Archaeological Reconnaissance in Southeastern Campeche, México: 2001 Field Season Report

Las Delicias
The site is located upon a prominent natural elevation, west of the village Ley de Fomento Agropecuario and within the territory of the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve. The highest building, Structure 2, rises about 30 m high above natural ground on its south side (Figures 25-27, shown below).

The site has been named after the nearest, recently abandoned village located several kilometers to the east. While no standing architecture is preserved, the monumental size of the mounds indicates this is not the site reported by Karl Ruppert as Delicia and recorded on Section IV of the Tulane map of the Maya area (M.A.R.I., 1940; cf. Müller, 1960:30), since a short note in the corresponding Card Index mentions "only low mounds", while the coordinates given there fall far away, about 12 km to the east. The "good small aguada" mentioned on the same card and "aguada Delicia" referred to in Ruppert and Denison (1943:2, 42) may be identical to the one near the abandoned village Las Delicias.

Structure 1 of Las Delicias, actually a group of buildings erected on a massive, roughly rectangular platform, is located on the northern extreme of the artificially leveled hilltop and overlooks a plaza to the south, from where the upper part of the platform may have been accessed. The central pyramidal building upon the platform apparently had an inset stairway on its south side, leading to a landing in front of the highest part of the structure. The ruins of the northern face of the building merge with the steep slope of the hill.

Click on image to start Autodesk® Express Viewer.

Click on image to enlarge.

Click on image to enlarge.

South of the central plaza is Structure 2, a massive pyramidal mound topped by a triadic group and facing west. Remains of badly ruined inset stairways can be seen on the west sides of the pyramidal base and of the upper Structure 1b. Some Tzakol sherds were found in a looters’ trench excavated in the elongated mound abutted to the northern slope of Structure 2. However, the triadic complex suggests that the building itself, rather similar to Structure 59 of Nakbé, Guatemala, may date to the Late Preclassic (cf. Hansen, 1998:77ff, Fig. 19b). In southeastern Campeche, another triadic group had been found earlier at Mucaancah (Šprajc et al., 1996; 1997a:8f, Fig. 3; 1997b:39ff, Fig. 8).

Structure 2 overlooks a plaza to the west; the latter’s southwestern part is built on an artificial platform, with retaining walls rising steeply from the slopes of the hill. Lower mounds are distributed west of the central plaza and east of Structure 2 (Figures 25-27, shown above).

There is a small aguada about 300 m to the northeast; according to the locals, it does not retain water throughout the year. Low terrains (bajos) extend north and east of the site.

Previous Page  |  Table of Contents  |  Next Page

Return to top of page