Saturday, March 17: Calakmul

We left at 9 am for a drive to Calakmul, which entails about an hour back along the highway and then another hour and a half along a dirt road which has been much improved since Bill and I traversed it this summary. Along the road we saw several of the gorgeous native turkeys.

I began the tour with the public ceremonial complex of the Group E type at the heart of the central plaza, since this type of configuration had been an important topic in the Maya Public Ritual art course over the past three weeks. Then we went on to climb structure II, the tallest at the site. The photo shows us gathering at the base for an explanation of the building's long history (perhaps 800 years). On the level 2/3 of the way up, I asked students to investigate the 9-room late classic building and tell me what they found. Most correctly identified a probable sweat bath by the crawling entrance. We talked about the evidence for residential functions despite the great height, and we looked at the flanking structures with metates for grinding maize in place. Finally, we climbed the last third to the remains of the late-preclassic structure, once part of a triad.

We went on to investigate the complex early classic residence known as structure III, identifying a probable kitchen by the metates, sooty walls, and conspicuous accomodations for air flow and possibly water drainage. Some students called me over to see the "toilet" they had found, but I had to disappoint them by showing that it was simply a removed capstone over the vault of a buried room. It wouldn't have made a very good latrine!

On the to the Great Acropolis, a huge platform that involves a large public space with a ball court, with several cleared buildings surrounding it, and a far greater expanse of quadrangular residential groupings that have not been cleared for viewing. Behind these and lower down we went through two residential quadrangles. The first and more complex of these is called La Muralla because it is built next to a large city wall. Students were then given their assignment dismissed for lunch, after which they would have more free time to complete the assignment.

While they went to lunch, I carried on climbing structures and jotting down floorplans. I climbed structures VII, IV and VI in the main plaza and then went on to Structure I, as high as Structure II but late classic, where some students had already ascended, having skipped lunch. I went on to draw a floorplan of Structure III, even though it is well-published, in order to remember it better. By then it was time to make sure students were heading back to the busses. I climbed the Great Acropolis and watched a troop of spider monkeys pass over head. In the shot of treetops posted above, two of the monkeys can be seen. I didn't find any straggling students as it seems that Bill had already herded them out to the residential quadrangles and herded them back while I was on my own.

Om the drive back through the forest along the axis road, we saw not only turkeys but also two snakes that our driver identified as pythons, one right in the road!