Circular Maya Structure Uncovered in Southern Mexico

CAMPECHE, MEXICO—Newsweek reports that researchers from Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) working in southern Mexico at the Maya site of El Tigre have uncovered a circular structure that may have supported a temple dedicated to Kukulcán, a serpent deity. The presence of the building supports the idea that El Tigre may be Itzamkanac, a settlement described in the late sixteenth century in the Paxbolón Maldonado Papers. The work states that the city of Itzamkanac featured temples dedicated to four deities, including Kukulcán. “This building broadens our knowledge of the late occupation of El Tigre,” said INAH’s general director, Diego Prieto. “Circular structures generally correspond to the early Postclassic period between A.D. 1000 and 1200, when the Maya zone had links with other regions in Mesoamerica,” he explained. Similar round structures have been found at the Maya sites of Edzná, Becán, Uxmal, and Chichen Itzá. For more on Kukulcán, go to “The Maya Sense of Time: An Eye on Venus.”