Field Trip Part II: Copan

After a refreshing night in the cool highlands around Gracias, the intrepid members of PADO continued their journey northwards to Copan (scroll down to the earlier post for more about Gracias).

Though most of the archaeological remains in Honduras belonged to Lenca and other cultures, the site of Copan is a huge Maya center located just near the border with Guatemala. During the Classic period (in Copan's case, from around A.D. 426 onwards), Copan was a dominate center in the region, with contacts extending as far away as central Mexico. Its a beautiful site to visit and was a highlight of our field trip.

After relaxing and enjoying all that the modern town of Copan has to offer (think restaurants, hot showers, and a full-on, proper coffee shop), we were ready to tackle the ruins of the site itself.

Here the members of PADO take Copan by storm:


We were first greeted by a flock of beautiful macaws, seen here:


As you can see from the following shots, Copan is a very impressive place -- full of imposing buildings, elaborate stone carvings chronicling the rise and fall of kings, and even tunnels into the acropolis that allow a view of Copan's earliest history.

This image shows a stela of 18 Rabbit, the 13th ruler of Copan. Before being captured and beheaded by the ruler of Quirigua (an upstart city nearby), 18 Rabbit erected many stone monuments like this one, showing him in the guise of a god (which, given his ultimate fate, I think we can conclude he was not!):


This is a view of the ballcourt, acropolis, and hieroglyphic staircase:


This is Altar Q. It shows all 16 kings of Copan. Commissioned by the 16th ruler (seen in the center on the right), it honors the founder (Yax Kuk Mo, seen in the center on left) and chronicles the dynastic succession down through the centuries:


This image shows the Popol Na, or council house. It was built late in Copan's history as the rule of kings began to fail:




Here Jason and Jessica enter the tunnels. Because the Maya built their buildings one atop the other over time, archaeologists have been able to tunnel into the most recent versions of structures (such as the acropolis) to find earlier versions buried beneath. Many of these earlier buildings contain the tombs of kings, such the founder Yax Kuk Mo. The acropolis is now riddled with tunnels, though only a few are open to the public:


After exploring the site, we visited the Sculpture Museum. This museum houses much of the original sculpture from the site, including carved stone stela of kings, markers commemorating their kingly activities (such as the MotMot Marker, shown below), and a full-size reconstruction of one of Copan's earliest royal buildings.



This is the reconstruction of the building known as "Rosalila" - one of Copan's early royal buildings:


Worn out from our tour of Copan, we finished off the day at an awesome restaurant specializing in grilled meats (called MoMo's), where we stuffed ourselves with some of the best food we've yet had in Copan. With heavy hearts (and stomachs!), we drifted off to sleep to the whir of the air conditioning at the hotel...dreams of Yax Kuk Mo, Rosalila, and our long drive back to Jesus de Otoro dancing in our heads.