Structure II was first built during the Late Preclassic (300 BC-AD 250) period, but the most substantial alterations were during the late Classic, when a nine-room palace with a painted stucco roof comb was built atop the pyramid. The palace has a vaulted roof and measures 19.4 meters by 12 meters; thirty-five hearths heated this structure. The front rooms were used for food preparation, while the interior rooms for sleeping and/or ceremonial purposes.
At the end of the Late Classic period, an elite burial (Tomb 4) was placed under the floor of one of the rooms. The burial, an adult male, included a bone needle, a bone imitation of a stingray spine and two dishes, a tecomate and a small bowl. The tomb measures 2.5 meters long, .9 meters wide and 1.2 meters high. The skeleton was covered with a textile shroud or cloth treated with a resin and perhaps latex, and then with an animal skin. Eight sets of animal paws (perhaps feline), bone, jadeite and shell beads; jadeite mosaics and earplugs were included. A jadeite mosaic mask was discovered on the skeleton's chest. The mask was made of pieces of jadeite, and then covered with mortar and painted in yellow, green and blue-green. A polychrome plate names Yukum Yich'ak K'ak (Jaguar Paw) as its owner: and some scholars believe this is the burial of the most famous ruler at Calakmul.
The tomb was likely conceived, planned and carried out during the ruler's lifetime.
Sources and Further Information
- About.com's Guide to the Maya Civilization
- Calakmul, from Ancient History at About.com
- Nakbe
- Tikal
- Finding Site Q
Carrasco Vargas, Ramon, Veronica A. Vazquez Lopez, and Simon Martin 2009 Daily life of the ancient Maya recorded on murals at Calakmul, Mexico. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Early Edition.
Carrasco Vargas, Ramon, et al. 1999 A Dynastic Tomb from Campeche, Mexico: New Evidence on Jaguar Paw, a Ruler of Calakmul. Latin American Antiquity 10(1):47-58.
Folan, William J. 2001. Calakmul (Campeche, Mexico). pp 88-90 in Archaeology of Ancient Mexico and Central America: An Encyclopedia, Susan Toby Evans and David L. Webster, eds. Garland Publishing, Inc. New York.
Folan, William J., et al. 1995 Calakmul: New Data from an Ancient Capital in Campeche, Mexico. Latin American Antiquity 6(4):310-334.
Pincemin, Sophia, et al. 1998 Extending the Calakmul Dynasty Back in Time: A New Stela from a Maya Capital in Campeche, Mexico. Latin American Antiquity 9(4):310-327.
