{"it":{"id":"MAM-001","kind":"site","sub":"Mesoamerica","name":"Calakmul","place":"Mexico","lat":18.105,"lon":-89.811,"date":"During the 1st millennium AD the area received moderate and regular rainfall, although…","mat":"earth;limestone","nfacts":31,"tags":["Mesoamerica"],"sum":"Structure 2 at Calakmul rises 45 to 55 m above the jungle of Campeche, Mexico (published figures differ; INAH gives 55 m). It is one of the largest Maya pyramids, built in stages over centuries.","why":"It is a rare picture of everyday trade, or feasting, from inside a Maya royal city.","src":[290,561,562],"nsrc":4,"yt":"The murals show people named by their goods. Market, feast or gift exchange: which reading do the scenes support best?","rel":["MAM-005","MAM-002"],"hook":"Calakmul's murals label people by what they handle: maize gruel, tamales, salt, tobacco."},"S":{"290":["Wikipedia: Calakmul","https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calakmul"],"561":["INAH Patrimonio Mundial: Calakmul (Estructura II, 55 m)","https://patrimoniomundialmexico.inah.gob.mx/publico/lista_detalle.php?idLista=MzU%3D"],"562":["UNESCO World Heritage Centre: Ancient Maya City and Protected Tropical Forests of Calakmul","https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1061"]},"rec":{"id":"MAM-001","alias":[],"ms":[{"f":"It is","a":"distance (not a site dimension)","v":"35","u":"km","o":"It is 35 km from the Guatemalan border.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Calakmul&oldid=1376248496","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1376248496 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M1654"},{"f":"Structure 2 is over","a":"height","v":"45","u":"m","o":"Structure 2 is over 45 m high, making it one of the tallest of the Mesoamerican pyramids.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Calakmul&oldid=1376248496","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1376248496 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M1655"},{"f":"size of the central monumental architecture is approximately","a":"area","v":"2","u":"km2","o":"The size of the central monumental architecture is approximately 2 km2 and the whole of the site, mostly covered with dense residential structures, is about 20 km2.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Calakmul&oldid=1376248496","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1376248496 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M1656"},{"f":"mostly covered with dense residential structures is about","a":"area","v":"20","u":"km2","o":"The size of the central monumental architecture is approximately 2 km2 and the whole of the site, mostly covered with dense residential structures, is about 20 km2.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Calakmul&oldid=1376248496","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1376248496 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M1657"},{"f":"km north of the border with Guatemala and","a":"distance (not a site dimension)","v":"38","u":"km","o":"Calakmul is located in Campeche state in southeastern Mexico, about 35 km north of the border with Guatemala and 38 km north of the ruins of El Mirador.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Calakmul&oldid=1376248496","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1376248496 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M1658"},{"f":"REF3 The ruins of El Tintal are","a":"distance (not a site dimension)","v":"68","u":"km","o":"REF3 The ruins of El Tintal are 68 km to the southwest of Calakmul and were linked to both El Mirador and Calakmul itself by causeway.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Calakmul&oldid=1376248496","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1376248496 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M1659"},{"f":"REF4 Calakmul was about","a":"distance (not a site dimension)","v":"20","u":"km","o":"REF4 Calakmul was about 20 km south of the contemporary city of Oxpemul and approximately 25 km southwest of La Muñeca.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Calakmul&oldid=1376248496","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1376248496 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M1660"},{"f":"of the contemporary city of Oxpemul and approximately","a":"distance (not a site dimension)","v":"25","u":"km","o":"REF4 Calakmul was about 20 km south of the contemporary city of Oxpemul and approximately 25 km southwest of La Muñeca.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Calakmul&oldid=1376248496","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1376248496 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M1661"},{"f":"The city is located on a rise about","a":"height","v":"35","u":"m","o":"The city is located on a rise about 35 m above a large seasonal swamp lying to the west, known as the El Laberinto bajo (a Spanish word used in the region to denote a low-lying area of seasonal marshland).","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Calakmul&oldid=1376248496","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1376248496 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M1662"},{"f":"such as gullies and canals that encircled a","a":"area","v":"22","u":"km2","o":"The bajo was linked to a sophisticated water-control system including both natural and artificial features such as gullies and canals that encircled a 22 km2 area around the site core, an area considered as Inner Calakmul.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Calakmul&oldid=1376248496","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1376248496 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M1663"},{"f":"situated on a promontory formed by a natural","a":"height","v":"35","u":"m","o":"The city is situated on a promontory formed by a natural 35 m high limestone dome rising above the surrounding lowlands.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Calakmul&oldid=1376248496","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1376248496 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M1664"},{"f":"and to have covered an area of over","a":"area","v":"70","u":"km2","o":"At its height in the Late Classic period the city is estimated to have had a population of 50,000 inhabitants and to have covered an area of over 70 km2.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Calakmul&oldid=1376248496","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1376248496 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M1665"},{"f":"large regional state with an area of about","a":"area","v":"13000","u":"km2","o":"The city was the capital of a large regional state with an area of about 13000 km2.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Calakmul&oldid=1376248496","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1376248496 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M1666"},{"f":"square mile in the periphery an area of","a":"area","v":"122","u":"km2","o":"The Late Classic population density of Calakmul has been calculated at 1000/km2 (2564 per square mile) in the site core and 420/km2 (1076 per square mile) in the periphery (an area of 122 km2.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Calakmul&oldid=1376248496","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1376248496 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M1667"},{"f":"lord of the small city of Santa Elena","a":"distance (not a site dimension)","v":"70","u":"km","o":"REF31 Uneh Chan engaged in an aggressive campaign in the western Maya region and attacked Palenque on 23 April 599 with his ally Lakam Chak, lord of the small city of Santa Elena 70 km east of Palenque, defeating Palenque's queen Lady Yohl Ik'nal and sacking the city.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Calakmul&oldid=1376248496","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1376248496 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M1668"},{"f":"founded Dos Pilas in the Petexbatún region some","a":"distance (not a site dimension)","v":"110","u":"km","o":"In 629 Tikal had founded Dos Pilas in the Petexbatún region, some 110 km to its southwest, as a military outpost in order to control trade along the course of the Pasión River.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Calakmul&oldid=1376248496","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1376248496 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M1669"},{"f":"loyalty of three generations of kings at Cancuen","a":"distance (not a site dimension)","v":"245","u":"km","o":"REF50 Yuknoom Che'en II commanded the loyalty of three generations of kings at Cancuen, 245 km to the south, and supervised the enthronement of at least two of them, in 656 and 677.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Calakmul&oldid=1376248496","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1376248496 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M1670"},{"f":"The innermost zone covers an area of approximately","a":"area","v":"1.75","u":"km2","o":"REF70 The innermost zone covers an area of approximately 1.75 km2 It contains most of the monumental architecture and has 975 mapped structures, about 300 of which are built from vaulted stone masonry.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Calakmul&oldid=1376248496","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1376248496 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M1671"},{"f":"was bordered on the north side by a","a":"height","v":"6","u":"m","o":"The city's core was bordered on the north side by a 6 m high wall that controlled access from the north and may also have had a defensive function.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Calakmul&oldid=1376248496","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1376248496 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M1672"},{"f":"the reservoirs and has a surface area of","a":"area","v":"5","u":"ha","o":"Aguada 1 is the largest of the reservoirs and has a surface area of 5 ha.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Calakmul&oldid=1376248496","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1376248496 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M1673"},{"f":"Sacbe 1 is","a":"length","v":"450","u":"m","o":"Sacbe 1 is 450 m long and is lined and filled with stone.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Calakmul&oldid=1376248496","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1376248496 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M1674"},{"f":"Sacbe 2 is","a":"length","v":"70","u":"m","o":"Sacbe 2 is 70 m long.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Calakmul&oldid=1376248496","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1376248496 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M1675"},{"f":"Sacbe 3 extends","a":"distance (not a site dimension)","v":"8","u":"km","o":"Sacbe 3 extends 8 km northeast from the site core and is visible from the summit of Structure 1.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Calakmul&oldid=1376248496","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1376248496 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M1676"},{"f":"Sacbe 4 runs","a":"distance (not a site dimension)","v":"24","u":"km","o":"Sacbe 4 runs 24 km southeast from the site core, it is also visible from the summit of Structure 1 and was discovered in 1982.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Calakmul&oldid=1376248496","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1376248496 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M1677"},{"f":"and carries on for a total distance of","a":"dimension (unspecified)","v":"16","u":"km","o":"Sacbe 5 runs westwards from the main watering hole, across El Laberinto seasonal swamp and carries on for a total distance of 16 km or more towards Sasilhá.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Calakmul&oldid=1376248496","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1376248496 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M1678"},{"f":"Laberinto bajo and links Calakmul with El Mirador","a":"distance (not a site dimension)","v":"38.25","u":"km","o":"Sacbe 6 runs southwest across El Laberinto bajo and links Calakmul with El Mirador (38.25 km to the southwest) and, beyond it, El Tintal (an additional 30 km.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Calakmul&oldid=1376248496","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1376248496 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M1679"},{"f":"southwest and beyond it El Tintal an additional","a":"dimension (unspecified)","v":"30","u":"km","o":"Sacbe 6 runs southwest across El Laberinto bajo and links Calakmul with El Mirador (38.25 km to the southwest) and, beyond it, El Tintal (an additional 30 km.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Calakmul&oldid=1376248496","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1376248496 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M1680"},{"f":"It is at least","a":"length","v":"5.1","u":"km","o":"It is at least 5.1 km long and runs across El Laberinto swamp.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Calakmul&oldid=1376248496","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1376248496 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M1681"},{"f":"Structure 1 or Structure I is a","a":"dimension (unspecified)","v":"50","u":"m","o":"Structure 1 (or Structure I) is a 50 m pyramid to the east of the site core.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Calakmul&oldid=1376248496","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1376248496 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M1682"},{"f":"REF82 Its base measures","a":"base length/width","v":"120","u":"m","o":"REF82 Its base measures 120 m square and it stands over 45 m high.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Calakmul&oldid=1376248496","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1376248496 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M1683"},{"f":"It faces south and stands","a":"height","v":"24","u":"m","o":"It faces south and stands 24 m high.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Calakmul&oldid=1376248496","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1376248496 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M1684"}],"lab":[{"k":"Materials","mat":"site material (as stated in article)","m":"documentary mention (Wikipedia, auto-extracted)","v":"The city is situated on a promontory formed by a natural 35 m high limestone dome rising above the surrounding lowlands.","by":"no inline ref in article","b":"S","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Calakmul&oldid=1376248496"},{"k":"Materials","mat":"site material (as stated in article)","m":"documentary mention (Wikipedia, auto-extracted)","v":"The majority of the surviving population probably consisted of commoners who had occupied the elite architecture of the site core but the continued erection of stelae into the early 10th century and the presence of high status imported goods such as metal, obsidian, jade and shell, indicate a continued occupation by royalty until the final abandonment of the city.","by":"no inline ref in article","b":"S","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Calakmul&oldid=1376248496"},{"k":"Materials","mat":"site material (as stated in article)","m":"documentary mention (Wikipedia, auto-extracted)","v":"Stela 9 is a thin slate monument dated to 662.","by":"no inline ref in article","b":"S","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Calakmul&oldid=1376248496"}],"eng":[],"ori":[],"gaps":[],"dat":[],"aa":[],"ac":[],"me":[],"ci":[],"cq":[],"sd":[],"sub":[],"site":{"age":"During the 1st millennium AD the area received moderate and regular rainfall, although there is less surface water available than further south in Guatemala.","dm":"[see dating_excerpt; method not extracted]","lab":"NO: inference only (style/context/king list/textual)","weak":"no direct lab result on the structure in our records; date from stylistic, contextual or textual inference","unesco":"","dens":"CENSUS"},"co":{"lat":"18.10539167","lon":"-89.81082778","src":"Wikidata P625 only + curated wave0 value agrees","agree":"agree","b":"V","note":"wave8: site polygon centroid (delta 0.0029 deg)","osm":"https://nominatim.openstreetmap.org/ui/details.html?osmtype=W&osmid=27138148"},"src":[{"id":"S0274","t":"no inline ref in article","u":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Calakmul&oldid=1376248496"},{"id":"S0450","t":"Wikipedia: Calakmul","u":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calakmul"},{"id":"S2562","t":"INAH Patrimonio Mundial: Calakmul (Estructura II, 55 m)","u":"https://patrimoniomundialmexico.inah.gob.mx/publico/lista_detalle.php?idLista=MzU%3D"},{"id":"S2563","t":"UNESCO World Heritage Centre: Ancient Maya City and Protected Tropical Forests of Calakmul","u":"https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1061"},{"id":"VMAM-001-5","t":"Daily life of the ancient Maya recorded on murals at Calakmul, Mexico","u":"https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2780771/"},{"id":"VMAM-001-6","t":"UNESCO World Heritage Centre: Ancient Maya City and Protected Tropical Forests of Calakmul, Campeche","u":"https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1061/"},{"id":"VMAM-001-7","t":"INAH: Calakmul","u":"https://lugares.inah.gob.mx/es/node/4376"},{"id":"VMAM-001-8","t":"INAH: Antigua Ciudad Maya y bosques tropicales protegidos de Calakmul, Campeche","u":"https://lugares.inah.gob.mx/es/node/5913"}],"sum":"A man stands with a large pot and a spoon, ready to serve. Beside him, painted in the neat hand of a Maya scribe, is a caption: aj ul, \"maize-gruel person.\" Nearby a woman offers tamales, and her label reads aj waaj, \"maize-bread person.\" Others along the same walls are a \"salt person,\" a \"tobacco person,\" a \"clay-vessel person.\" They are not kings, captives or gods. They are the people who fed a city, named by what they carried, and for more than a thousand years nobody saw them.\n\nThey were found on a small buried building at Calakmul, in the state of Campeche in southern Mexico, one of the great cities of the Classic Maya. Calakmul sits deep in tropical forest, on a natural limestone dome that rises about 35 metres above the surrounding lowlands, not far north of the border with Guatemala. Today it lies inside a biosphere reserve of 726,000 hectares, an area more than four times the size of London, and UNESCO lists city and forest together as a mixed natural and cultural World Heritage Site, inscribed in 2002 and extended in 2014. The biologist Cyrus Lundell came across the ruins in 1931.\n\nThe sources measure the city in different ways. The team who studied the murals say the site covers more than 3,000 hectares. Mexico's national institute of anthropology and history, INAH, gives about 70 square kilometres, roughly 7,000 hectares, with more than 6,000 structures. The two figures may simply measure different boundaries. Either way, this was a metropolis. INAH says people lived here from the Middle Preclassic, about 551 BC, and UNESCO says the city played a key role in its region for more than twelve centuries.\n\nIts skyline was dominated by Structure II, a pyramid at the south end of the main plaza with a base about 120 metres across. INAH gives it a height of 55 metres; other published figures start at 45. One INAH page calls it the tallest Maya pyramid, another the tallest after the one at Toniná in Chiapas. Raised roads called sacbés linked the city's five great complexes to its Great Central Plaza, and one causeway is recorded running some 38 kilometres to the far older city of El Mirador.\n\nCalakmul was a capital of power, and it knew how to say so. It was the seat of the Kaan, or Snake Head, dynasty, whose emblem glyph was a snake's head, and at its height it controlled more than 13,000 square kilometres. The city raised 120 stelae, carved stone slabs recording the lives of kings, queens, princes and captains, more than any other Maya city. The names of 18 kings are known at least in part. The most famous, Yuknom the Great, ruled from 636 to 686.\n\nThe Snake Head kings played a long game against their great rival, Tikal, in what is now Guatemala. In 562 Calakmul defeated Tikal. Then Tikal recovered, built its own alliances and in 695 defeated Calakmul in turn. The city declined, though not at once. Its last dated stela records the year 909.\n\nAll of that comes from the kind of record Maya rulers liked to leave: dates, victories, names. What makes Calakmul extraordinary is a building that recorded something else. The excavators called it Structure Sub 1-4. It stands inside the Chiik Nahb complex and was the third of seven versions of a pyramid that grew by being built over again and again. Construction began between AD 420 and 620. It is square, about 11 metres on each side, and rises in three tiers to a height of 4.7 metres, about the height of a two-storey house. Four stairways, one facing each cardinal direction, led to the top. Painted vessels shown on its walls suggest it was decorated between AD 620 and 700, during the very decades when Yuknom the Great ruled.\n\nThe murals were published in 2009 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences by Ramón Carrasco Vargas, Verónica Vázquez López and Simon Martin. They show people preparing food, handing it out and eating it. Two of the written words, for maize grain and for salt, had never been found in Maya writing before. About a third of the surviving figures from the second painting phase are women, a very high share for Maya art, and one elderly woman is among the only non-mythological pictures of her kind.\n\nThe mainstream reading of all this is careful. Maya writing and art mostly record the ruling class. The people who moved goods and services, the excavators write, and the systems they used, \"are virtually unknown.\" The authors do not pick a single explanation. They list festivals, gift-giving, communal feasting and exchange as possibilities, all known from early colonial accounts. An older idea held that Chiik Nahb was a marketplace, because of its low platforms, but INAH reports that later work found those buildings had been cut down, so their low shape was not original. That weakens one clue for a market, though not the market reading of the murals as a whole. On any reading, the walls show what the excavators call \"an ancient social mechanism that has left no other evidence of its existence.\"\n\nThen there is what happened next, and it is the strangest part. When the next version of the pyramid was built over Sub 1-4, its makers packed the painted surfaces with mud and small stones. The excavators say this was the opposite of normal practice, which was to break up old plaster facings before building over them. They read it as an act meant to save the paintings. Someone, at the heart of a royal city, decided that pictures of salt sellers and gruel servers should survive.\n\nWho? Three large glyphs on the building give the name or title of a woman whose role the excavators call \"enigmatic.\" She may have been a patron of the building, or of the events it shows. Why commoners were painted in the royal core of the city at all is not explained. And the excavators say the full meaning will take time, because not all the paintings have been exposed.\n\nThat is the deeper lesson of Calakmul. A dynasty that carved more monuments than any of its rivals told us almost nothing about how its world actually worked. The one candid picture survived only because somebody deliberately hid it. With more than 6,000 structures counted and most of them unexcavated, the forest is still holding back far more than it has given.\n\nSomewhere under the next layer of fill, or in the next mound along the sacbé, other walls may be waiting in the same mud, sealed on purpose. For now there is only the man with his pot and spoon, still holding out his gruel in the dark of a buried room, to a crowd that left thirteen centuries ago.","qs":["The murals show people named by their goods. Market, feast or gift exchange: which reading do the scenes support best?","Royal Maya art rarely shows commoners. Why paint them here, then bury the building in mud?","Thousands of Calakmul's structures remain unexcavated. What else is still hidden?"],"gal":[{"src":"https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8a/Pir%C3%A1mides_de_Calakmul.JPG/1280px-Pir%C3%A1mides_de_Calakmul.JPG?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail","page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pir%C3%A1mides_de_Calakmul.JPG","title":"Pirámides de Calakmul.JPG","lic":"CC BY-SA 4.0","licurl":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0","by":"PashiX","cap":"This is a photo of a monument in Mexico, identified by ID","alt":"Calakmul"},{"src":"https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e8/001_El_Castillo_o_templo_de_Kukulkan._Chich%C3%A9n_Itz%C3%A1%2C_M%C3%A9xico._MPLC.jpg/1280px-001_El_Castillo_o_templo_de_Kukulkan._Chich%C3%A9n_Itz%C3%A1%2C_M%C3%A9xico._MPLC.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail","page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:001_El_Castillo_o_templo_de_Kukulkan._Chich%C3%A9n_Itz%C3%A1,_M%C3%A9xico._MPLC.jpg","title":"001 El Castillo o templo de Kukulkan. Chichén Itzá, México. MPLC.jpg","lic":"CC BY-SA 3.0","licurl":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0","by":"Manuel de Corselas","cap":"El Castillo o templo de Kukulkan. Chichén Itzá, México. Cultura maya."},{"src":"https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/91/Calakmul6.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled","page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Calakmul6.jpg","title":"Calakmul6.jpg","lic":"CC BY-SA 2.0","licurl":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0","by":"Pete Fordham","cap":"Zona arqueológica de Calakmul."},{"src":"https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b9/Calakmul95.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled","page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Calakmul95.jpg","title":"Calakmul95.jpg","lic":"CC BY 2.0","licurl":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0","by":"ant_mela","cap":"Zona arqueológica de Calakmul."},{"src":"https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8d/Calakmul_-_Stele_on_Base_of_Structure_II.jpg/1280px-Calakmul_-_Stele_on_Base_of_Structure_II.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail","page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Calakmul_-_Stele_on_Base_of_Structure_II.jpg","title":"Calakmul - Stele on Base of Structure II.jpg","lic":"CC BY-SA 3.0","licurl":"http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/","by":"PhilippN","cap":"Stele 43 on Base of Structure II, Site of Calakmul, Mexico. Estela 43 en la base de la Estructura 2, en la zona arqueológica de Calakmul, México."}]},"img":null,"md":null,"hh":[{"v":"6,750","u":"structures","h":"Identified at Calakmul, the largest being its great pyramid","s":[45]},{"v":"242 × 212","u":"m","h":"Largest reservoir known in the Maya world","s":[45]},{"v":"45+","u":"m","h":"Structure 2, one of the tallest Mesoamerican pyramids","s":[45]},{"v":"1st millennium AD","h":"During the 1st millennium AD the area received moderate and regular rainfall","s":[45]}],"hs":{"45":["Wikipedia: Calakmul (and sources cited there)","https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calakmul"]},"lh":{"s":"img/h/MAM-001.webp","w":1280,"h":848,"o":"https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8a/Pir%C3%A1mides_de_Calakmul.JPG/1280px-Pir%C3%A1mides_de_Calakmul.JPG?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail"}}