965H+FG Ushmal, Yucatan, Mexico
The Governor's Palace, the Palace of the Rulers, the Palace of Shiv (El Palacio del Gobernador) is the highest achievement of the Puuc architectural style. Fortunately, the building has been well preserved. The approximate date of construction is determined to be the 10th century, and it turned out to be one of the last major constructions here in Uxmal.
The complex contains several buildings on a large common platform measuring 185 by 164 m, which rises to a height of 7 to 14 meters above the terrain, which has a wavy relief. At the base of this platform lies a natural elevation, which significantly reduced the amount of building material used. The outer surface of the platform had 6 to 7 steps. In turn, the large platform stood on another, smaller one, which was intended to level the uneven terrain. The corners of the platform consist of very large rounded stone blocks. From the north, two staircases led to the platform. One of them approached the northern entrance to the House of the Turtles, the second to the square in front of the Governor's Palace. Another entrance was located on the western side behind the old Chenes temple. It is still unknown whether there was a staircase east of the Main Pyramid or not.
The Governor's Palace is about 100 m long. It stands west of the middle of the main platform on its own long and narrow platform, 109 m in length. From the east, a 40 m wide staircase leads to it. The building is divided into three parts connected by arches. Later, the gates were bricked up, turning them into small rooms. The palace has 14 rooms arranged in two rows. The rear rooms are somewhat higher than the front ones. In addition, there are three rooms in the outer corners. Two of them are accessed only through openings located on the end sides (north and south). The central room of the main facade was apparently the main one, as it can be entered through three entrances; moreover, it is highlighted by special facade decoration. All rooms feature unusually high walls and vaults. Above each door were two beams made of chicosapote wood. During restoration, they were replaced with concrete structures. The beams decorated with hieroglyphs at the central entrance were removed by Stephens and later burned in New York. The frequent use of this wood, resistant to termite destruction, indicates that these trees once grew around Uxmal. The intensive use of this very termite-resistant wood suggests that at that time there must have been sufficient supplies of this wood, which now is found only in areas several hundred kilometers from Uxmal. As in the buildings on the Nuns' Square, the outer door entrances were framed by a slightly larger door opening with another wooden beam. The outer door openings, as in the Women's Monastery, also had wide framing with wooden beams. The unusually thick rear wall (2.5–3 m) gave rise to myths among early researchers about hidden treasures. The lower part of the walls is smooth. The middle cornice consists of three elements: a smooth border, limited above and below by beveled borders slanting in different directions. Large snake heads protrude from the corners of the middle border. The upper half of the walls carries all the rich decoration. The entire decoration complex creates an exceptionally complex composition. Its main element is a stepped meander. These are spirals with a stepped line on the side, which can be oriented either to the right or to the left in mirror reflection of each other. Between them are fields filled with a lattice ornament with diamond-shaped stones in each cell. The columnar meanders are arranged in two horizontal rows. Their height is somewhat less than half of the upper part of the wall, so free space remains above and below them. This space is filled with Chaac masks, which partially run in horizontal lines and partially are arranged stepwise.
Above the central entrance are eight horizontal smooth stripes, apparently fixed later on top of the field of lattice ornament. Flat snake heads are attached to them. Between the snake heads are chains of pseudo-hieroglyphs. These signs only look like hieroglyphs; in fact, they are unreadable and carry no information. Above is a row of Chaac masks. In the middle of this composition is a figure of a ruler sitting on a throne wearing a tall feather headdress. The throne is depicted as a semicircular arch, from which snake heads emerge.
The upper cornice is arranged in a special way. Above the beveled border runs a narrow cornice, around which a line seems to be wrapped, passing sometimes in front, sometimes behind the border. The finish is a tall, protruding forward border. The end sides of the palace bear the same decoration of columnar meander and lattice ornament. The rear side is decorated only with lattice ornament.
The interiors of the Palace were richly painted and inside were decorated with ceramic heads of people. In the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) a pair of such finds is presented, remarkable painted molded heads of contemporaries of the construction.
There are also sketches made in 1917 showing human sculpture, which during the disorderly archaeological excavations on the territory of Uxmal was also secretly taken to museums in the USA or either perished in a fire, like the beams with hieroglyphs, or disappeared into private collections.
Looking from the terrace of the Governor's Palace, everywhere the eye can reach, there once was the state of Shiv. Here lived the ruler of the Shiv dynasty, who was the Halach Uinik ("real man") or Ahau ("lord"), the head of the state. This same Tutul-Shiv dynasty headed the last Maya kingdom in the Mani district, whose defeat cost the conquistador troops of Francisco de Montejo dearly. Despite all attempts by the Spanish conquistadors to erase from memory and destroy the great Maya civilization, even in 1841 one of the first researchers of Uxmal, Stephens, wrote about the Governor's Palace: "There is no coarseness or barbarism in the construction or proportions; on the contrary, it exudes architectural symmetry and grandeur."
The rulers of Uxmal and the "great men" of Motul, Tekoh, Chichen Itza, and Mayapan fought among themselves for power over Yucatan. And the inhabitants of the palace participated in this war for hegemony with even greater persistence than the dynasties ruling other city-states. Much blood was shed, dynasties and cities perished. Uxmal was also abandoned by its inhabitants. But those who ruled from here, from the Palace, managed to survive all the bloody wars, managed to survive the conquest of America, allied with the whites (and this is the only such Maya ruling family), and the conquerors even elevated them to the rank of hidalgo. Thus, the first Maya "nobleman" became a nobleman according to Spanish law. At Harvard University, in the famous Peabody Museum, there are a number of exceptionally valuable documents of Maya history, written by Yucatec Indians immediately after the conquest of their country by the Spaniards. Among them are two documents telling about Shiv. One of them depicts the territory of the state of Shiv at the time of the arrival of the Spaniards. The center of their country was no longer Uxmal but Mani. On the other, even more important document, the genealogical tree of the Uxmal Shiv family is drawn. The tree grows from the body of the founder of Uxmal. Next to him stands his wife. However, the trunk of the family grows from the husband's body, not from the wife's. Patrilineal inheritance among the Maya had already completely prevailed. Based on this genealogy and other later documents stored in the Peabody Museum, as well as on the research of the American scholar Morley, it was finally possible to compile a complete genealogy of Shiv up to our century.
The descendants of Shiv, the founder of the city, not only survived the arrival of the Spaniards and the colonial period but still live in Yucatan today. Since the last foundation of Uxmal by the first ruler from the Shiv dynasty, 39 generations have been added to the genealogy of the former lords of Uxmal. One of the last from the famous ancient dynasty, Gerardo Shiv, was born on April 23, 1943. He lives, like his father Dionisio Shiv and his grandfather Nemesio Shiv, in Tikul, works the land, harvests corn and sisal, and is no different from his Tikul neighbors. And his hut is as simple as those of other Yucatec Indians. But just a few kilometers south of poor Tikul, from the village where Gerardo Shiv lives, rise, shining from afar, the beautiful walls of the Palace in the City of the Magician, in the city resurrected 40 generations ago by Gerardo's ancestors, in the city whose glory has not died and will not die.
Sources:
Festival of Spells. Reflections on Mesoamerican Civilization
Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio
