La Corona
16.505555555556 - 90.38Koordinaten: 16 ° 30 ' 20 " N, 90 ° 22' 48" W
The village of La Corona is a pre-Columbian Maya archaeological site on the Río San Pedro in the Central American republic of Guatemala. The first research in the Maya, the "Site Q" designated city was discovered in 1995 and archaeologically investigated in the following years. The name " La Corona" is Spanish and means in German " the crown ". The ruined city was named by the first archaeologists who found a series of five temples, which resembled a crown.
Location
The city of La Corona was surrounded by other Maya cities: In the northeast Pilas Calakmul, Yaxchilan and Pietras was, in the east of Tikal, in the southeast Dos Negros in the southwest, Palenque and Tonináim west.
History of Research
During the 1960s, appeared on the international antique markets first looted Mayan artifacts, which related to a hitherto unknown city. It was thought for a long time that the descriptions contained therein to Calakmul -related, but the differences to the artifacts found there were too big. Only with the discovery of La Corona, the mystery was solved. An archaeologist from Yale University and three students from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, this small group of ruins examined in the remote Peten region of northern Guatemala. Their expedition was supported by the National Geographic Society, the El Peru - Waka research project and local guides.
La Corona was devastated when discovered and many of the buildings were in poor condition. Previously, a main plaza and several temples could be identified. A significant finding is a 90 × 50 cm large limestone slab, which is provided with Maya 140 characters. So far, however, only part of the entire site is archaeologically investigated and documented.
History
In its heyday, the town of La Corona, the Maya cities of Calakmul were in today Campeche, Mexico and Tikal in the Petén region of Guatemala today in a war for supremacy. The Prince of Calakmul built up alliances with smaller towns, such as Dos Pilas, El Peru, La Corona and the other to encircle the rival Tikal and defeat. La Corona and El Peru were strategically located near the San Pedro Martir River. To 670 AD Tikal began an attack on a group of smaller cities, hoping to gain access to areas in the West and thus to displace the rival Calakmul of the lucrative trade with the southern highlands. The residents and leaders of the city of La Corona fled to this military attack Tikal, the city was largely destroyed. In the further course of the fighting Calakmul defeated the rival Tikal.