1.
Limestone
–
Limestone is a sedimentary rock, composed mainly of skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral, forams and molluscs. Its major materials are the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate, about 10% of sedimentary rocks are limestones. The solubility of limestone in water and weak acid solutions leads to karst landscapes, most cave systems are through limestone bedrock. The first geologist to distinguish limestone from dolomite was Belsazar Hacquet in 1778, like most other sedimentary rocks, most limestone is composed of grains. Most grains in limestone are skeletal fragments of organisms such as coral or foraminifera. Other carbonate grains comprising limestones are ooids, peloids, intraclasts and these organisms secrete shells made of aragonite or calcite, and leave these shells behind when they die. Limestone often contains variable amounts of silica in the form of chert or siliceous skeletal fragment, some limestones do not consist of grains at all, and are formed completely by the chemical precipitation of calcite or aragonite, i. e. travertine. Secondary calcite may be deposited by supersaturated meteoric waters and this produces speleothems, such as stalagmites and stalactites. Another form taken by calcite is oolitic limestone, which can be recognized by its granular appearance, the primary source of the calcite in limestone is most commonly marine organisms. Some of these organisms can construct mounds of rock known as reefs, below about 3,000 meters, water pressure and temperature conditions cause the dissolution of calcite to increase nonlinearly, so limestone typically does not form in deeper waters. Limestones may also form in lacustrine and evaporite depositional environments, calcite can be dissolved or precipitated by groundwater, depending on several factors, including the water temperature, pH, and dissolved ion concentrations. Calcite exhibits a characteristic called retrograde solubility, in which it becomes less soluble in water as the temperature increases. Impurities will cause limestones to exhibit different colors, especially with weathered surfaces, Limestone may be crystalline, clastic, granular, or massive, depending on the method of formation. Crystals of calcite, quartz, dolomite or barite may line small cavities in the rock, when conditions are right for precipitation, calcite forms mineral coatings that cement the existing rock grains together, or it can fill fractures. Travertine is a banded, compact variety of limestone formed along streams, particularly there are waterfalls. Calcium carbonate is deposited where evaporation of the leaves a solution supersaturated with the chemical constituents of calcite. Tufa, a porous or cellular variety of travertine, is found near waterfalls, coquina is a poorly consolidated limestone composed of pieces of coral or shells. During regional metamorphism that occurs during the building process, limestone recrystallizes into marble
2.
Veracruz
–
It is divided in 212 municipalities and its capital city is Xalapa-Enríquez. This state is located in Eastern Mexico and it is bordered by the states of Tamaulipas to the north, San Luis Potosí and Hidalgo to the west, Puebla to the southwest, Oaxaca and Chiapas to the south, and Tabasco to the southeast. On its east, Veracruz has a significant share of the coastline of the Gulf of Mexico, the state is noted for its mixed ethnic and indigenous populations. Its cuisine reflects the cultural influences that have come through the state because of the importance of the port of Veracruz. In addition to the city, the states largest cities include Veracruz, Coatzacoalcos, Córdoba, Minatitlán, Poza Rica, Boca Del Río. The full name of the state is Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave, Veracruz was named after the city of Veracruz, which was originally called the Villa Rica de la Vera Cruz. The suffix is in honor of Ignacio de la Llave y Segura Zevallos, the state’s seal was authorized by the state legislature in 1954, adapting the one used for the port of Veracruz and created by the Spanish in the early 16th century. The state is a strip of land wedged between the Sierra Madre Oriental to the west and the Gulf of Mexico to the east. Its total area is 78,815 km2, accounting for about 3. 7% of Mexico’s total territory and it stretches about 650 km north to south, but its width varies from between 212 km to 36 km, with an average of about 100 km in width. Veracruz shares common borders with the states of Tamaulipas, Oaxaca and Chiapas, Tabasco, and Puebla, Hidalgo, Veracruz has 690 km of coastline with the Gulf of Mexico. The topography changes drastically, rising from the coastal plains to the highlands of the eastern Sierra Madre. Elevation varies from sea level to the Pico de Orizaba, Mexico’s highest peak at 5,636 m above sea level, the coast consists of low sandy strips interspersed with tidewater streams and lagoons. Most of the coastline is narrow and sandy with unstable dunes, small shifting lagoons. The mountains are of the Sierra Madre Oriental and the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt, major peaks include Pico de Orizaba, Cofre de Perote, Cerro de Tecomates, Cerro del Vigía Alta and Cerro de 3 Tortas. The Pico de Orizaba is covered in snow year round, the Cofre de Perote is covered in winter, major valleys include the Acultzingo, Córdoba, Maltrata, Orizaba and San Andrés. All of the rivers and streams cross the state begin in the Sierra Madre Oriental or in the Central Mesa. The largest in terms of discharge are the Pánuco, Tuxpan, Papaloapan, Coazocoalcos. The Panuco, Tuxpan, Papaloapan and Coatzacoalcos are navigable, two of Mexicos most polluted rivers, the Coatzacoalcos and the Río Blanco are located in the state
3.
Mexico
–
Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a federal republic in the southern half of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States, to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean, to the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea, and to the east by the Gulf of Mexico. Covering almost two million square kilometers, Mexico is the sixth largest country in the Americas by total area, Mexico is a federation comprising 31 states and a federal district that is also its capital and most populous city. Other metropolises include Guadalajara, Monterrey, Puebla, Toluca, Tijuana, pre-Columbian Mexico was home to many advanced Mesoamerican civilizations, such as the Olmec, Toltec, Teotihuacan, Zapotec, Maya and Aztec before first contact with Europeans. In 1521, the Spanish Empire conquered and colonized the territory from its base in Mexico-Tenochtitlan, Three centuries later, this territory became Mexico following recognition in 1821 after the colonys Mexican War of Independence. The tumultuous post-independence period was characterized by instability and many political changes. The Mexican–American War led to the cession of the extensive northern borderlands, one-third of its territory. The Pastry War, the Franco-Mexican War, a civil war, the dictatorship was overthrown in the Mexican Revolution of 1910, which culminated with the promulgation of the 1917 Constitution and the emergence of the countrys current political system. Mexico has the fifteenth largest nominal GDP and the eleventh largest by purchasing power parity, the Mexican economy is strongly linked to those of its North American Free Trade Agreement partners, especially the United States. Mexico was the first Latin American member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and it is classified as an upper-middle income country by the World Bank and a newly industrialized country by several analysts. By 2050, Mexico could become the fifth or seventh largest economy. The country is considered both a power and middle power, and is often identified as an emerging global power. Due to its culture and history, Mexico ranks first in the Americas. Mexico is a country, ranking fourth in the world by biodiversity. In 2015 it was the 9th most visited country in the world, Mexico is a member of the United Nations, the World Trade Organization, the G8+5, the G20, the Uniting for Consensus and the Pacific Alliance. Mēxihco is the Nahuatl term for the heartland of the Aztec Empire, namely, the Valley of Mexico, and its people, the Mexica and this became the future State of Mexico as a division of New Spain prior to independence. It is generally considered to be a toponym for the valley became the primary ethnonym for the Aztec Triple Alliance as a result. After New Spain won independence from Spain, representatives decided to name the new country after its capital and this was founded in 1524 on top of the ancient Mexica capital of Mexico-Tenochtitlan
4.
Xalapa
–
Xalapa is the capital city of the Mexican state of Veracruz and the name of the surrounding municipality. In the 2005 census the city reported a population of 387,879, the municipality has an area of 118.45 km². Xalapa lies near the center of the state and is the second-largest city in the state after the city of Veracruz to the southeast. The name Xalapa comes from the Nahuatl roots xālli sand and āpan water place and it is classically pronounced in Nahuatl, though the final /n/ is often omitted, the /ʃ/ sound was written x in the 16th century. This does not occur in modern Spanish, and its counterpart is the or sound, the spelling Xalapa reflects the archaic pronunciation. The full name of the city is Xalapa-Enríquez, named in honor of 19th-century Governor Juan de la Luz Enríquez, the citys nickname, La ciudad de las flores, was bestowed by Alexander von Humboldt, who visited the town on 10 February 1804. The reference is also related to the earlier colonial history. In folklore, the Spaniards believed that Xalapa was the birthplace and home of the Florecita, residents of Xalapa are called Xalapeños or Jalapeños, which is the name given to the popular long peppers cultivated in this area. The Totonacs were the first people to establish themselves around the Macuiltepetl and this mountain, an extinct volcano, received its name after the Aztecs used it as the fifth reference mountain to get to the gulf of Mexicos shores. Today it is preserved within a park, during the 14th century, four cultures of indigenous peoples settled in the territory today known as Xalapa. Eventually around 1313, the four villages grew and joined, forming one big village which was given the name Xallapan, moctezuma Ilhuicamina, the fifth Aztec emperor, invaded the territory during the second half of the 15th century. All the land was ruled as part of the Aztec Empire before the arrival, in 1519 Hernán Cortés passed through Xalapa en route to Tenochtitlan. In 1555 Spanish Franciscans completed construction of a convent, the second-most important event in time in Nueva España. When the Spanish arrived, Xalapa was barely populated, the population rose after the conquest and colonial settlement. When the Spanish improved the Mexico-Orizaba-Veracruz route, Xalapa declined in importance as a transport hub, from 1720 Xalapa became increasingly important, due to trade with numerous retailers of the New Spain arriving to sell products and to buy products cultivated and made in the peninsula. At this time numerous resident Spanish families in the near towns settled in Xalapa, so that by 1760 the population had increased to over 1,000 inhabitants, including mestizo and Spanish. The growth of Xalapa in population, culture, commerce and importance, responding to residents requests, Carlos IV of Spain elevated the status of Xalapa to a town on 18 December 1791. In 1772, the construction of Xalapa Cathedral began, on 18 May 1784, José María Alfaro lifted the first air balloon in the Americas, in Xalapa
5.
Stele
–
A stele is a stone or wooden slab, generally taller than it is wide, erected in ancient Western culture as a monument. Grave steles were often used for funerary or commemorative purposes, Stelae as slabs of stone would also be used as ancient Greek and Roman government notices or as boundary markers to mark borders or property lines. The surface of the stele usually has text, ornamentation, or both, the ornamentation may be inscribed, carved in relief, or painted. Traditional Western gravestones may technically be considered the equivalent of ancient stelae. The most famous example of an inscribed stela leading to increased understanding is the Rosetta Stone, an informative stele of Tiglath-Pileser III is preserved in the British Museum. Two steles built into the walls of a church are major documents relating to the Etruscan language, unfinished standing stones, set up without inscriptions from Libya in North Africa to Scotland were monuments of pre-literate Megalithic cultures in the Late Stone Age. The Pictish stones of Scotland, often carved, date from between the 6th and 9th centuries. An obelisk is a kind of stele. The Insular high crosses of Ireland and Britain are specialized steles, totem poles of North and South America that are made out of stone may also be considered a specialized type of stele. Gravestones, typically with inscribed name and often with inscribed epitaph, are among the most common types of stele seen in Western culture. Most recently, in the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe in Berlin, the memorial is meant to be read not only as the field, but also as an erasure of data that refer to memory of the Holocaust. Steles have been the medium of stone inscription in China since the Tang dynasty. Chinese steles are generally rectangular stone tablets upon which Chinese characters are carved intaglio with a funerary, commemorative and they can commemorate talented writers and officials, inscribe poems, portraits, or maps, and frequently contain the calligraphy of famous historical figures. During the Han dynasty, tomb inscriptions containing biographical information on deceased people began to be written on stone tablets rather than wooden ones, erecting steles at tombs or temples eventually became a widespread social and religious phenomenon. Emperors found it necessary to promulgate laws, regulating the use of funerary steles by the population, Steles are found at nearly every significant mountain and historical site in China. The First Emperor made five tours of his domain in the 3rd century BC and had Li Si make seven stone inscriptions commemorating and praising his work, of which fragments of two survive. One of the most famous mountain steles is the 13 m high stele at Mount Tai with the calligraphy of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang commemorating his imperial sacrifices there in 725. A number of stone monuments have preserved the origin and history of Chinas minority religious communities
6.
Tres Zapotes
–
Tres Zapotes is a Mesoamerican archaeological site located in the south-central Gulf Lowlands of Mexico in the Papaloapan River plain. The 2000-year existence of Tres Zapotes as a center is unusual, if not unique. The site is located near the village of Tres Zapotes, west of Santiago Tuxtla. Scarcely 10 km to the east stands Cerro el Vigía, a volcano and important source of basalt and other volcanic stone, sandstone. Some of these boulders are more than 3 meters in diameter, the earliest public architecture yet detected has been dated to the end of the Middle Formative, perhaps 500 BCE. It is thought that the two colossal heads date from this period and it was near Tres Zapotes that the first colossal head was discovered in 1862 by José Melgar. To date, two have been found locally, labeled Monument A and Monument Q, smaller than the colossal heads at San Lorenzo, they measure slightly less than 1.5 m high. Most of the sculpture at Tres Zapotes is epi-Olmec, dating from the Late Formative period. These sculptures show, as do Tres Zapotes ceramics, a continuity with, despite similarities with earlier Olmec sculptures, though, Tres Zapotes Epi-Olmec sculpture appears to lack the artisanship, refinement, and detail of its San Lorenzo and La Venta predecessors. This is only partially attributable to the coarser local Cerro El Vigía basalt and it was during this Epi-Olmec period that a new Mesoamerican writing system appeared at Tres Zapotes, the Isthmian script, as well as some of the earliest dates in the Long Count calendar format. Tres Zapotes may have been abandoned by 900 CE, although there was a smaller and later occupation, in 1939, archaeologist Matthew Stirling discovered at Tres Zapotes the bottom half of Stela C. This stela was carved from basalt, with one showing a Olmec-style engraving that has been variously characterized as an abstract were-jaguar or a ruler on a throne. On other side was the oldest Mesoamerican Long Count calendar date yet unearthed and her judgment was validated in 1969 when the top half of the stela was found. Since 1939, only one older long-count date has been discovered, Stela 2 from Chiapa de Corzo, Chiapas, the back of Stela C is engraved with one of the few surviving examples of Epi-Olmec script. Over 160 mounds, platforms, and similar structures have been identified at Tres Zapotes, the major Epi-Olmec period structures are the prosaically-named Groups 1,2, and 3, and the similarly structured Nestepe Group. Group 2 is more or less in the center of the core with the other three spaced almost 1 km away from Group 2 and from each other. This equidistant spacing likely reflects a political structure, each mound group the creation of a separate faction within Tres Zapotes society. This is in contrast to La Venta, for example, where the heavily centralized public architecture reflected a centralized rulership
7.
Maya civilization
–
The Maya civilization developed in an area that encompasses southeastern Mexico, all of Guatemala and Belize, and the western portions of Honduras and El Salvador. The Archaic period, prior to 2000 BC, saw the first developments in agriculture, the first Maya cities developed around 750 BC, and by 500 BC these cities possessed monumental architecture, including large temples with elaborate stucco façades. Hieroglyphic writing was being used in the Maya region by the 3rd century BC, in the Late Preclassic a number of large cities developed in the Petén Basin, and Kaminaljuyu rose to prominence in the Guatemalan Highlands. Beginning around 250 AD, the Classic period is defined as when the Maya were raising sculpted monuments with Long Count dates. This period saw the Maya civilization develop a number of city-states linked by a complex trade network. In the Maya Lowlands two great rivals, Tikal and Calakmul, became powerful, the Classic period also saw the intrusive intervention of the central Mexican city of Teotihuacan in Maya dynastic politics. In the 9th century, there was a political collapse in the central Maya region, resulting in internecine warfare, the abandonment of cities. The Postclassic period saw the rise of Chichen Itza in the north, in the 16th century, the Spanish Empire colonized the Mesoamerican region, and a lengthy series of campaigns saw the fall of Nojpetén, the last Maya city in 1697. Classic period rule was centred on the concept of the divine king, kingship was patrilineal, and power would normally pass to the eldest son. A prospective king was expected to be a successful war leader. Maya politics was dominated by a system of patronage, although the exact political make-up of a kingdom varied from city-state to city-state. By the Late Classic, the aristocracy had greatly increased, resulting in the reduction in the exclusive power of the divine king. Maya cities tended to expand haphazardly, and the city centre would be occupied by ceremonial and administrative complexes, different parts of a city would often be linked by causeways. The principal architecture of the city consisted of palaces, pyramid-temples, ceremonial ballcourts, the Maya elite were literate, and developed a complex system of hieroglyphic writing that was the most advanced in the pre-Columbian Americas. The Maya recorded their history and ritual knowledge in screenfold books, there are also a great many examples of Maya text found on stelae and ceramics. The Maya developed a complex series of interlocking ritual calendars. As a part of their religion, the Maya practised human sacrifice, the Maya civilization developed within the Mesoamerican cultural area, which covers a region that spreads from northern Mexico southwards into Central America. Mesoamerica was one of six cradles of civilization worldwide, the Mesoamerican area gave rise to a series of cultural developments that included complex societies, agriculture, cities, monumental architecture, writing, and calendrical systems
8.
Mesoamerican chronology
–
Mesoamerican chronology divides the history of pre-Columbian Mesoamerica into several periods, the Paleo-Indian, the Archaic, the Preclassic or Formative, the Classic, and the Postclassic. However, this applies to other pre-Columbian Mesoamerican civilizations as well. 3500-2000 BCE During the Archaic Era agriculture was developed in the region, Late in this era, use of pottery and loom weaving became common, and class divisions began to appear. Many of the technologies of Mesoamerica in terms of stone-grinding, drilling. 1800 BCE–200 CE During the Preclassic Era, or Formative Period, large-scale ceremonial architecture, writing, cities, the Olmec civilization developed and flourished at such sites as La Venta and San Lorenzo Tenochtitlán. 200–1000 CE The Classic Era was dominated by numerous independent city-states in the Maya region and also featured the beginnings of political unity in central Mexico, regional differences between cultures grew more manifest. The city-state of Monte Albán dominated the Valley of Oaxaca until the late Classic, highly sophisticated arts such as stuccowork, architecture, sculptural reliefs, mural painting, pottery, and lapidary developed and spread during the Classic era. In the Maya region, numerous city states such as Tikal, Calakmul, Copán, Palenque, Uxmal, Cobá, each of these polities was generally independent, although they often formed alliances and sometimes became vassal states of each other. The main conflict during this period was between Tikal and Calakmul, who fought a series of wars over the course of more than half a millennium, each of these states declined during the Terminal Classic and were eventually abandoned. This is sometimes seen as a period of increased chaos and warfare, the Postclassic is often viewed as a period of cultural decline. However, it was a time of technological advancement in architecture, engineering, metallurgy came into use for jewelry and some tools, with new alloys and techniques being developed in a few centuries. The Postclassic was a period of rapid movement and population growth — especially in Central Mexico post-1200 —, for instance, in Yucatán, dual rulership apparently replaced the more theocratic governments of Classic times, whilst oligarchic councils operated in much of Central Mexico. Likewise, it appears that the wealthy pochteca and military orders became more powerful than was apparently the case in Classic times and this afforded some Mesoamericans a degree of social mobility. The Toltec for a time dominated central Mexico in the 11th–13th century, the northern Maya were for a time united under Mayapan, and Oaxaca was briefly united by Mixtec rulers in the 11th–12th centuries. The Aztec Empire arose in the early 15th century and appeared to be on a path to asserting dominance over the Valley of Mexico region not seen since Teotihuacan. Spain was the first European power to contact Mesoamerica, however, and its conquistadores, by the 15th century, the Mayan revival in Yucatán and southern Guatemala and the flourishing of Aztec imperialism evidently enabled a renaissance of fine arts and science. Examples include the Pueblan-Mexica style in pottery, codex illumination, and goldwork, the flourishing of Nahua poetry, arguably, the Post-Classic continued until the conquest of the last independent native state of Mesoamerica, Tayasal, in 1697. Mesoamerican civilization was a network of different cultures
9.
Kaminaljuyu
–
Kaminaljuyu is a Pre-Columbian site of the Maya civilization that was primarily occupied from 1500 BC to AD1200. When first mapped scientifically, it comprised some 200 platforms and pyramidal mounds, debate continues about the size, scale, and degree by which, as an economic and political entity, it integrated both the immediate Valley of Guatemala and the Southern Maya area. The known parts of Kaminaljuyu lie on a broad plain beneath roughly the third of modern Guatemala City. The Valley of Guatemala is surrounded by hills which culminate in a string of lofty volcanoes to the south, at an altitude of about 2000 m above sea level, the climate is temperate. The Kaminaljuyu site was largely swallowed up by real estate developments in the late 20th century, because of these factors, the true size and scale of Kaminaljuyu is likely to be never known. The state of destruction and the almost daily erasure of archaeological context underscore the many mysteries, in addition to size and scale, that likely will remain unanswered about Kaminaljuyu. Principally these questions are posed about the role of the city as the greatest of the Southern Maya area in Preclassic times, particularly during the Miraflores period, c. 400–100 BC, the SMA is long believed from much and diverse evidence to have been seminal in the development of Maya civilization, over the past 100 years, more than fifty archaeological projects, large and small, have been mounted at Kaminaljuyu. In addition to excavations, scholars such as Alfred Maudslay and Samuel K. Lothrop have recorded sculpture, in 1925 Manuel Gamio undertook limited excavations, finding deep cultural deposits yielding potsherds and clay figurines from what later was called the Middle Cultures of Mesoamerica. J. Antonio Villacorta C. the Minister of Public Education in Guatemala City, requested archaeologists Alfred Kidder, Jesse Jennings, Villacorta gave the site its name from a Kiche word meaning mounds of the ancestors. Two extraordinarily rich royal tombs were found within the edifices, probably representing consecutive rulers during the Miraflores Preclassic apogee of Kaminaljuyu, in the early 1950s Heinrich Berlin excavated a large mound in the ancient Preclassic core of the city. In the 1960s Pennsylvania State University undertook extensive excavations at Kaminaljuyu, under the direction of William Sanders, more recently, the debate was rejoined with discoveries along the southern Pacific coast of Mexico and in Guatemala that greatly antedate developments in the Lowlands. This reflected their conclusion about the antiquity of developments at Kaminaljuyu. Cultures of this phase had an agricultural community organized probably as a simple chiefdom. With Inomata, et als revision in mind, the first significant settlement dates to the Arévalo phase, 900-800 BC, with indications of dense populations no later than c.400 BC. By the end of the Las Charcas culture, Kaminaljuyu was developing religious, the architecture of Middle Preclassic structures consisted of hardened adobe bricks that served, later, as foundations for raised platforms and pyramidal temples. Excavations indicate that early in the Middle Preclassic the community was large enough to produce heavy refuse deposits. Cotton was grown as well as maize, palaeobotanical research also has identified annonas, avocados, cacao, black beans, palm nuts, plums, arboriculture developed - with groves of crop trees grown in terraces down to the edges of great ravines
10.
Takalik Abaj
–
Takalik Abaj is a pre-Columbian archaeological site in Guatemala. It was formerly known as Abaj Takalik, its ancient name may have been Kooja and it is one of several Mesoamerican sites with both Olmec and Maya features. Investigations have revealed that it is one of the largest sites with sculptured monuments on the Pacific coastal plain, Olmec-style sculptures include a possible colossal head, petroglyphs and others. The site has one of the greatest concentrations of Olmec-style sculpture outside of the Gulf of Mexico, Takalik Abaj is representative of the first blossoming of Maya culture that had occurred by about 400 BC. The site includes a Maya royal tomb and examples of Maya hieroglyphic inscriptions that are among the earliest from the Maya region, excavation is continuing at the site, the monumental architecture and persistent tradition of sculpture in a variety of styles suggest the site was of some importance. Finds from the site indicate contact with the distant metropolis of Teotihuacan in the Valley of Mexico, Takalik Abaj was a sizeable city with the principal architecture clustered into four main groups spread across nine terraces. While some of these were features, others were artificial constructions requiring an enormous investment in labour. The site featured a water drainage system and a wealth of sculptured monuments. Takalik Abaj means standing stone in the local Kiche Maya language, combining the adjective takalik meaning standing, and it was initially named Abaj Takalik by the American archaeologist Suzanna Miles, using Spanish word order. This was grammatically incorrect in Kiche, the Guatemalan government has now officially corrected this to Takalik Abaj. Anthropologist Ruud Van Akkeren has proposed that the ancient name of the city was Kooja, the site lies in the southwest of Guatemala, about 45 km from the border with the Mexican state of Chiapas and 40 km from the Pacific Ocean. Takalik Abaj is located in the north of the municipality of El Asintal, in the north of Retalhuleu department. The site lies among five coffee plantations in the foothills of the Sierra Madre mountains. Takalik Abaj sits upon a ridge running north–south, descending in a southwards direction and this ridge is bordered on the west by the Nimá River and on the east by the Ixchayá River, both flowing down from the Guatemalan Highlands. The Ixchayá flows in a deep ravine but a crossing point is located near to the site. The situation of Takalik Abaj at this point was probably important in the founding of the city, since this channeled important trade routes through the site. Takalik Abaj sits at an altitude of approximately 600 metres above sea level in an ecoregion classed as subtropical moist forest, the temperature normally varies between 21 and 25 °C and the potential evapotranspiration ratio averages 0.45. The area receives high rainfall, varying between 2,136 and 4,372 millimetres, with an average annual rainfall of 3,284 millimetres
11.
Zaculeu
–
Zaculeu or Saqulew is a pre-Columbian Maya archaeological site in the highlands of western Guatemala, about 3.7 kilometres outside of the modern city of Huehuetenango. Occupation at the dates to the Early Classic period of Mesoamerican history. Zaculeu was the capital of the Postclassic Mam kingdom, and was conquered by the Kiche Kingdom of Qumarkaj and it displays a mixture of Mam and Kiche style architecture. In AD1525 the city was attacked by Spanish conquistadors under Gonzalo de Alvarado y Contreras during a siege that lasted several months, Kaybil Balam, the citys last ruler, finally surrendered to the Spanish due to starvation. The site contains a number of temple-pyramids with talud-tablero style architecture, the pyramids and governmental palaces are grouped around a series of large public plazas. The site also holds a ballcourt for playing the Mesoamerican ballgame, the site was originally fortified with walls. The site was restored by the United Fruit Company in the late 1940s and it is open to tourists and includes a small museum. The name Zaculeu means white earth in the Mam, Kiche and Qanjobal languages, from saq meaning white, in the Mam language, the site is also called Chinabajul. The archaeological site is located in the village of San Lorenzo on the outskirts of Huehuetenango city. Zaculeu is the main tourist attraction in the Huehuetenango area, Zaculeu is located at an altitude of 1,900 metres above mean sea level, and is bordered by the Sierra de los Cuchumatanes mountain range. Zaculeu is located in an area of fertile soils close to the Selegua, the site is situated on a plateau overlooking the Selegua River, which flows to the west of the city. Deep ravines bordering the site to the south and east protected its access, the only access to the site is via a narrow land bridge to the north which unites the plateau to the general level of the valley floor. The Zaculeu plateau measures 11,178 square varas, Zaculeu was first occupied in the Early Classic Period, and the buildings from this era show the architectural influence of the great metropolis of Teotihuacán in the Valley of Mexico. The largest constructions date from the Classic Period, to these were added other plaza groups and buildings in the Early Postclassic and Late Postclassic in an unbroken history. Zaculeu has been used as a site by Mam Maya continuously to the present. Zaculeu came under the influence of central Mexico again in the Late Classic, the Kiche Kingdom of Qumarkaj conquered Zaculeu in the Postclassic. Traditionally that has been calculated as during the 15th century AD based on ethnohistoric accounts, the city was dominated by the Kiche until the Spanish Conquest of the early 16th century. The Kiche king Ququmatz died in battle against a group of the northern Mam and his son Kiqab continued where his father had left off and completed the conquest of the people
12.
Greenstone (archaeology)
–
Greenstone artefacts may be made of greenschist, chlorastrolite, serpentine, omphacite, chrysoprase, olivine, nephrite, chloromelanite among other green-hued minerals. The term also includes jade and jadeite, although these are more frequently identified by these latter terms. The greenish hue of these rocks generally derives from the presence of such as chlorite, hornblende. Greenstone minerals were presumably selected for their color rather than their chemical composition, greenstone objects are often found very considerable distances from the source of the rock, indicating early travel or trading networks. Ancient China and Mesoamerica have especial reputations for the prevalence and significance of greenstone usage, Greenstones also figure prominently in the indigenous cultures of southeastern Australia, and among the Māori of New Zealand. H. D. Skinner, Otago University Museum, transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New Zealand. Geological Investigation of the Nephrites, Serpentines, and Related Greenstones used by the Maoris of Otago, transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New Zealand
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
