To recap, the conversation so far has centered on Wendy Ashmore’s template laid out in the 1992 paper ‘Site-Planning Principles and Concepts of Directionality among the Ancient Maya’ in which she put forth that ‘… this research centers on a particular set of site-planning principles involving cardinal directions... It is only one of multiple such sets, or spatial templates, recognized in Maya sites but is one whose presence has been identified in various Maya centers from the Late Pre-classic (ca. 400 B.C.-A.D. 100) through at least the Late Classic (ca. A.D. 600-900). The template in question combines the following principles:( 1) emphatic reference to a north-south axis in site organization;( 2) formal and functional complementarity or dualism between north and south; (3) the addition of elements on east and west to form a triangle with the north, and frequent suppression of marking the southern position; (4) the presence in many cases of a ball court as transition between north and south; and (5) the frequent use of causeways to emphasize connections among the cited elements, thereby underscoring the symbolic unity of the whole layout.’[1] We have looked at the first three of these points in earlier entries and have introduced the E-Group assemblages, briefly mentioning the fact that they are often accompanied by a nearby ball court.
The ballgame, and the large, heavy rubber balls with which it was played, date back to the Olmec civilization of the Mesoamerica formative period (1500 - 400 BC). In Maya civilization, the ballgame was central to the creation myth as told in the Popol Vuh. The story relates how twin brothers played the game in the ball court, the floor of which served as the ceiling to the underworld Xibalba. The brother’s relentless playing disturbed the Lords of the Underworld and prompted them to challenge the brothers to a game. The Lords of the Xibalba defeated and beheaded the brothers, and hung the head of one from the branch of a tree. One day, the daughter of one of the Lords of Xibalba approached the head and was miraculously impregnated from spittle dropped from its mouth. She gave birth to the Maya Hero Twins Hunahpu and Xbalanke. In time, the hero twin also faced the Lords of Xibalba, but they were tricksters, and through an apparent move of self-sacrifice, were able to defeat the Lords of Xibalba. The hero twins were even eventually able to return their father to life as the Maize God. Linda Schele, David Freidel and Joy Parker ‘have come to understand that while the ballgame took place in earthly kingdoms, the ballcourts themselves opened into the Otherworld. Moreover, different ballcourts opened into different locations in the supernatural world, and often ballcourts reestablished the time and space of a past Creation.’[2]
Concerning the site of Xunantunich, Ashmore explains that it 'is a compact civic center perched atop a ridge overlooking the Mopan River in modern Belize. Investigation directed by Richard Leventhal and Wendy Ashmore in the l990s documented the growth and development of the center and adjacent settlement …The center itself was founded late in the Classic period, and its eighth- and ninth-century florescence coincides with the decline of other larger centers and polities to the west and north, especially Naranjo and Tikal.’[3]
The lead (top) photo was taken from atop of El Castillo, one of the tallest Maya structures in Belize, with Structure A-16 in the foreground. On the right side of the image the overgrown west-facing structures of the E-Group can be seen. The Xunantunich E-Group has been designated a ‘Uaxactun- Type’ E-Group by Greg Savoie. [4] It can be seen by the site map (but not visible in the photograph) that the ball court at Xunantunich was adjacent to the eastward facing temple in the E-group cluster.
Further excavations at the E-Group at Xunantunich.
In 1995 Arlen and Diane Chase identified three main morphological categories of E-Groups: the archetypal Uaxactun Style E-Group, the Cenote Style E-Group, and the Cenote Variant. Later, Thomas Guderjan, director of MRP, suggested a fourth assemblage, the ‘Pseudo-E-Group’, defined as a sacred Late Classic architectural complex style which he stated was ‘non-functional for either solar or agriculturally oriented observation’ based upon its relationship to the contour of the horizon. In 2005 Greg Savoie compiled a typological listing of the known E-Group assemblages based upon the following morphologies. The Uaxactun Style E-Groups are categorized by the three eastern temples being equidistant and approximately the same size (with perhaps a slightly larger center temple) all constructed on a single rectangular raised platform.
The less symmetric Cenote Style is categorized by a larger central temple connected to smaller northern and southern temples by narrow raised platforms, rather than all of the eastern structures built upon a single platform. The ‘catch-all’ Cenote Variant style, with its vast range of morphological differences, is most commonly identified by a lack of any raised platform connecting the eastern temples. And lastly, the Pseudo-E-Group is described as an assemblage with only two temples on its eastern edge, possibly supported by a common substructure or platform, and no western temple. The supposition is that any celestial event would be viewed, instead, from some smaller structure centered within the plaza itself, for instance a platform (stone or wooden), stele, altar, or even a pole or stick. Over a hundred E-Group assemblages have been recorded across Mesoamerica, and new discoveries continue to add to the growing number. For instance, in 2012 reconnaissance of the middle Belize River Valley north of Belmopan by the Belize River East Archaeology (BREA) Project identified a potential civic-ceremonial E-Group at the newly-located site of Hats Kaab. Table 1 identifies the known E-Group complexes within the modern borders of the nation of Belize.
List of E-Groups of Belize by Morphological Style, modified from Savoie (2005)
A variety of theories and interpretations exist as to the purpose of these architectural assemblages, including: E-Groups function as solar observatories for measuring the solstices and/or solar zenith passage (based upon the initial observations from Uaxactun); they function as specialized observatories for marking the positions of the sun and Venus; they are seasonal orientation calendar-buildings applied to large-scale trade movements; they can be regarded as theatres or proscenia that served as planetariums rather than observatories; they are strictly commemorative astronomical complexes, or lastly, they are non-functioning symbolic architectural complexes. The debate over function exists due to the fact that many E-Groups seemly do not align to the declinations associated with solstice risings, and have subsequently been dismissed as non-functional with respect to the term “observatory”. By way of example, Kathryn Brown notes that the ‘formal arrangement of Structures A-3, A-4, and A-5 on the eastern side of Plaza A and Structure A-8 on the West’ at the site of Xunantunich is that of an E-Group. Specifically it conforms to the Uaxactun Style, the archetype of which appears to function as a marker for measuring the solstices.
The Ball Court at Xunantunich
Cahal Pech is a compact site nearby Xunantunich. Its E-Group structure is comprised of the architecture on the East and West ends of Plaza B. This assemblage was designated by Savoie to be of the ‘Cenote Variant’ type. This structure can be seen briefly in the accompanying video (most of which is exploration in and around Plaza A). The video ends with a brief look at the East BallCourt, which again is adjacent to Structure B1 of the E-Group. Note the existence of multiple ballcourts, perhaps for the purpose of opening into different locations in the supernatural world.
References:
[1] Ashmore, Wendy, ‘Site-Planning Principles and Concepts of Directionality among the Ancient Maya’, Latin American Antiquity, Vol. 2, No. 3 (Sep., 1991), p. 200
[2] Freidel, David, Linda Shele, and Joy Parker, Maya Cosmos: Three Thousand Years on the Shaman’s Path, (New York: Harper 1993)
[3] Ashmore, Wendy and Jeremy A. Sabloff, ‘Spatial Orders in Maya Civic Plans’, Latin American Antiquity, Vol. 13, No. 2 (Jun., 2002), pp. 205-207.
[4] Savoie, Greg, ‘The Spatial and Temporal Distribution of Maya E-Group Complexes’, M.A. thesis, Department of Archaeology, University of Leicester, 2003