Tom’s Notes 2017

This was a second visit to an itinerary. Many of the participants had not visited this region. We changed the route considerably, starting in Merida at UADY (Universidad Autonima del Yucatan) for two mornings of lectures and a visit to their forensics laboratory with their staff. in the afternoons we visited the Museo de la Cultura Maya and the Cathedral. Izamal, Ake, Ek Balam  and Chichen Itza highlighted some new perspectives on the Northern Yucatan. Dr. Tomas Gallareta showed us an area he did some salvage excavation near the church in Mani where Diego de Landa burned codices and other materials as a part of the cultural oppression during the early Conquest period. During the return visit to Kiuic/Stairway to Heaven day we visited the 50 meter tall pyramids of Huntichmul (the hub of the Bolonchen Region). During our stay near Uxmal we visited with Patricia Morales whose magnificent ancient Maya pottery reproductions have been exhibited in Paris and Mexico City among many other venues. The visit to Santa Rosa Ixtampak was truly worth my long standing desire to visit this important site. It was an important example of the regional centers that that dominated the entire Yucatan Peninsula. Oxkintok was equally important and impressive as a regional site. It includes very early dating and its function as a coastal transit point, as weas Dzibilchaltun. Again this tour showed a broader view of the importance of the Northern Lowlands in the Maya Mosaic of adaptation to this varied geographic and ecologically diverse world.