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39.0. Ek Balam 655 39.1. SYLVANUS G. MORLEY Report on the Ek Balam Expedition YB 27:317–318, 1928 On June 4, Dr. Morley and Mr. Charlot left Chichén Itzá for Valladolid, and thence north 15 miles [24.1 km] to the ruins of Ek Balam. This site had been previously visited and described by the French explorer, [Désiré] Charnay (1886), but a recent report of a hieroglyphic inscription there initiated the advisability of further exploration. Ek Balam must have been a center of some importance from the size and extent of the remains, although comparatively late. The buildings are low and built of crudely dressed masonry. Carved or even cut stones are almost entirely wanting, and the walls seem to have been finished, for the most part, with stucco as at Tulúm. The very low height of the corbelled arch, in the single intact chamber seen, strongly recalls the similar low arched chambers of buildings along the East Coast, which are certainly of late origin, having been occupied down to the time of the Spanish Conquest . On architectural and stylistic grounds, it is more than probable that Ek Balam was a contemporary of Tulúm and the other East Coast sites, and that it too T H E C A R N E G I E M A Y A The core of the site extends over an area of approximately 6 sq km, and is surrounded by two walls. Structure 1 is 150 m long, and the largest construction at the site. Recent excavations by Tulane University have revealed a well-preserved stucco façade and a flight of steps inscribed with hieroglyphs. Most buildings date from the Late Classic period, although other finds at Ek Balam suggests a Preclassic occupation. Désiré Charnay visited the ruins at Ek Balam in 1886 on his last trip to Yucatán. Sylvanus Morley and Jean Charlot visited Ek Balam in the late 1920s and published a brief description of the site, which they believed to be late Postclassic. In the early 1980 Ian Graham examined the carved monuments at the site and, beginning in 1985, William M. Ringle and George J. Bey spent several seasons at Ek Balam. Work included mapping of the site core, and peripheral sites. Ceramic collections were taken and analyzed and some of the standing architecture was cleared. 656 EK BALAM was occupied until the early part of the sixteenth century. One of the highest pyramids had a human figure made of stone and stucco on one side of a doorway leading to a chamber near the top. This was a very grotesque,crudelyexecutedandwithoutestheticmerit. A large altar 7 feet [2.1 m] long, 7 feet [2.1 m] wide and 7 feet [2.1 m] high, carved from a single block of stone, was found standing by the out-cropping of the native limestone from which it had been quarried. Its entire top had been hollowed out to the depth of 5 or 6 inches [12.7–15.2 cm], leaving a rim 4 inches [10.2 cm] in thickness. The front is carved with a grotesque human face having large circles around its eyes, suggesting the Tlaloc head; the back and sides are plain, though dressed. A single carved stela was found in a similar position , that is, lying on the ground by a similar out-cropping of the limestone. This had a rounded top and a small simplified serpent with a plumed head-dress on the front. There were no glyphs on this monument and the back and sides are plain, though dressed. Ekbalam was obviously a late provincial center, and its architecture and sculpture are such as might be expected in a Maya site of this late degenerate period in the northeastern corner of Yucatán. ...

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