La Corona
Encyclopedia
La Corona is an ancient Maya
Maya civilization
The Maya is a Mesoamerican civilization, noted for the only known fully developed written language of the pre-Columbian Americas, as well as for its art, architecture, and mathematical and astronomical systems. Initially established during the Pre-Classic period The Maya is a Mesoamerican...
city in Guatemala
Guatemala
Guatemala is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the Caribbean to the east, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast...
's Petén
Petén (department)
Petén is a department of the nation of Guatemala. It is geographically the northernmost department of Guatemala, as well as the largest in size — at it accounts for about one third of Guatemala's area. The capital is Flores...
department that was discovered in 1996 and later revealed to be the long-sought "Site Q", a prominent, undiscovered Maya city
Maya city
A Maya city was a centre of population of the pre-Columbian Maya civilization of Mesoamerica. It served the specialised roles of administration, commerce, manufacturing and religion that characterised ancient cities worldwide...
. "La Corona" means "the crown" in Spanish; the first archaeologists to study the site named it this after seeing a row of five temples that resembled a crown.
Site Q
During the 1960s, looted Maya artifacts referring to a then-unknown city surfaced on the international antiquities market. Peter MathewsPeter Mathews (archaeologist)
Peter Mathews is an Australian archaeologist, epigrapher, and Mayanist. He was a professor at the University of Calgary, and is Co Director of the Naachtun Archaeology Project. He is a professor of Archaeology and Maya Hieroglyphs at La Trobe University.He graduated from University of Calgary...
, then a Yale graduate student, dubbed it "Site Q", the Q being short for "que?" which means "what" in Spanish. Some researchers believed that the inscriptions referred to Calakmul
Calakmul
Calakmul is a Maya archaeological site in the Mexican state of Campeche, deep in the jungles of the greater Petén Basin region. It is from the Guatemalan border. Calakmul was one of the largest and most powerful ancient cities ever uncovered in the Maya lowlands...
, but the artistic style of the artifacts was different from anything that had been found there. An environmentalist studying scarlet macaws found La Corona in 1996, and a team from Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
's Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology
Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology
The Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology is a museum affiliated with Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.Founded in 1866, the Peabody Museum is one of the oldest and largest museums focusing on anthropological material, and is particularly strong in New World ethnography and...
investigated the site later that year. The team found references to Maya ball players who were featured on Site Q artifacts at La Corona, leading them to believe that La Corona was the lost city. Others were not convinced. In 2005 Marcello A. Canuto, a Yale
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
researcher, found a panel in situ at La Corona that mentioned two Site Q rulers and had been quarried from the same rock as the Site Q artifacts, providing convincing evidence that La Corona was indeed Site Q.
La Corona
La Corona has been heavily looted, and many of the buildings are in poor condition. A main plaza has been identified, along with several temples. The Site Q inscriptions have led scholars to believe that La Corona and Calakmul were allies. Due to the recent discovery of the site, only a portion of the city has been excavated, although teams from various universities and the National Geographic SocietyNational Geographic Society
The National Geographic Society , headquartered in Washington, D.C. in the United States, is one of the largest non-profit scientific and educational institutions in the world. Its interests include geography, archaeology and natural science, the promotion of environmental and historical...
are attached to the site.