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53 The ruins of Chacchob are in the District of Tekax, some 13 km by road and 10 or 11 km airline southeast of the town of Teabo. The site was first brought to the attention of the public over 100 years ago in an anonymous article, signed in Curioso, that appeared in a Merida periodical of the time (Anonymous 1845a). The part of the account that particularly has caught the attention of archaeologists is the statement that the ruins are surrounded by the remains of an ancient wall. Walled sites in the lowland Maya area are rare, and their occurrence is important because of certain implications as to the social structure and the general character of the civilization of the builders (see Armillas 1948 and 1951). It is of passing interest to note that the author of the above-mentioned article probably was Estanislao Carrillo, who wrote in a later volume of the same periodical under the name of P. Carrillo (see Castillo 1866:239, 253). This was none other than the exemplary cura Carrillo of Ticul, who a few years earlier had been so helpful to John L. Stephens and whom the latter remarked as one of the few people in Yucatán to show any interest in the antiquities of the country (Stephens 1843:1:265–267). Although the information provided by this antiquarian of a century ago has from time to time been made use of by modern authors, the truth of his assertions concerning Chacchob, so far as is known to the present writers, had never been confirmed by competent archaeological opinion. The work of Carnegie Institution at Mayapán, the largest and most important walled city known in Yucatán, made it of peculiar importance not only to verify the existence of a possibly similar, nearby site, but to know something of the character of the remains. Exploration In May 1951, Eugenio May, a Yucatecan employee who has worked for many years with the Institution, C u r r e n t R e p o r t s Carnegie Institution of Washington Department of Archaeology No. 6 January 1953 Chacchob, Yucatán H.E.D. Pollock and Gustav Strömsvik H.E.D. Pollock and Gustav Strömsvik 54 was commissioned to visit Chacchob and to report his observations, particularly with reference to any indications of a wall surrounding the ruins. May spent two days at the site, and his report left little doubt that the ancient settlement had in fact been walled. It was consequently planned that further reconnaissance should take place during the 1952 field season. Pollock and Strömsvik, traveling by truck, left the Institution’s base camp at Telchaquillo February 27, 1952. The road, the old highway to Tekit, ran southeast through the ruins of Mayapán. Just short of Km 12, and approximately 10 km from the center of Mayapán, the site of Chumul was noted at the left of the road. This moderate-sized group of ruins, which was visited on our return journey, rests on a hill. The principal pyramid is clearly seen from Mayapán, and because of its natural elevation gives the impression at that distance of being a much larger structure than it is. This pyramid is flanked by lesser pyramidal structures, one on each side, and several mounds of indeterminate character complete the group. Although all buildings are fallen, the character of the masonry and the stone cutting, the architectural decoration, and certain monoliths mark the ruins as of the Puuc period. Features observed include finely cut lintels and full-width jamb stones, colonette façade elements, tapered columnar (picote) altars, and a rectangular altar. PassingthroughTekit(Km21),asizabletown,our road continued south-southeast toward Chumayel and Teabo. At Km 25 we reached Hacienda Ukum, where there are ruins and where May in the previous year had discovered a sculptured stone built into the floor of the abandoned machine house of the hacienda . This stone, which was photographed on our return trip, appears to have been a door jamb (Fig. 6.6h). It carries a rather typical Maya figure, erect and with plumed headdress, facing a vertical row of glyph blocks and standing above two horizontal rows of glyph blocks. The 13 or 14 hieroglyphs represented have not been deciphered. The sculpture and the character of the jamb stone suggest this to be a work of the Puuc period, an impression strengthened by the presence of certain architectural elements (spools) typical of...

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