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Motul de San José is an ancient Maya site located just north of Lake Petén Itzá in the Petén Basin region of the southern Maya lowlands. It is a few kilometres from the modern village of San José, in Guatemala's northern department of Petén. A medium-sized civic-ceremonial centre, it was an important political and economic centre during the Late Classic period (AD 650–950).〔Foias 2000, p.773. Halperin 2008, p.114.〕 The site was first settled between 600 and 300 BC, in the latter portion of the Middle Preclassic period, when it most likely was a fairly small site. This Maya city then had a long and continuous occupational history until the Early Postclassic, up to around AD 1250, with peaks in the Late Preclassic and Late Classic periods.〔Moriarty 2004, pp.37-39.〕 Motul de San José had begun to refer to Tikal as its overlord in the late 4th century AD; by the 7th century it had switched its allegiance to Calakmul, Tikal's great rival, before returning its allegiance to Tikal in the early 8th century. In the late 8th century Motul de San José appears to have been conquered by Dos Pilas, capital of the Petexbatún kingdom. Most natural resources were easily available in the immediate vicinity of the city. The nearby port at La Trinidad de Nosotros was an important hub for the import of exotic goods and export of local products such as chert and ceramics. Other goods not immediately available were likely to have been provided by the city’s satellite sites. The local area provided a number of different soils suitable for varied agricultural use, and the port at La Trinidad de Nosotros provided the city with freshwater products such as turtles, crocodiles and freshwater molluscs. Deer were hunted locally and provided an important source of protein for the upper class, while freshwater snails were the main source of protein for commoners. Motul de San José has been identified as the source of Ik-style polychrome ceramics bearing painted scenes of the Late Classic Maya aristocracy involved in a variety of courtly activities.〔Reents-Budet et al 2007, pp.1417-1418.〕 The Ik-style was characterised by hieroglyphs painted in a pink or pale red colour, scenes with dancers wearing masks, and the realistic representation of subjects as they appeared in life. The city was the capital of a polity that included various satellite sites of varying importance, including a port on the shore of Lake Petén Itzá. ==Location== Motul de San José is located from the north shore of Lake Petén Itzá, in the centre of the department of El Petén.〔Foias 2000, p.773.〕 The nearest town is Flores, to the south, on the other side of the lake. The nearest villages are San José, away, and San Andrés, away, both are to the south of the site, on the northern shore of the lake. The archaeological site is connected to Nuevo San José, a northern expansion of San José, by a dirt road.〔Foias et al 1998a, p.9.〕 It lies among land that has been cleared of forest within the last century and is now used to plant maize and graze cattle.〔Moriarty 2004, p.24.〕 Motul de San José lies on a limestone plateau at the northern edge of the fault depression that underlies the central lakes of the Petén Basin.〔Moriarty 2004, pp.23, 32.〕 The local topography consists of ridges, generally running east-west or northeast-southwest alternating with lower-lying areas with clay soils. These low-lying areas tend to feed into drainage systems flowing into either Lake Petén Itzá itself or into the Akte River. The Kantetul River is a seasonal watercourse with its origin to the northeast of the site and flowing westwards into the Akte River, passing from the site core.〔Moriarty 2004, p.23.〕 The Akte River in turn flows west into the San Pedro River, which flows northwest into Mexico where it joins the Usumacinta River and ultimately empties into the Gulf of Mexico. A mixture of ancient and modern agricultural terraces line the riverbank, north of the site core.〔Emery 1998, pp.63-64.〕 Access to water was crucial for Maya cities, since much of the Maya lowlands have been described as a seasonal desert due to the combination of a prolonged dry season lasting between four and six months together with the limestone geography that makes surface water scarce.〔Drew 2002, p.239.〕 In addition the Maya greatly preferred water to land transport and used canoes to trade extensively by river and sea, and access to river routes connected cities to extensive trade routes.〔Abbas Shatto 1998, pp.21-22.〕 Motul de San José lies within a dense cluster of smaller satellite sites.〔Moriarty 2004, p.32.〕 It is to the southwest of the major Classic Period ruins of Tikal.〔Motul de San José Archaeological Project 2009.〕 The site is about north of Guatemala City. The ruins are located on a hill about above mean sea level.〔 The site forms part of the Motul Ecological Park (''Parque Ecológico Motul'' in Spanish), which is administered by ''Instituto de Antropología e Historia'' (IDAEH), the Guatemalan Institute of Anthropology and History), the University of San Carlos of Guatemala (USAC) and the local communities of San José and Nuevo San José.〔Foias et al 1998a, p.9. Deter-Wolf et al 1999, p.17.〕 The park covers an area of approximately .〔Moriarty 2004, p.25.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Motul de San José」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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