Detail InformationEdit
Aguateca is a Maya site located in northern Guatemala’s Petexbatun Basin, in the department of Petén. The first settlements at Aguateca date to the Late Preclassic period (300 BC – AD 350). The center was occupied from about 200 B.C. until about 800 B.C, when the city was attacked and ransacked. Because the city was rapidly abandoned by its population, Pompeii-style assemblages were left scattered on the floors of elite residences. Horizontal excavation of these residences has revealed ancient elite activity and household level craft production areas.
Aguateca sits on top of a 90 metres (300 ft) tall limestone bluff, creating a highly defensible position. This steep escarpment overlooks Petexbatun Lagoon in the Southwestern Guatemalan lowlands and is accessible by boat.There is an extensive system of defensive walls that surrounds the city, reaching over 3 miles (4.8 km) in length.Its epicenter consisted on the Palace Group, which was probably a royal residential compound, and the Main Plaza. These monumental complexes were connected by a causeway, along which was a densely occupied elite residential area.
The structural complexes of this ancient Mayan site have provided archaeologists with invaluable information about the societal composition at Aguateca. This includes the significance and role of different social classes, their placement in society, and their daily routines. In addition to this, households, as the most basic socioeconomic units, interacted dynamically with larger social, economic, and political institutions. The examination of these aspects at Aguateca is critical for understanding various aspects of human societies and behavior.
In most traditional societies, like Aguateca, what we call private and public merge inseparably, in contrast to modern societies, in which the division between “home” and “work” is relatively common.Houses in the elite residential area of Aguateca commonly consist of three main rooms and smaller additions. These included numerous domestic objects including serving vessels, grinding stones, and a variety of stone tools. Obsidian blades, probably used for bloodletting, were also found, as well as stone mortars for pigment reparation.
The Classic Maya strongly emphasized the theatrical performance and visibility of rulers. The large plaza at Aguateca, like other Classic Maya centers, was designed to accommodate a large number of individuals. These plazas held the majority of the community members on ceremonial occasions. Residents made a significant effort to secure spaces for mass spectacles by creating plazas outside of core areas and constructing large causeways. Prominent representations of rulers on stone monuments were also placed in plazas. Theatrical events probably held together a Maya community around the ruler and royal court. The presence of plazas of varying sizes suggests that theatrical events also divided the community, separating those who were allowed to participate in exclusive performance from the less privileged.
A deep chasm located on Chill Hill that runs through the Aguateca site has strong evidence of a variety of ritual practices. This suggests that chasms, like caves, represent potent cosmological and religious places where ancestral and supernatural spirits can be reached. The features and natural phenomena observed at the Main Chasm at Aguateca provide a window into the complex manipulation of the transformative properties of the elements and their significance. At Aguateca, within the interiors of the earth where the wind blows clouds onto the hill from the depths of the chasm, wind instruments were played and fires were burned. It’s possible these fires contained copal incense which would have formed black smoke reminiscent of rain clouds, with the hopes of bringing rain.
HistoryEdit
N.A.
Must SeeEdit
N.A.
Visiting TimeEdit
N.A.
Closed OnEdit
N.A.
Best Season to VisitEdit
N.A.
Best Time To VisitEdit
N.A.
Time Required for SightseeingEdit
N.A.
Ticket Required :N.A.Edit
Individual National Adult Rs. :N.A.
Kids Rs. :N.A.
Individual Foreigner Adult Rs. :N.A.
Kids Rs. :N.A.
Still Photo Camera Rs. :N.A.
Video Camera Rs. :N.A.
Guide Required :N.A.Edit
Approximate cost: N.A.
Dress Code (If Any) :N.A.Edit
Dress Require:N.A.
Restaurants NearbyAdd / Edit
- N.A.; N.A.; Ph/M – N.A.; Food Serve – N.A.
How to ReachEdit
Taxi :N.A.
BUS :N.A.
Train :N.A.
Air :N.A.
Others :N.A.
Things to CarryEdit
N.A.
Safety / WarningEdit
N.A.
HelplineEdit
N.A.
Gallery