Шинэ судалгаагаар Маяагийн эртний Аке хотын оршин суугчид байгууламжууд нь нурж унасны дараа ч тухайн газартаа үргэлжлүүлэн амьдарсаар байсныг тогтоожээ.
Мексикийн Юкатаны хойгт байрлах Аке хот нь сонгодог үеийн төгсгөлд улс төрийн тогтворгүй байдал болон ган гачигт нэрвэгдсэний улмаас хүчирхэг төв байхаа больсон юм. Тус хотын чулуун байгууламжууд элэгдэл, чийгшил болон ургамлын нөлөөгөөр аажмаар нурж, балгас болон хувирчээ. Гэсэн хэдий ч Виржиниагийн их сургуулийн антропологич Роберто Росадо-Рамирезийн “Latin American Antiquity” сэтгүүлд нийтэлсэн судалгаагаар хүмүүс энэхүү балгас дунд 1100-аас 1550 оны хооронд үргэлжлүүлэн амьдарч байсныг нотолсон байна.
Археологийн малтлагаар хотын төв хэсгийн нуранги болон хуучин барилгуудын суурин дээр 500 хүртэлх квадрат фут талбай бүхий 96 жижиг сууцны үлдэгдэл илэрчээ. Малтлагын явцад ваар сав, амьтны яс, үр тариа нунтаглах чулуу, ээрүүл болон шашны зан үйлийн шинж тэмдэг бүхий эд өлгийн зүйлс олдсон нь тухайн үед идэвхтэй нийгэм оршин байсныг гэрчилж байна. Росадо-Рамирезийн тайлбарласнаар, нурсан байгууламжуудыг ашиглан амьдрах нь хүмүүс, эд материал болон хүрээлэн буй орчны хооронд шинэ харилцааг үүсгэсэн байна.
Аке хотын оршин суугчид 1567 он хүртэл амьдарсан тухай албан ёсны баримт байдаг бөгөөд үүнээс хойш түүхэн тэмдэглэлд үл үзэгдэх болжээ. Судлаачид Испанийн эрх баригчид тухайн үеийн оршин суугчдыг өөр газар руу албадан нүүлгэсэн байх магадлалтай гэж таамаглаж байна. Өнөөдөр Аке хотод 350 орчим хүн амьдарч байгаа бөгөөд Маяагийн эртний пирамидын орой дээр Католик сүм байрладаг ажээ.
Дэлгэрэнгүйг эх сурвалжаас харах
↓Эх сурвалжийг нээх ↓
When the temples and pyramids of Ake started to fall apart, its residents stayed put. A new study shows they made homes among the debris and lived there for about 450 years. Ake is an ancestral Maya city in what is now Yucatán, Mexico. Like many prosperous cities in the northern Yucatán Peninsula, it collapsed into ruin at the end of the Classic Period. It would be easy to assume the story stopped there.
Yet archaeological research published in Latin American Antiquity by University of Virginia anthropologist Roberto Rosado-Ramirez tells another tale. Ake lost its power, but its people would not leave. The study pushes back against a “modern, Western understanding of ancestral Maya ruins as abandoned spaces.”
From Splendor to Stone Heaps
At its peak, Ake was an impressive place. Its center held a paved plaza, and that plaza was ringed by seven stone buildings. Beyond the city itself, a road 42 feet wide connected Ake to the regional center of Izamal, roughly 20 miles away.
That order did not last. Between 1000 and 1100 C.E., political turmoil and drought struck the region, and upkeep of the site began to decline. In fact, the trouble had started even earlier: by 1000 C.E., shifting political power had already left Ake’s monumental stone buildings neglected. From there, the damage piled up. Gravity, erosion, humidity, and the steady growth of vegetation all furthered the decay, and the once-imposing structures slowly turned into rubble.
Still, the ruins did not stay vacant for long. Newcomers arrived, both wildlife and people looking for homes after the political collapse.
A Neighborhood Among the Fallen Blocks
Inside the walled city center, the new community put up houses of poles and thatch, none larger than 500 square feet. Today, 96 small mounds mark where they stood. Stone blocks from the once-grand buildings were reused as foundations for this neighborhood.
Excavations among the fallen stones and house mounds produced pottery bowls, animal bones, grinding stones, and spindle whorls, all dated between 1100 and 1550 C.E. Beneath the collapsed rubble, more artifacts from the same period turned up, along with burials and signs of religious practice, such as incense burning.
The artifact record has no gaps until around 1550. According to the article, that means a thriving society lived within the crumbling site for roughly 450 years.
“The ruins of Ake, as well as those of many other ancestral cities in northern Yucatan, were vibrant because they had the power to congregate life and matter, and to territorialize community in the Postclassic era,” Rosado-Ramirez explained.
In his view, turning monumental architecture into heaps of rubble created new relationships among humans, matter, and other-than-human entities.
Silence in the Records, Life in the Present
What happened to the residents? As reported by Rosado-Ramirez, people lived at Ake into the late 1500s. The site’s last known mention is in an official letter from 1567, and it never shows up in historical records again. Based on that silence, he suggests Spanish authorities forcibly removed the residents and relocated them to another town.
Ake, however, was never entirely abandoned, even as its inhabitants changed. About 350 people live there today. A playing field runs alongside the ancient walls, and a Catholic church stands atop the old Maya pyramid.
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