Yaxchilan (also sometimes referred to by the names
Menché and
City Lorillard) is an ancient
Maya city locateed on the
Usumacinta River[?] in what is now the state of
Chiapas,
Mexico. The ancient name for the city may have been
Izancanac.
This was a large center, important thruout the Classic era, and the dominant power of the Usumacinta area. It dominated such smaller sites as Bonampak, and was long allied with Piedras Negras and at least for a time with Tikal; it was a rival of Palenque, with which Yaxchillan warred with in 654. Yaxchillan had it's greatest power during the long reign of King Shield Jaguar II, who died in his 90s in 742.
Yaxchillan is known for the large quantity of excellent scupture at the site.
The first published mention of the site seems to have been a brief mention by Juan Galindo in
1833. Professor Edwin Rockstoh of the National College of Guatemala visited in
1881 and published another short account. Explorers
Alfred Maudslay[?] and Desire Charnay arrived here within days of each other in
1882, and they published more detailed accounts of the ruins with drawings and photographs. Teoberto Maler visited the site repeatedly from
1897 to
1900 and published a detailed two volume description of Yaxchilan and nearby sites in
1903.
In 1931 Sylvanus Morley lead a Carnegie Institution[?] expedition to Yaxchillan, mapped the site and discovered more monuments.
The Mexican National Institute of Anthropology & History (INAH) conducted archeological research at Yaxchilan in 1972 - 1973, again in 1983, and further INAH work was conducted in the early 1990s.
- Yaxchilan, The Design of a Maya Ceremonial City, by Carolyn E. Tate, University of Texas Press, Austin, 1992. ISBN 0-292-77041-3