotihuacan was the capital of a huge trading empire of central Mexico from 100 to 650 AD. This was the same time frame as Classic Era Oxtankah. This pot may have arrived a Oxtankah from Teotihuacan through the trade networks, or Maya potters could have simply copied the style from other imported ceramics. Teotihuacan had a close connection with the Maya World, particularly the Petén region stretching across northern Guatemala and the southern Yucatan Peninsula. In fact, the  Petén city-state of Tikal appears to have been ruled by Teotihuacan for a period of time. Teotihuacan itself had a whole district set aside for Maya immigrants and traders. Under these circumstances, it would not be surprising to find a Teotihuacan pot in an important Maya trading seaport like Oxtankah, even though the two cities were 1145 km (711 mi) apart.


Structure VI: The Pyramid with Multiple Tombs

Cutaway view showing the tombs of Structure VI. The pyramid has four stepped-levels, with a single-story temple on top. Facing west, toward the plaza, is a single broad staircase, with the upper and lower sets of stairs divided by a landing. Inside the pyramid, five tombs containing the remains of twelve individuals were found. Two of the tombs are located under the staircase and the others are located in the center of the pyramid, under the temple. Most of the human remains were too deteriorated to determine age or sex, but one has been identified as a female. Examination of the teeth indicates that all were adults except for one and all had been buried during the Early Classic Era. Because they were buried within the pyramid, and because of the quality the grave goods interred with them, this was certainly a group of high-status individuals, possibly members of a royal family.

View of Structure VI and its main staircase. The pyramid appears to have two sets of stairs separated by a gap in the middle. Originally this was one broad staircase, but archeologists created the gap when they tunneled into the stairs looking for the burials. In 2014. a team of scientists published the results of their analysis of the remains of 73 individuals buried at Oxtankah, including those of Structure VI. All 73 were interred within the various structures surrounding the two main ceremonial plazas. A total of 55 individuals were found in Structures I, III, and IV at the Plaza de Abejas. Another 18 were buried at the Plaza de Columnas, including the 12 in Structure VI and another 6 in Structure IX. None were found in Structure X. Of the 73 individual remains, only four--two male and two female--were complete enough to determine sex or age at death.

The reason that so many of the remains are so fragmentary and deteriorated may be that the overwhelming majority were secondary, rather than primary burials. With secondary burials, the body was buried elsewhere for some period of time and then the remains, or parts of them, were moved to the site where they were ultimately discovered. A primary burial is one where the remains were left in place and are therefore more likely to be relatively intact. The practice of secondary burial was widespread among the pre-hispanic people of the southern Yucatan Peninsula and northern Belize and Guatemala.

For the benefit of tourists, a facsimile of a skeleton was placed in Tomb 2.  The original remains were so deteriorated that there was no way to determine sex or age. As yet, there is no evidence that any of the 73 individuals were victims of human sacrifice. In most of the other pre-hispanic sites I have visited in Mexico and Central America, there has been clear evidence of ritual killings. Sometimes, this occurred as part of the dedication of new (or re-built) temples and pyramids. At other times it was to propitiate the gods, or to celebrate an accession to the throne, or as part of the rituals associated with the pre-hispanic ball game. It would  have been unusual for this particular city-state to forego these practices. At the moment, there is no evidence either way.

Arrangement of bodies and grave goods in Tomb 1, in Structure VI. In this tomb, and another area below it, a total of 11 individuals were interred. All were adults except for one child. Only one female has been identified as such among the group, although there may have been more. The grave goods found among the remains were sumptuous. Notice, in particular, the necklace worn by the individual at the lower left.

A sampling of the objects found in Tomb 1. The necklace at the top was worn by the person seen in the previous illustration. It consists of 1,620 small, pearly beads carved from mollusk shells. Tiny holes were drilled in each so they could be linked together, somewhat like chain mail. The bottom edge of the necklace is bordered by oval earrings and "L" shaped attachments, both of which were made from snail shells. To see the whole, extraordinary garment, click here. This  assemblage demonstrates astonishing quality and craftsmanship. It also illustrates the range of uses the people of Oxtankah found for their oceanic resources. Also shown are a small mask made of red coral, a jade necklace, a greenstone ax, and a fine piece of pottery. Grave goods are important to archeologists because objects deliberately and carefully buried in a tomb are more likely than others to survive intact through the centuries. Also, objects left in tombs, particularly those of elite persons, are likely to have a special significance. Analysis of such objects provides a window into the minds of ancient people.

The temple atop the pyramid has a single, rectangular room. The temple's roof was made of perishable materials which did not survive the centuries. The entrance of the temple room, at the center left, faces a niche containing a small altar. The scientists who studied the teeth found with the remains wanted to understand which populations were most in contact with the people of Oxtankah. Their analysis indicated a close relationship with the city-states of Dzibanché and  Calakmul. Both are located in the south-central area of the Yucatan Peninsula, some distance from the coast. There were more tenuous links with the Maya of the Petén area of northern Guatemala. Oxtankah's connections with these areas were the result of its status as a key trading port on the coast of Chetumal Bay.

The altar of the temple is set in a small cubicle about the size of a modern closet. Even after Oxtankah was depopulated and largely abandoned during the Epi-Classic Era (600-900 AD), offerings were left at its temples and pyramids. Apparently people still living in the surrounding regions continued to revere Oxtankah's religious sites. In addition to the offerings, several of the 73 burials occurred during the Epi-Classic Era.

Structure IX: The West Palace

Schematic view looking down on Structure IX, the West Palace. This palace was built in several stages. The earliest was during the Early Classic Era and the last occurred in the Post Classic. In the first phase, two small, low platforms were constructed with rooms along the top. A passageway separated them. The remains of these rooms can be seen on the left of the schematic. The walls were once decorated with vividly-painted images of important elite figures, similar to the mask seen previously. Other areas were covered with religious symbols. When the long-abandoned city was repopulated at the beginning of the Post-Classic Era, the newcomers rebuilt this palace. The Early Classic platforms were covered by a long rectangular platform containing four rooms. Three of the rooms appear to have functioned as royal living quarters. In the schematic, they can be seen just above the staircase in the center.  The fourth room, on the far right, served as the palace's kitchen.

Structure IX's Post-Classic Era platform. A broad set of steps leads up to three royal living areas. Other rooms stretch off to the left and right on either side. The scientists doing the tooth study found six individuals buried in five tombs within the West Palace. One tomb contained two individuals but the other four tombs only contained one apiece. Five individuals were adults of indeterminate age or sex. However, the sixth set of remains was determined to be an adult female. All the burials were from the Early Classic Era.

View along the top of the West Palace, looking south. The room in the foreground was the kitchen. Given its close proximity to Chetumal Bay and the Caribbean, the diet of the city's inhabitants was rich in seafood. Thousands of shells from a variety of mollusks were recovered throughout Oxtankah. The thatched-roof palapa in the distance protects some of the Early Classic rooms from the elements.

Early Classic Era room, on the extreme south end of the West Palace. At the upper right of the photo is a door which leads to other Early Classic rooms. Notice the high quality construction of the walls on either side of the room. In contrast, the wall at the end is rough and appears to have been thrown together. This may indicate that the construction standards of the Post Classic Era were not up to those of the Early Classic.

This concludes the third part of my Oxtankah series. I hope you have enjoyed it. If so, please leave any thoughts or questions in the Comments section below. Alternatively, you can email me directly.

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Hasta luego, Jim