The original paragraph I saw about
Calakmul consisted of 39 words, but something caught my attention. Usually, I
might find 3 or 4 articles on the subject, each 1-2 pages long, and each
repeating (or possibly contradicting) information in the other articles.
Calukmul’s different. The wikipedia
article must be over 20 pages, and I don’t rely solely on wikipedia. So, let’s start,
keeping in mind that I may have to boil things down drastically.
Calakmul (AKA Kalakmul) was a large
and powerful Mayan city in what is now the Mexican state of Campeche, deep in
the jungles of the Yucatan greater Peten Basin, 35 km (22 miles) from the
Guatemalan border. During the Classic Period, Calakmul administered a large
domain known as the Kingdom of the Snake. This region was marked by the emblem
glyph of the snake head, read as ‘Kaan’. It is believed that the city existed
from 550 BC to 900 AD. It held ‘powerhouse’ status from 500 AD to 800 AD.
Some of the major buildings can be
traced back to at least 350 AD, with a 40-foot tall monument built sometime
between 400 and 200 BC. This city’s long life gave plenty of time to create
huge structures, following the Maya tradition of enlarging existing buildings
by adding new layers and extending the lower floors. The earliest dated
inscription found there is from 431 AD.
During the height of Calukmul’s
existance, the city is believed to have had a population of 50,000, and 6,750
structures have been found there. Structure 2, their great pyramid, is the
largest structure, standing over 45 m (148 ft), and contains 4 tombs. As
explained in the previous paragraph, in MesoAmerica, the pyramid was increased
in size by building upon the existing temple. Calakmul’s central monumental
architecture covers about 2 sq km (0.77 sq miles), and the entire city - mostly
covered with dense residential structures - is 20 sq km (7.7 sq miles).
Calukmul was linked to allied cities
by causeway. It sits on a rise some 115 ft above and east of a large seasonal
swamp, which was an important source of water. This seasonal swamp was linked
to a sophisticated water-control system that encircled an 8.5 square mile area,
considered the inner city. The swamp also provided fertile soil along its edge
and access to abundant flint nodules. The rise was a limestone dome which the
Maya had leveled. Homes began along the edge of the swamp, but during the
Classic period, they were also built on high ground and small islands in the
swamp.
But the swamp was not the only
source of water, for Calakmul had an extensive system of at least 13
reservoirs, including the largest one found in the Maya world. Together, these
held enough water to serve 50,000 to 100,000 people. There’s no sign that these
reservoirs were used to irrigate crops, which were apparently dependant on the
seasonal swamp, as mentioned before.
From 1 to 1000 AD, this area
received regular rainfall, which would have made it fairly easy to support the
city’s population of 50,000. Growing up in small towns, this sounds huge to me.
But I also spent a large portion of my adult life living in Kansas City and
Omaha, either one of which would dwarf Calukmul. When you look at the entire Snake
kingdom, there were also 20 secondary cities, tertiary and quaternary sites,
and rural areas. The total population of this 5,000 sq mile kingdom is
estimated to have reached 1.75 million during the late Classic period. However,
during the Terminal Class period, Calukmul’s population dramatically declined,
and the rural population plummeted.
Throughout the Classic Period,
Calukmul had an intense rivalry with the city of Tikal, which lay 100 km (62
miles) southeast. At one point, Calukmul and its allies defeated Tikal, but 150
years later, Tikal rose up anew, and ultimately, Calukmul not only lost its
powerhouse status, but ceased to exist at all. Calukmul’s recorded history ends
abruptly in 909 AD, about 200 years after Tikal defeated its king and sapped
its power.
The great rivalry between Calukmul
and Tikel could have been more than trying to prove which city could grab the
most resources. Tikel was a powerful city before Calukmul. Tikal was strongly
influenced by the central Mexican metropolis of Teotihuacan, and its rulers
were male only. Calukmul, on the other hand, seems derived from the city of El
Mirador, and both a king and queen often ruled together. However, for whatever
reason, when I came across a (partial) list of Calukmul rulers, it assumed all
the names were kings, with no explanation of why no queens’ names were
included.
The long abandoned Calukmul was
rediscovered by air on December 29, 1931. Its current name is Mayan for ‘two
adjacent pyramids’. In ancient times, it was Ox Te’ Tuun, which means ‘Three Stones.’ It was visited in
1932-1938, and a map was begun of the city, but work then ceased until
1982-1994. It is now a UNESCO site, contained within a UNESCO biodiversity
reserve, and is the subject of a large-scale project of the
National
Institute of Anthropology and History. Unfortunately, the city was
built with a soft limestone, so it is suffering from severe erosion, and many
of the earlier inscriptions cannot be made out.
I’m very taken by this
information, which was fairly uniform over all 3 articles I chose. In fact,
after reading the Wikipedia article, the other 2 I chose were... monotonously
uniform with it, although not nearly as heavy with intimate history of battles
and the names of warring kings. But given these facts as I’ve gathered them, I
can almost picture Calukmul, from start to finish, but particularly during its
hey-day. Of course, that doesn’t mean it actually looked like anything I’ve
dreamt up, but it’s more than what I’ve gotten from the few Maya ruins I’ve
actually visited. What about you? Do you see anything more here than armies at
war?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calakmul
https://www.locogringo.com/mexico/ways-to-play/mayan-ruins-archaeological-sites/calakmul-ruins/
http://mayanruins.info/mexico/calakmul-mexico/
