Kaminaljuyú

Kaminaljuyú is an archaeological site mésoaméricain located at 1.500m of altitude in the Highlands of the Guatemala on the watershed Atlantique/Pacifique. It corresponds to the preclassical period of the Maya Civilization. It was a wide site (5 km ²), there remained more than two hundred platforms and monticules at the time of the first excavations, but in definitely less good state that those visited masses some by the tourists like Chichén Itzá or Tikal. The greatest part left the site was absorbed by the development of the suburbs of Guatemala City. An archaeological park preserves nevertheless the center of the city.

The first excavations were undertaken as from 1935 by Carnegie Institution of Washington. Excavations of rescue, that the development of the capital of Guatemala made urgent, were carried out in the years 1960 by Pennsylvania State University.

If we do not have almost anything the phase Arévalo , oldest of the site (of -1100 with -1000, the phase Las Charcas (of -1000 with -700) is better known for us, inter alia by very characteristic female statuettes. Stele 9, found in monticule C-III-6, undoubtedly represents a leader of Kaminaljuyú: it represents a character from which the mouth lets escape a volute, a sign which, in Mésoamérique, indicates the word and the capacity.

The site reaches its apogee with Preclassical recent, of -400 with 200 a. J.C. Its prosperity was certainly due to the control of the mines of Obsidienne of El Chayal. All indicates that Kaminaljuyú was a state arranged hierarchically, whose elites were able to mobilize an impressive labor, able to build brick pyramids of adobe (twenty-five million bricks for the greatest structures), currently reduced with the state of monticules. One of them, monticule E-III-3, contained two burials of the phase Miraflores which testify to the richness of the leaders: one found more than 300 objects in one and 200 in the other. Several carved steles were found, of which some comprise glyphes in columns forming a text, in particular the stele 10, which made and makes still the object of speculation as for the origin of the Maya writing. The theory more and more often selected is that the authors of the texts of Kaminajuyu were speakers of the Maya group ch' ol. Stele 11, qaunt with it, represent a character whose head carries a mask of “Oiseau god”, similar to that of stele 4 of Izapa or Stèle of Mojarra, which dates from the same time. The habit to set up steles representing of the important characters, generally in combination with a text, will be adopted by the Mayas of the Low-Grounds at the time traditional.

To the hinge of Preclassical and the Traditional one, towards 200, the area is affected by important changes. Trade route of Kaminaljuyu is disturbed by the expansion of another Maya group, K' iche', coming from the North-West. The latter occupy finally Kaminaljuyú. The archeologists could follow these changes while following the expansion of the Solano ceramics, associated with K' iche'. During the phase Aurora (of 200 with 400, the written tradition disappears completely from the city. During the phase Esperanza , Kaminaljuyú carries the undeniable of influence of Teotihuacan, visible mark in certain monuments in Talud-tablero or by the presence of tripod vases. The methods of this presence were the subject and make still of debates. So almost nobody any more adheres to the idea of a military conquest of Kaminaljuyú by Teotihucan, the assumption of the presence of merchants or of “advisers” is completely plausible. “Barrios” (districts) foreign are attested besides in Teotihuacan.

The site is abandoned towards 800.

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