page_title: Yaxchilan
section_title: Modern history
hierarchical_section_title: Yaxchilan / History / Modern history
caption_attribution_description: Maya site of Yaxchilan (Mexico). Classic period. Lintel 24 of Structure 23 depicting abloodletting ritual: Lady Xook, wife of king Shield jaguar II drawing blood. From the British Museum.
context_page_description: Yaxchilan is an ancient Maya city located on the bank of the Usumacinta River in the state of Chiapas, Mexico. In the Late Classic Period Yaxchilan was one of the most powerful Maya states along the course of the Usumacinta River, with Piedras Negras as its major rival. Architectural styles in subordinate sites in the Usumacinta region demonstrate clear differences that mark a clear boundary between the two kingdoms.
  Yaxchilan was a large center, important throughout the Classic era, and the dominant power of the Usumacinta River area. It dominated such smaller sites as Bonampak, and had a long rivalry with Piedras Negras and at least for a time with Tikal; it was a rival of Palenque, with which Yaxchilan warred in 654.
  The site is particularly known for its well-preserved sculptured stone lintels set above the doorways of the main structures. These lintels, together with the stelae erected before the major buildings, contain hieroglyphic texts describing the dynastic history of the city.
context_section_description: The first published mention of the site seems to have been a brief mention by Juan Galindo in 1833, published by the Royal Geographical Society.  Professor Edwin Rockstoh of the National College of Guatemala visited in 1881 and published another short account.
  Explorers 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.  Maudslay ordered several lintels to be removed, and the British Museum acquired lintels 24 in 1932. Maudslay's report was published by the Royal Geographical Society in 1883. Teoberto Maler visited the site repeatedly from 1897 to 1900, his detailed two volume description of the ruins and other nearby sites was published by the Peabody Museum of Harvard University in 1903.
  In 1931 Sylvanus Morley led a Carnegie Institution expedition to Yaxchilan, mapped the site and discovered more monuments.
  From 1970 onwards, Ian Graham made numerous visits to Yaxchilan and recorded the inscriptions there. These inscriptions were published from 1977 onwards in the Corpus of Maya Hieroglyphic Inscriptions by the Peabody Museum of Harvard University.
  The Mexican National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) conducted archeological research at Yaxchilan in 1972 - 1973, again in 1983, and further INAH work was conducted in the early 1990s. INAH has consolidated and preserved the central portion of the site.
  Mayanist Tatiana Proskouriakoff did some pioneering work on deciphering Maya writing using the inscriptions of Yaxchilan, and was able to identify the glyphs for death, capture and captor. Since then Peter Mathews and others have expanded on her early work.
  Since 1990, the project La Pintura Mural Prehispánica en México (Prehispanic Wall Painting in Mexico) of the Instituto de Investigaciones Estéticas of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México has examined and recorded precolumbian murals such as those at Yaxchilan.
  Yaxchilan has long been difficult to reach other than by river. Until recently, no roads existed within 100 miles.  The only ways to get to the site were hundreds of miles by boat, or else by small plane.  Since the construction of the Border Highway by the Mexican Government in the early 1980s, it is possible for tourists to visit.  To reach the site, it is necessary now only to take an hour-long boat ride down the Usumacinta River from Frontera Corozal.
  Some Lacandon Maya still make pilgrimages to Yaxchilan to carry out rituals to the Maya gods.
caption: Lintel 24, structure 23, Yaxchilan. The sculpture depicts a sacred blood-letting ritual which took place on October 28, 709.[30] King Itzamnaaj B'alam II is shown holding a torch, while his wife Lady K'ab'al Xook draws a barbed rope through her pierced tongue, British Museum.
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