CHAPTER XX. THE RUINS OF IXKUN AND THE PINE RIDGE.
On the 9th of March we set out again and lunched at midday under the shade of the first pine-trees that we had seen since leaving the valley of the Cajabon River, and two leagues further on we left the shade of the forest for the open savannah of Poctum, a level plain covered with beautiful pasture and dotted over with conical limestone hills and clumps of pine-trees. The next day we crossed the Rio Machaquilá, a swift and sparkling stream which bounds the savannah towards the north, and then had a dreary ride along a forest-track, where the mules plunged up to their girths in mud-holes, to the village of Dolores.
For the next fortnight Dolores was our headquarters while we explored the ruins of Ixkun. I had heard of the existence of these ruins some years before from the Jefe Político of Peten, but none of the villagers in Dolores seemed to know anything about them. The Alcalde was inclined to resent our inquiries, and clearly looked on us as suspicious characters, until the perusal of my letter from the President calmed his fears; he then promised to make inquiries himself and find a “práctico” to guide us. There was really some difficulty in discovering anyone who knew the way, but at last a “práctico” was found who was sent off next morning in company with Gorgonio and Carlos. They returned in the evening to report that the ruins had been found buried in the forest about six miles to the N.N.W. of the village; not only, they reported, were the mounds and carved monoliths completely hidden from view by the rank vegetation, but over a great part of the site the thick tangle of woody lianes was almost impenetrable. However we had a force of twenty mozos, and next day they were set to work with axes and machetes to clear away the undergrowth and smaller trees, and as several cargoes of totoposte and frijoles arrived from Cajabon in the course of the first week, there was no lack of food and the men worked fairly well.
The small plain on which the ruins stand is almost surrounded by low rough limestone hills, and although the forest is too thick to enable one to speak with anything like certainty, I do not think the buildings extend beyond the area of the plain. The plan of the ruins is given on the opposite page. It could not have been a town of very great importance, as the buildings are small and the masonry is of an inferior class, but the sculptured monoliths and hieroglyphic inscriptions show that it must have belonged to a good period.
RUINS OF IXKUN, GUATEMALA.
The foundations on which the buildings were raised vary in height from 5 to 50 feet, and are composed of rough irregular blocks and slabs of soft limestone; the interstices were probably filled up with mud, and the surface faced with cement, but the cement facing has almost entirely disappeared. The mud had been washed out by tropical rains, so that now the foundations present the appearance of rough heaps of unworked stone. At the south end of the plain is a natural hill which has been partly terraced, and was probably ascended on the north side by a stone stairway; on the top of it are two foundations supporting the remains of stone houses. From the foot of this hill a sort of roadway, with the remains of a low wall on either side, runs to the principal group of buildings, and is continued on the other side of it to a low hill on which the remains of a few other buildings were found.
I made an excavation on the summit of the mound marked X in the plan, that disclosed the remains of a house or temple, of which a ground-plan is given. Only two walls could be found, but there was almost certainly an outer chamber, which is shown in dotted lines. Near the middle doorway a rough unworked slab of stone was lying, which had probably served as a lintel. The doorway in the back wall had been blocked up after the house was built. The walls still standing are about five feet high, and, from the position of the stone lintel above the blocked-up doorway, I should estimate the original height of the walls at a little over six feet. The cement floor of the house is still in fair condition, and there are traces of a cement-covered platform which ran round the outside of it. Some fragments of rough pottery were found inside the house. No roofing-stones of the type used in Copan, Tikál, and the other great ruins could be found, and I am inclined to think that the very narrow chambers were roofed with flat slabs, and some slabs which would have answered the purpose were found among the debris. There are several carved monoliths which formerly stood on the level ground in front of the buildings, but most of them are overturned and partly destroyed. The only one in a fair state of preservation is shown in the accompanying Plate; but this is one of great importance, and we made a careful mould of it, from which a plaster-cast has been made; this is now in the South Kensington Museum.