Quirigua
15 16'10 "N 89 02'25" W / 15.26944, -89.04028
Guatemala Identification
** UNESCO Geographical Classification
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Quirigu is an archaeological Mayan located in the valley of the Motagua , the railway line connecting Puerto Barrios to Guatemala in the department of Izabal in Guatemala. It is listed since 1981 on the World Heritage List of Unesco.
Summary |
List of kings of Quirigua
This list History The site, relatively small, owes its importance to its location on the Motagua River, which provides control of the trade route linking the deposits of obsidian and especially jade from the interior to the Caribbean Sea. There are few traces of occupation at the end of the Preclassic Period and early classical period. The story really began in Quirigu 426, with the inauguration of its first ruler, known by the nickname "Casper Tok", under the auspices of the first king of Copan Yax k'uk 'Mo'. During the three centuries following the story of Quirigu is particularly obscure. In the late sixth or early seventh century, the buildings of the Early Classic disappear beneath the alluvial deposits of a natural disaster and a new epicenter of the current site develops. During this long period, Quirigu appears to have remained a satellite of Copn. In 724 , a new king, K'ak Tiliw Yoaat Chan, was inducted under the supervision of Waxaklajuun Ub'aah K'awiil, the thirteenth ruler of Copn. Under his reign, in 734, appeared for the first time on a monument emblem glyph- of Quirigu , a sign of independence or at least claim to independence . In 738 , probably with the support of Calakmul , K'ak Tiliw seizes the king of Copan and decapitated. The independence gained by Quirigu ensures K'ak Tiliw and its successors material resources necessary for the erection of monuments on luxuries (see below), which the site owes its reputation for tourism. The last entry in long count date of Quirigu 810. Specialists believe that the termination of the entries in a given site is the index of the collapse of the political system of divine kingship, characteristic of the classical period in the Maya Lowlands . We do not know how ended the reign of Jade Heaven, the last king of known Quirigu. Construction activities have continued, however, still a few years after the date of 810, and it is found ceramic leaded, a marker of the beginning of the Postclassic period. The site was discovered by Frederick Catherwood , an associate of John Lloyd Stephens. The latter harbored grandiose projects: He tried to acquire the site but gave up the asking price was too high. Quirigu was then explored by Alfred Maudslay in 1881, 1882, 1883 and finally in 1894. In difficult conditions - the site was overgrown - Maudslay began the thankless task of collecting materials on the site, the form of plans and photographs, but mostly castings paper mache and plaster of Paris. For a single monument, the Zoomorph P (see below), no fewer than six hundred different molds and two tons of plaster were required . These cores are kept in the British Museum in London. From 1915 to 1934, Sylvanus Morley carries on the work of excavation and restoration on behalf of the Carnegie Institution. From 1974 to 1980, a team from the University of Pennsylvania worked there under the direction of Robert J. Sharer. Quirigu once stood along the Motagua River. The bed of the river is now at 1 km south of the main group site. The general layout of this group is very similar to the main group of Copn: from north to south are the Grand Place, the Place of the ball game and the Acropolis. You will not find high pyramids , but the place is famous for the lightness and grace of its sculptured sandstone stelae, altars and strange, huge blocks zoomorphic who are given the form of fantastic monsters of the sky, where harmoniously combine the mass and complexity of detail. The ruler of Quirigua, K'ak 'Tiliw Chan Yoaat alias "Cauac Heaven" seems to have been seized by a frenzy of construction and sacrificed after capturing his overlord, King of Copn Waxaklajuun Ub'aach K'awiil. Visibly anxious to outdo all of steles erected by him on the Great Plaza of Copan , K'ak Tiliw Chan Yoaat erected every five years a pillar in the main square of Quirigu: stele S (746), the stele H (751), Stela J (756), Stela F (761), Stela D (766) and finally the stele E (771). The bill differs significantly from those stelae of Copan. While the sovereign is presented from the front, but the body is carved in low relief and the head is within a species niche. Some parts of the body beyond the sides. They are famous for their size. The last three are among the largest in the Maya world. The stele E reaches 11 meters and weighs thirty tons. Stele D shows examples of rare glyphs "full bodied", where the glyphs are stylized replaced with whole bodies of deities and animals. The virtuosity of these glyphs, which can not meet that Palenque or Copan , is such that some authors speculated that they were made by artists of Copn captured along with their king. J on Stela is an inscription containing the glyph "cut" to describe the beheading of Waxaklajuun Ub'aah K'awiil. Stela C, meanwhile, recounts one of the most important events of the Maya mythology: the creation by the Maya of today's world with her date in the Long Count ; 13.0.0.0.0 4 Ajaw Kumk'u 8, which corresponds August 13, 3114 BC The text, which remains obscure, alludes to three stones, which symbolize the world center for the Maya. At the end of his reign, K'ak 'Tiliw erected a monument of a new type: the zoomorphic B (780). By "zoomorphic" Mayanists designate the huge blocks of river stone, irregular shape, whose surface is carved composite creatures which we find elements of a jaguar, turtle, toad or bird. The zoomorphic B is a monolith of 1.90 m high, 4.60 m long and 3.35 m m wide. One side is the king arising from the jaws of the monster land. It retains traces of paint. The next ruler, Sky Xul-, completely abandoning the stelae, will erect three monuments of this type: the zoomorphic G (785), the zoomorphic O (790) and zoomorphic P (795), which weighs over twenty tons. The last known ruler of Quirigua, Jade Heaven, in tantamount to the erection of stelae (I and K). The contrast is striking between these monuments of modest dimensions and squat, and gigantic stelae K'ak 'Tiliw. This tilts the archaeologists to think the last ruler of Quirigu was unable to mobilize the resources of the same size as its predecessor , a phenomenon that must be within the scope of the crisis in the cities Maya Lowlands South in the ninth century. Antigua Guatemala (1979) Archaeological Park and Ruins of Quirigua (1981) Tikal National Park (1979) Modern History
The archaeological site
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