Lubaantun
Lubaantun, translated from Maya to English, means "place of the fallen rocks". So named because the contruction method used to create the structures at Lubaantun is unique, in that each stone used was carefully measured and cut to fit snugly next to it's nearby block and does not use mortar. Over time the ground beneath Lubaantun may have shifted and some of these mortarless blocks began to fall.
Lubaantun is located in Southern Belize, in the Toledo District. It sits on a tall ridge above a valley created by the flow of the Colombia River.
Lubaantun is a late Classic ceremonial center dated to 730-890 AD. It consists of Eleven large towers, five main plazas, and three ball courts. The structures are unique in that they are solid, having no doorways, and the corners of the structures are rounded. It is beleived that wood or thatch was used to construct other structures on top of the existing pyramids.
It is beleived that Lubaantun was an administrative, religious, political, and commercial center used primarily for occasional festivals, ball games, and other religious ceremonies. An abundance of ceramic whistle figurines and a few burial tombs were found here. The crystal skull, a human skull carved from an eight inch cube of rock crystal was supposedly discovered here. Unfortunately this skull now sits in Canada.
delicious
digg
google
yahoo