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Yaxchilán, known for the large quantity of excellent sculpture , was a large Classic period center, and the dominant power of the Usumacinta area. It dominated such smaller sites as Bonampak, and was long allied with Piedras Negras, and at least for a time, with Tikal. It was a rival of Palenque, with which Yaxchilán warred. Yat-Balam, founder of a long dynasty, took the throne on 2 August, 320 when Yaxchilán was a minor site. The city-state grew to a regional capital and the dynasty lasted into the early ninth century. Yaxchilán had its greatest power during the long reign of King Shield Jaguar II, who died in his 90s in 742. The first published mention of the site seems to have been a brief mention by Juan Galindo in 1833. Edwin Rockstroh visited the site in 1881 and published short account. Alfred Maudslay and Désiré Charnay arrived here within days of each other in 1882, and they published more detailed accounts of the ruins with drawings and photographs. Teobert Maler visited the site repeatedly from 1897 to 1900, and published a detailed two volume description of Yaxchilán and nearby sites in 1903. In 1931 Morley led a CIW expedition to Yaxchilán, mapped the site and discovered more 20.0. Yaxchilán 425 monuments. The Mexican Instituto Nacional de Antropolog ía e Historia (INAH) conducted archeological research at Yaxchilán in the early 1970s, again in 1983, during the early 1990s. 20.1. SYLVANUS G. MORLEY Report of the Yaxchilán Expedition YB 30:132–139, 1931 On March 22, just after the close of the Chichén Itzá Conference, the Yaxchilán Expedition left for the State T H E C A R N E G I E M A Y A 426 YAXCHILÁN of Chiapas. The staff consisted of Dr. Morley in charge; Mr. Ruppert, archaeologist; Mr. Bolles, surveyor and engineer; Dr. Dwight M. Rife, physician and chairman; Mrs. Morley, in charge of the commissary, and Mr. F. K. Rhoads, camp assistant. After a day at Mérida for the purchase of supplies, the Expedition left for Campeche on March 24. Through the kindness of Don Salustino Abreú, of Campeche, his boat, the Nueva Esperanza, a 50-ton schooner with auxiliary engine was in readiness and late the same afternoon the Expedition left Campeche forCiudaddelCarmenatthemouthoftheUsumacinta River. The Nueva Esperanza stopped at Ciudad del Carmen for several hours to permit the making of the necessary financial arrangements for the long trip upriver and into the interior. Mr. Leslie Moore, manager of the Phoebe Hearst Estate in Campeche, kindly acted as banker, supplying a certificate of deposit against which checks were issued throughout the course of the expedition, thus obviating the necessity of carrying large amounts of heavy silver into the interior. This method proved highly successful and is to be recommended for other scientific expeditions operating in the remote and inaccessible regions of the upper Usumacinta Valley. Early the following morning the Nueva Esperanza reached the hacienda of Chablé on the east bank of the Usumacinta River in the State of Tabasco and the same afternoon arrived at Monte Cristo on the west bank, the starting-point for the ruins of Palenque. Through the kindness of Señor Lic. Don Tomas Garrido, Governor of Tabasco, a Ford truck was placed at the Expedition’s disposal for making the trip to Palenque. This truck with a reserve supply of gasoline , there are no filling stations in the Tabasco hinterland , left Monte Cristo at 4:15 in the morning of March 27, and reached the modern village of Santo Domingo Palenque, not to be confounded with the ruins of Palenque, at 8:30 A.M. From the village to the ruins, it is necessary to proceed on foot or horseback through the forest for another10km .Thetrailgraduallyclimbsoverever-rising foothills until the Río Chacamax is crossed, beyond which there is a final steep ascent to the bench where the ancient city of Palenque was built. After a hasty examination of this important Old Empire site, the Expedition staff was obliged to return to the village of Palenque, and thence by truck back to Monte Cristo in order to make connections with the Nueva Esperanza which was leaving the same night for the village of Tenosique, at the head of steam navigation on the Usumacinta River and the point at which mule trains with supplies for the mahogany camps high up the river leave...

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