c. 600 BC – AD 150
El Mirador
Nakbe, in the north of Petén, has monumental buildings by the 8th century BC, with platforms up to 18 m high. Its builders make the first known Maya ballcourt and the first sacbeob, causeways paved with white stone. In the Late Preclassic Nakbe falls behind El Mirador, 13 km to the north, and a causeway joins the two.
El Tigre, left, and La Danta, right, rising above the forest of the Mirador BasinWikimedia Commons, Dennis G. Jarvis, CC BY-SA 2.0 (Flickr - archer10 (Dennis) - DSCN1823B.jpg)
El Mirador grows from the 6th century BC and is at its height from the 3rd century BC. Its centre holds thousands of structures, among them about 35 triadic groups, each a platform crowned by three temples. La Danta, one of the largest pyramids in the world, rises about 72 m above the forest floor and has a volume of 2.8 million m³. Stucco masks of gods cover the facades.
The top of La Danta at El Mirador, seen from the airWikimedia Commons, Konjiki1, CC0 (Pirámide de la Danta, Petén.jpg)
Causeways 2 to 6 m high and 20 to 50 m wide link El Mirador with Nakbe, El Tintal and other cities of the Mirador Basin. Farmers carry mud from the bajos, the seasonal swamps, onto terraced fields of maize, squash, beans and cacao. Richard Hansen holds that the more than 45 sites of the basin form the earliest state in Mesoamerica.
Stucco masks on the Jaguar Paw Temple, Structure 34, at El MiradorWikimedia Commons, Greg Willis, CC BY-SA 2.0 (Jaguar Paw Temple (Structure 34), Mirador (3266728064).jpg)
Calakmul, 40 km to the north, and Tikal, 65 km to the south, are also sizeable Preclassic cities. Cival, 40 km east of Tikal, flourishes over the same centuries with perhaps 10,000 people. Its plazas are aligned with the sunrise at the equinoxes, a wall surrounds the city, and its largest pyramid is 27 m high.
Sources
- Robert J. Sharer and Loa P. Traxler, The Ancient Maya (6th ed. 2006), pp. 214, 253.
- Richard D. Hansen, Excavations in the Tigre Complex, El Mirador, Petén, Guatemala, Papers of the New World Archaeological Foundation 62 (1990).
- Edgar Suyuc Ley and Richard D. Hansen, El complejo piramidal La Danta: ejemplo del auge en El Mirador.
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