Seasoned travelers often say, not without reason, that Guatemala is one of the most beautiful countries in the world. A big part of it is thanks to marvelous sites like Lake Atitlán, the pools of Semuc Champey, Chichicastenango, Quetzaltenango (Xela), Izabal, or the abandoned city of Antigua. But also the splendid Mayan archaeological sites of Tikal or El Mirador, to name just the most renowned. Among these latter, there is one that stands out for its significance, although being in a rather isolated area makes it not as famous or visited as others: Piedras Negras.

Piedras Negras is located in the Sierra del Lacandón National Park, in the Petén department, the northernmost part of the country, bordering Belize and the Mexican states of Campeche, Tabasco, and Chiapas. The park spans about 2028.65 square kilometers of mountainous jungle, characterized by a series of limestone and dolomitic ridges forming the Sierra del Lacandón.

Due to its biodiversity, it is protected as a Biological Reserve of the Maya Biosphere, and, as the name suggests, it also houses several pre-Hispanic archaeological sites: El Hormiguero, El Porvenir, La Pasadita, El Ceibo, Macabilero, apart from the aforementioned Piedras Negras.

Model of the acropolis of Piedras Negras
Model of the acropolis of Piedras Negras. Credit: Luisfernandoid / Wikimedia Commons

Piedras Negras sits atop a cliff overlooking the eastern part of the Usumacinta Basin, named after one of the rivers that traverse it. However, it was identified with archaeological purposes because the Maya built several cities there, perhaps the most prominent during the Classic period.

The chronology of this period spans from 250 AD to 1539 AD (including the Postclassic period), though it’s important to remember that the Mayan civilization began in the Preclassic around 2000 BC and didn’t end until well into the Spanish colonial era, around 1697 AD.

Analysis of ceramic remains shows that Piedras Negras was inhabited from the Early Middle Preclassic (700 BC) and reached its peak during the Middle and Late Classic periods. The name “Piedras Negras” (dark stones) was given later due to the color of the stone used in its architecture, but the original name was Yutub, which can be translated as “The Entrance” or “Great Gate”, perhaps due to the deep canyons of its surroundings, a massive dry cenote that could have been considered an entrance to the underworld, or its strategic location in a commercial hub.

Main Maya cities
Main Maya cities. Credit: Yavidaxiu / Dominio público / Wikimedia Commons

Indeed, several trade routes intersected there, some local and others connecting with the highland Maya, which led to the city’s prosperity and enrichment. As often happens, this brought problems, as rivalries emerged with other cities. The desire to expand, perhaps as much as to defend against external ambitions, led Piedras Negras into a series of wars against neighboring settlements such as Palenque, Moral Reforma, Pomoná, and others. Above all of them, Yaxchilán emerged as a major adversary.

Yaxchilán is also on the banks of the Usumacinta, but in the Mexican state of Chiapas, about forty kilometers away. It occupied a dominant position over other Maya sites like Bonampak, Palenque, and Tikal, with which it waged wars. A stela found in Piedras Negras recounts its victory over Yaxchilán in 726 AD and keeping it subdued for three-quarters of a century; K’inich Tatb’u Skull III, its last ruler, managed to break free from that domination. However, it was too late, as the city would be abandoned shortly thereafter.

Certainly, this violent dynamic took similar forms to other parts of the world, with alliances forming among some places against others. Piedras Negras was allied with Bonampak and some others, though its main ally was Calakmul, a Maya city now in Campeche, Mexico, just over thirty kilometers from the Guatemala border. Calakmul also aspired to be the center of its area in fierce competition with Tikal, which it eventually defeated in 562 AD to become the capital of the powerful Kaan kingdom.

Steps in Piedras Negras
Steps in Piedras Negras. Credit: Dayna Bateman / Flickr

A second conflict between them confirmed Calakmul’s dominance in 677 AD. However, Tikal resurged a decade later and managed to retaliate, causing the fall of the Kaan kingdom and the gradual decline of Calakmul, while assuming hegemony in the region.

Piedras Negras sought to take control of the Tabasco populations held by Palenque, seizing Santa Elena and Pomoná. There are accounts of these campaigns in several stelae with bas-reliefs depicting scenes of battle; also, tied and sacrificed prisoners.

As we can see, the Maya civilization was never unified, and despite sharing a common culture, each site operated independently, akin to the Greek city-states, fighting each other for supremacy. Eventually, like Tikal, Yaxchilán rebounded, invading Piedras Negras’ territory in 808 AD and laying waste to several of its cities. The subsequent chaos marked the end of that period of splendor, and like almost all Maya cities, it was abandoned, fading into oblivion and half-devoured by the jungle.

Probably the two most important stelae to know the history of Piedras Negras were 3 and 12, deciphered by Tatiana Proskouriakoff
Probably the two most important stelae to know the history of Piedras Negras were 3 and 12, deciphered by Tatiana Proskouriakoff. Credit: Teobert Maler / Dominio público / Wikimedia Commons

In that state, it was discovered by Teobert Maler, an Austrian explorer born in Italy who had studied engineering and architecture but, eager for adventure, enlisted in Maximilian’s army of Mexico. After Maximilian’s fall, he decided to stay in the country, Spanishizing his name (Teoberto), and dedicating himself to the study of pre-Hispanic ruins.

He had a predilection for Maya ruins and, cutting through the lush vegetation of the Yucatán and Chiapas, he visited Palenque, Chichén Itzá, Uxmal, and in 1895, he arrived at Piedras Negras, being the first to photograph its structures. He returned three years later, sponsored by the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, to study them for four months.

The next researcher was the American Sylvanus Morley, another engineer, in this case from Harvard University, who became interested in pre-Columbian archaeology and epigraphy after reading the novel “Heart of the World” by H. Rider Haggard (the author of “King Solomon’s Mines”), but, above all, thanks to a fellow countryman, the diplomat Edward Herbert Thompson, who sent the university a collection of Maya objects rescued from a cenote in Chichén Itzá. Morley began by studying artifacts of the Anasazi, but from 1908, he focused on the Maya cities of Mexico and Central America, including Piedras Negras.

Tatiana Proskouriakoff
Tatiana Proskouriakoff. Credit: Ms. Char Solomon / Wikimedia Commons

His work on this site continued for several years in the 1930s and served as the basis for Tatiana Proskouriakoff, a Russian architect who immigrated to the US, whom the archaeologist Linton Satterthwaite hired as a draftsman for an excavation in Piedras Negras in 1936.

Tatiana’s mission was to artistically reconstruct the buildings of the site, which earned her a place in the team – up until then she was unpaid – until 1938. By copying the inscriptions on the stelae, she identified the dynastic records of the local Maya and their deeds, demonstrating their historicity.

World War II condemned Piedras Negras to a second abandonment that was not rectified until 1997, when the first of five successive study periods directed by archaeologists Héctor L. Escobedo, Stephen D. Houston, and Tomás Barrientos began until 2004.

Stela 36 from Piedras Negras with an inscription about king Itzam K'An Ahk
Stela 36 from Piedras Negras with an inscription about king Itzam K’An Ahk. Credit: Ymblanter / Wikimedia Commons

It was then that the city could be dated, and the origin of its population established. Some subsequent interventions by Luis Romero allowed knowledge to be expanded, and four square kilometers were cleared to reveal two acropolises, four plazas, and two pitz courts (ball game).

The buildings are not as large as those of other cities, but they are very interesting for having very particular elements. For example, one of the pyramids is connected to an underground cave system, and there are several palaces with vaulted roofs. Also characteristic of Piedras Negras are eight zumpul-ché (steam baths), one of them monumental, equipped with dressing rooms and richly decorated because it was for ceremonial use.

But the most important aspect of the site is its stelae, whose bas-relief engravings Tatiana deciphered, shedding light on Maya history, demonstrating that they recounted historical events and lives of real people, and not just myths or calendrical descriptions, as previously thought.

This article was first published on our Spanish Edition on March 4, 2024. Puedes leer la versión en español en Piedras Negras, la ciudad donde se encontraron las inscripciones que demostraron que los mayas tenían registros históricos

Sources

Carlos Pallán Gayol, Breve historia de los mayas | Sara Isabel García Juárez, El señorío de Piedras Negras hacia finales del Clásico Tardío. Guerras, jerarquías políticas y poder en la sociedad maya clásica | Sara Isabel García Juárez, La historia de Piedras Negras a través de sus inscripciones jeroglíficas: auge y ocaso del linaje de las Tortugas | Tatiana Proskouriakoff, Historia maya | VVAA, Mundo maya | Robert J. Shearer y Loa P. Traxler, The Ancient Maya | Wikipedia

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