Yaxchilan y Bonampak - Cultura Maya

Chiapas, Mexico. In the Late Classic Period, Yaxchilan was one of the most powerful Maya states along the course of the Usumacinta River.


Bonampak is an ancient Maya archaeological site near approximately 30 km south of the larger site of Yaxchilan, under which Bonampak was a dependency, and the border with Guatemala. While the site is not overly impressive in terms of spatial or architectural size (American archaeologist, epigrapher, and Mayanist scholar Sylvanus Morley once stated that Bonampak was fourth-rate in terms of size and political importance), it is well known for the murals located within the three roomed Structure 1 (The Temple of the Murals). The construction of the site's structures dates to the Late Classic period (c. AD 580 to 800). In addition to being among the best-preserved Maya murals, the Bonampak murals are noteworthy for debunking early assumptions that the Maya were a peaceful culture of mystics (a position long-held and argued for by the well-known early Mesoamerican archaeologist, ethnohistorian and epigrapher from the Carnegie Institute of Washington, Sir John Eric Sidney Thompson), as the murals clearly depict war and human sacrifice.