With the passage of the Rolling Jaguar, it is expected to give new growth to the ancient Mayan city

Edzná, Camp., The powerful Mayan city of Edzná, which concentrated great economic, political and religious influence, left an impressive legacy of monuments, buildings and hydraulic works in a valley where water control was essential.

Around that capital, which was occupied for about 1,800 years, a Mayan Train station, a hotel and a Visitor Service Center (Catvi) were built. Research and conservation work was carried out and a new site museum was erected.

All this infrastructure has managed to greatly increase the number of visitors, he told The Day Sara Novelo Osorno, researcher at the INAH Campeche Center, although she hopes that it will not reach quantities similar to those of Chichén Itzá, due to the possible impact on the area.

The people of Campeche themselves have been shocked to rediscover that they have a site this big and important.he added. Edzná was inhabited, although with ups and downs, from the year 600 BC until 1200 AD, and it has always had such a presence in the memory of the people that to date still some people come with a certain reverence. Then the archaeologists arrive, they start removing stones, unraveling mounds. Let’s hope this city survives much longer than us..

The specialist commented that the Edzná site museum emphasizes the dynastic development of the area, in addition to showing most of the sculptures that were preserved and could be recovered. The exhibition of pieces was given magnificence, with the design of the architect Claudia Escalante.

The venue is inclusive because it provides access to people with different abilities and shows pieces that can be touched (such as the reproduction of a Preclassic figurehead found in the area), explained Novelo Osorno, for whom the important thing is that It’s about people enjoying themselves regardless of whether they have any different abilities..

Museography

The rest of the objects on display are now as they should always have been: with cards with good writing, good lighting, a good drawing and a good speech that explains why they are an important part of our roots.commented the archaeologist.

Although Edzná began in the Middle Preclassic, there is architecture from the Late Preclassic, when it began to build what characterizes it: a large number of canals to control water. It is its later construction peak, when the large buildings that today are open to the public were built, in a route that extends at least 20 square kilometers, which It’s just a small piece of the entire site..

Novelo Osorno said that in the new site museum, about 20 stelae and ceramic elements are now exhibited, the product of the salvage work that was carried out during the construction of the Mayan Train. We are trying to cover the entire history of the site and present it through the sculptures.

There is video and cards in three languages: Spanish, English and Yucatecan Mayan. The specialist highlighted the work of people like Alejandra Kan Kan, who speaks Yucatec Mayan. It is very important that the local language is not lost and that we are now trying to give it more relevance.

In the museum you can see the emblem glyph of the region dominated by Edzná, part of a hieroglyphic staircase found out of context and that could not be restored to its place. It is the profile of a man who has crossed bars as earmuffs, the symbol of heaven; It cannot be seen very precisely, but he also wears a chinstrap under his jaw. It has a symbol related to the tail of a rattlesnake, which means from the Pleiades, a matter of religion and also to the Feathered Serpent.

In the Puuc-style courtyard of the archaeological zone, an incomplete frame with traces of cinnabar was found, which represents a two-headed snake, whose body includes celestial representations and has probably been somewhere else. It was moved to the place where it was found and perhaps it was used for some type of ritual due to its pigmentation.

Architectural styles

Most of the Edzná stelae, Novelo Osorno continued, They found themselves at the foot of the small acropolis, as if they had slipped. It is very possible that this area was of great importance and that is why those monuments were kept there. It has different architectural styles, such as Puuc, Petén and Chenen.

In the enclosure, objects associated with human burials found in the explorations that were carried out with resources from the Mayan Train and in the construction of the Catvi are exhibited. The research work has concentrated on the nuclear area of ​​the site, where civil, administrative and religious activities were carried out, although There must have been a large residential area that still remains and will continue to be a reservoir for future researchers.since it is thought that it could have had up to 20 thousand inhabitants.

Also with resources from the Mayan Train or Rolling Jaguar The building called Casa del Atlante was investigated, which is related to the name given to Edzná, as the house of the Itzaes. The title was given to him at the end of the occupation, since the name given to him in classical times still does not have an official reading. The Mayans are never easycommented the researcher.

The canal system distinguishes the city, since millions of cubic liters of water from the Sierra Verde de Cayal reach the Edzná valley, cross the sector and drain to the south.

In order to build here they had to control the excesses during the rainy season and also have ways to keep it in reservoirs for the dry season. That was what allowed this city to live in this type of environmentbecause at first it was a swampy place that the Mayans filled in.

One of the best-known buildings is the Five Floors, which crowns the small acropolis. To access that place where the ruling class resided, you had to pass through a temazcal where the symbol of the city had been carved. The viper’s rattle is repeated in its design.

The Five Floors building is the last construction stage. If you surround it you can see previous stages. With it it was proven that it predated the construction of the great plinth and the other monuments around it. It originally had Petenera architecture and then it was covered with different construction phases. The long permanence of the city is reflected in the architecture.

Novelo Osorno, who participated in the archaeological rescue of section 2 of the Mayan Train, asserted that now the responsibility lies with the lithics, ceramics and other materials that were recovered: The stage of analyzing, documenting and delivering the pieces comes: the academic phase.