San Clemente is a ruin of the ancient

Maya civilization The Maya civilization () of the Mesoamerican people is known by its ancient temples and glyphs. Its Maya script is the most sophisticated and highly developed writing system in the pre-Columbian Americas. It is also noted for its art, a ...

in Guatemala. Its main period of occupation dates to the Classic period of

Mesoamerican chronology Mesoamerican chronology divides the history of prehispanic Mesoamerica into several periods: the Paleo-Indian (first human habitation until 3500 BCE); the Archaic (before 2600 BCE), the Preclassic or Formative (2500 BCE –&nb ...

(approximately 250 – 950 AD).Quintana Samayoa, Gonzáles, and Salas Pol 2011, p. 269. The ruins were first described in the late 19th century, before being visited by a number of investigators in the early part of the 20th century.

Location

The site is situated in the

Petén Basin The Petén Basin is a geographical subregion of Mesoamerica, primarily located in northern Guatemala within the Department of El Petén, and into Campeche state in southeastern Mexico. During the Late Preclassic and Classic periods of pre-Colum ...

, approximately from Flores, in the department of

El Petén EL, El or el may refer to: Religion * El (deity), a Semitic word for "God" People * EL (rapper) (born 1983), stage name of Elorm Adablah, a Ghanaian rapper and sound engineer * El DeBarge, music artist * El Franco Lee (1949–2016), American po ...

of northern Guatemala. It is north of the modern settlement of El Naranjo, within the

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

of Flores. The site occupies a deforested hilltop at an elevation of

above mean sea level Height above mean sea level is a measure of the vertical distance ( height, elevation or altitude) of a location in reference to a historic mean sea level taken as a vertical datum. In geodesy, it is formalized as '' orthometric heights''. Th ...

. San Clemente is located in the north of the

Maya Biosphere Reserve The Maya Biosphere Reserve ( es, Reserva de la Biosfera Maya) is a nature reserve in Guatemala managed by Guatemala's National Council of Protected Areas (CONAP). The Maya Biosphere Reserve covers an area of 21,602 km², one-fifth of the c ...

Name

The ruins were given the name San Clemente in the late 19th century by Karl Sapper, after a camp to the west of the site. Sylvanus Morley named the site Chinchantun ("small stone" in

Mayan Mayan most commonly refers to: * Maya peoples, various indigenous peoples of Mesoamerica and northern Central America * Maya civilization, pre-Columbian culture of Mesoamerica and northern Central America * Mayan languages, language family spoken ...

), but the earlier name was adopted by Frans Blom and later investigators.

History

The site was first occupied during the Early Classic (c. 250–550 AD), when simple platforms were built directly upon the bedrock, around unsurfaced plazas. The city underwent a major construction phase during the Late Classic (c. 550–830), with the development of monumental platforms and the construction of two

Mesoamerican ballcourts A Mesoamerican ballcourt ( nah, tlachtli) is a large masonry structure of a type used in Mesoamerica for over 2,700 years to play the Mesoamerican ballgame, particularly the hip-ball version of the ballgame. More than 1,300 ballcourts have been i ...

. The

architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing building ...

visible today dates to the Terminal Classic (c. 830–950). Principal activity at the site has been dated according to

ceramic A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature. Common examples are earthenware, porcelain ...

evidence to the period running from c. 450 to c. 900.Quintana Samayoa, Gonzáles, and Salas Pol 2011, p. 270.

Modern history

San Clemente was first described by Karl Sapper in 1895, and was visited by various expeditions during the course of the 20th century, including by noted archaeologists

Frans Blom Frans Blom (9 August 1893 – 23 June 1963) was a Danish explorer and archaeologist. He was most associated with his research of the Maya civilization of Mexico and Central America. Biography Frans Ferdinand Blom was born in Copenhagen, ...

and

Sylvanus Morley Sylvanus Griswold Morley (June 7, 1883September 2, 1948) was an American archaeologist and epigrapher who studied the pre-Columbian Maya civilization in the early 20th century. Morley led extensive excavations of the Maya site of Chichen Itza ...

. The site was rediscovered in 1992 by the archaeological rescue project of the

Cultural Triangle Yaxha-Nakum-Naranjo National Park The Cultural Triangle Yaxha-Nakum-Naranjo National Park (Triángulo Cultural in Spanish) is a multidisciplinary project involving archaeologists, architects, restaurateurs, and biologists. It is situated in Petén, Guatemala. The project does no ...

, and was investigated by archaeologists from 1995 to 2006, who carried out some restoration work in the northern sector of the site in 2006 and 2007.

Site description

San Clemente was one of the most important Maya cities in the region immediately to the southwest of

Yaxha Yaxha (or Yaxhá in Spanish orthography) is a Mesoamerican archaeological site in the northeast of the Petén Basin region, and a former ceremonial centre and city of the pre-Columbian Maya civilization. Yaxha was the third largest city in the reg ...

; the site core covers an area of approximately and includes an acropolis, and two ballcourts, which are oriented north-south. The architecture of San Clemente is grouped into three principal sectors, the northern sector labelled the Palace, the central sector consisting of the Main Plaza, and the Elevated South Group. The three architectural groups are aligned upon a north-south axis.Quintana Samayoa, Gonzáles, and Salas Pol 2011, p. 271. There are examples of range-type structures at San Clemente with masonry pillars supporting the facade.Quintana Samayoa 2017, p. 78. Structures were numbered by early investigators from north to south.Blom 1928, p. 94. The site core was accessed by a causeway that approached from the east to join the Main Plaza. In addition to the three main architectural groups of the site core, there are a number of smaller satellite groups. To the east of the Palace complex is a basal platform supporting a number of low platforms arranged around patios. Investigating archaeologists have suggested that this was the service complex associated with the palace. To the east of the South Plaza is a terrace (the Southeast Plaza), and to the west is the Southwest Plaza.

Palace

The Palace is laid out around two interior patios (the Upper Court and the Lower Court). The floor levels of the two patios differ by . Structures I through to IV surround the Upper Court, which is linked to the Lower Court by an internal stairway contained within Structure IV. Structure IV is built against the east side of the retaining wall separating the east side of the Upper Court from the west side of the Lower Court.Blom 1928, pp. 94–95. Structure III is a two-storey range-type structure in the palace, facing south onto the Main Plaza. It separates the Plaza from the Upper Court.Blom 1928, p. 95. Structure VII is a well-preserved building on the south side of the Lower Court, separating it from the Main Plaza.Blom 1928, pp. 95–96. Three chambers in the structure open directly onto the Lower Court. An interior room is accessed via the westernmost of these chambers. The east wall of the western chamber contains a niche, marked in antiquity with red hand-prints upon its stucco while it was still fresh.Blom 1928, p. 96. The Lower Court is linked to the Main Plaza by a narrow passage at the western extreme of Structure VII.Blom 1928, p. 94. The western wall of the passage was marked with ancient graffiti scratched into the stucco, very similar to graffiti found at

Tikal Tikal () (''Tik’al'' in modern Mayan orthography) is the ruin of an ancient city, which was likely to have been called Yax Mutal, found in a rainforest in Guatemala. It is one of the largest archeological sites and urban centers of the pre-C ...

. The graffiti includes crude figures ang geometric shapes.Blom 1928, p. 98. Structure V lies along the north side of the Lower Court, and Structure VI delimits its eastern side. Both of these are badly preserved.Blom 1928, p. 97.

Main Plaza

All the buildings arranged around the Main Plaza face towards it. The Plaza is rectangular and divided into two portions by Ballcourt 1. The northern portion of the Main Plaza measures ; it is bordered on three sides by buildings. The southern portion is open on the east side where the causeway provided the principal entrance to the site core, and is also bordered by the edge of Ballcourt 2. Structures IX and X close the west side of the Main Plaza. Structure IX, the northernmost of the two, is a platform that is likely to have supported a building. No traces of any building were found on top of Structure X, however three sculpted

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

stelae were raised at its base.Blom 1928, p. 99. Structure XIII is a long platform closing the east side of the Plaza; it supported a building upon its southern half. Four small stelae (Stelae 4–7) were raised at the base of Structure XIII. Altars were placed before Stela 4 and Stela 5.Blom 1928, p. 100. Structures XI and XII are low mounds in the southwestern portion of the Plaza. They were built from rough boulders and each stands between high. Structures XIV and XV are twin

pyramids A pyramid (from el, πυραμίς ') is a structure whose outer surfaces are triangular and converge to a single step at the top, making the shape roughly a pyramid in the geometric sense. The base of a pyramid can be trilateral, quadrilat ...

standing on the south side of the Main Plaza.Quintana Samayoa 2017, p. 81. These steep-sided, stepped pyramids were faces with cut limestone blocks, and each supported a summit shrine; they are similar is style to the principal pyramids found at Tikal and Yaxha. The summit structures were accessed via stairways on the north faces of the pyramids, which descended to the Main Plaza. Behind the eastern pyramid, a passage descends to the Southeast Plaza.

South Plaza

The South Plaza, sometimes referred to as the Elevated South Group, is immediately to the south of the Main Plaza. Its floor level is higher than that of the Main Plaza, and it is accessed via a stairway climbing between the twin pyramids (Structures XIV and XV). Structure XVI is a long mound closing the west side of the plaza; it is in a ruinous state and once supported a range structure. The east side of the plaza is formed by Structures XXII and XVIII. Structure XVIII supported an east-facing building with masonry walls and a perishable roof. In the 1920s, the entrance still supported a zapote-wood lintel.

Southeast Plaza

The Southeast Plaza is a terrace that extends southwards from the Main Plaza along the east side of the South Plaza. The terrace is higher than the Main Plaza, and had no apparent direct access to it. The north and south sides of the plaza were open. The western side of the plaza is delimited by an isolated range structure, with two '' chultuns'' (underground storage chambers) in front of it.Quintana Samayoa, Gonzáles, and Salas Pol 2011, p. 272.

Ballcourt 2

The second of the ballcourts is located to the southeast of the site core. It is the larger of the two ballcourts and is well defined, forming a perfect I, heavily serifed

shape. On the north side, a low parapet separates the northern end zone of the ballcourt from the ramp ascending to the Main Plaza. The main playing area is flanked by two solidly-constructed buildings, and the southern end zone is marked by low but clearly-defined borders. At the western end of the southern end zone, the border is carved from the bedrock; its upper portion is at the same level as the South Plaza. This I, heavily serifed

-shaped ballcourt is the only known example of this form in northeastern Petén.

Monuments

When Morley visited the site in 1922, he reported the presence of a series of small, heavily eroded

stelae A stele ( ),Anglicized plural steles ( ); Greek plural stelai ( ), from Greek , ''stēlē''. The Greek plural is written , ''stēlai'', but this is only rarely encountered in English. or occasionally stela (plural ''stelas'' or ''stelæ''), whe ...

. Three stelae were raised at the base of Structure X on the Main Plaza, and four at the base of Structure XIII, also on the Plaza.Blom 1928, pp. 95, 99–100. Although they were sculpted, their poor state of preservation makes their design illegible.

Notes

References

*Blom, Frans (1928).
San Clemente Ruins: Peten, Guatemala (Chichantun)
" ''Journal de la Société des Américanistes'', Nouvelle Série, 20: pp. 93–102. Paris, France: Société des Américanistes. . *Morales, Paulino I (2005)
Notas recientes de investigación arqueológica de rescate en sitios cercanos a comunidades al suroeste del Parque Nacional Yaxha-Nakum-Naranjo
(in Spanish). ''XVIII Simposio de Investigaciones Arqueológicas en Guatemala, 2004 '' (edited by J.P. Laporte, B. Arroyo y H. Mejía), pp. 95–110. Guatemala City, Guatemala: Museo Nacional de Arqueología y Etnología. Archived fro
the original
on 2017-12-23. *Muñoz Cosme, Gaspar; Nuria Matarredona Desantes, Beatriz Martín Domínguez and Manuel May Castillo (2010)
Arquitecturas olvidadas: Las expediciones científicas como método de investigación del patrimonio en peligro
(in Spanish). ''ARCHÉ'', pp. 373–380. Valencia, Spain: Instituto Universitario de Restauración del Patrimonio de la Universidad Politécnica de Valencia. . Archived fro
the original
on 2016-03-04. *Quintana Samayoa, Oscar (2017)
El noreste de El Petén, aportes al urbanismo prehispánico
(in Spanish). ''Estudios de Cultura Maya''. Volume 49, March 2017, pp. 67–95. Mexico City, Mexico: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), Instituto de Investigaciones Filológicas. . *Quintana Samayoa, Oscar; Breitner Gonzáles and Miriam Elizabet Salas Pol (2011)
Resultados finales de las investigaciones en San Clemente
(in Spanish). ''XXIV Simposio de Investigaciones Arqueológicas en Guatemala, 2010'' (edited by B. Arroyo, L. Paiz, A. Linares and A. Arroyave), pp. 269–276. Guatemala City, Guatemala: Museo Nacional de Arqueología y Etnología. Archived fro
the original
on 2017-12-22.