El Mirador

El Mirador, a very large Late Formative Maya site in the northern part of Petén, Guatemala, near the Mexican border. Its inaccessibility has limited research, but evidence now shows that the site was occupied in the Middle Formative Period, grew to prominence and power during the Late Formative, and declined in the Protoclassic—ultimately relinquishing its power by a.d. 300 to Tikal, 40 miles south. The site was superficially reoccupied during the Late Classic Period. Like Tikal, El Mirador derived its importance from its domination of transpeninsular trade routes and control of portages between the Gulf drainage and the Caribbean drainage.

The architecture of El Mirador is of the grandest scale. In the central area of the site, to the east, the Danta complex includes a multitiered grouping of platforms and truncated pyramids on a basal platform nearly 1,000 feet square. The summit of the crowning pyramid rises 230 feet above the ground. Danta is both the tallest Maya structure and the Maya structure of greatest volume.

About one mile to the west, and linked to the Danta complex by a sacbe (causeway), are several additional large-scale architectural groupings. Next in size to the Danta complex is El Tigre, whose tallest pyramid stands 180 feet high. Some 400 yards south of El Tigre, the Monos group includes a pyramid 130 feet high.

Construction utilizes cut-stone facings on rubble cores, and there are substantial remains of extensive stucco decoration of the exterior surfaces. Excavation of Structure 34 uncovered large masks of modeled stucco adjacent to the plastered front steps. Groupings of pyramids on large basal platforms are frequently in triples, with two smaller pyramids flanking the front plaza of the largest structure. Structures are linked by walls and causeways, and the region around the site center is dotted with bajos (lowlands), which flood seasonally.

See alsoMaya, The .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Ray T. Matheny, ed., El Mirador, Petén, Guatemala: An Interim Report (1980).

Sylvanus G. Morley and George W. Brainerd, The Ancient Maya, 4th ed. (1983), esp. pp. 296-300.

Additional Bibliography

Forsyth, Donald W. The Ceramics of El Mirador, Petén, Guatemala. Provo, UT: New World Archaeological Foundation, Brigham Young University, 1989.

Fowler, William R. Analysis of the Chipped Stone Artifacts of El Mirador, Guatemala. Provo, UT: New World Archaeological Foundation, Brigham Young University, 1987.

Hansen, Richard D. Excavations in the Tigre Complex, El Mirador, Petén, Guatemala. Provo, UT: New World Archaeological Foundation, Brigham Young University, 1990.

Masson, Marilyn A., and David A. Freidel, eds. Ancient Maya Political Economies. Walnut Creek, CA: Altamira Press, 2002.

Nelson, Fred W., and David S. Howard. Trace Element Analysis of Obsidian Artifacts from El Mirador, Guatemala. Provo, UT: New World Archaeological Foundation, Brigham Young University, 1986.

                              Walter R. T. Witschey