When talking about the Maya and the people of Central America, Palenque, Teotihuacán, Oaxaca, Tlatelolco or Chichén Itzá almost always go hand in hand. These are all important archaeological sites and when we look at the great cities of the past, we have some of the most important cities in the country today. Mexico City, for example, was built on Tenochtitlan and Tlatelolco. But when we look at the Yucatan Peninsula, there is one name that doesn’t really stand out: Oxtankah.

In the past, it was one of the most important points of the eastern region of Yucatan, and a recent study could restore it to the splendor it once had.

Okstankah. Located in the southeast of the state of Quintana Roo and near the city of Chetumal, it is one of the most important Mayan cities. Now we can miss Oxtankah so much that we do not even know its original name. The current one was awarded in 1937 by the researcher Alberto Escalona Ramos and means “place between three towns” or “place surrounded by ramóns” (ramón is a tree, Brosium alicastrumCurrently, Oxtankah is not one of the most visited archaeological sites in Mexico or the Yucatán, but you can see ruins such as houses or ceremonial buildings.

Privileged location. It is estimated that the city experienced its brightest period between 250 and 600 AD. It is the period known as the Early Classic, and it is believed that many improvements were made in the city, such as changes that increased the proportions of various structures, the creation of wall paintings. There were ceremonial structures made of plaster and served as sacred spaces to transmit their culture. And this bright period occurred due to the privileged location of the settlement.

Oxtankah is located on several cenotes, which allowed its inhabitants to easily obtain fresh water. It was also one of the gateways to the Caribbean, so there was no shortage of fish and a significant trade network was developed with other areas. Oxtankah was able to trade by sea, as it was a much faster route than the land routes of many other Central American regions.

Migrations. And this port was the key to population exchange in the Classic period. At least that’s what Allan Ortega, a researcher at INAH in Quintana Roo, believes. After his research, he commented that Oxtankah was the jewel in the crown of migration in the eastern region of Yucatán. This opening to the sea was historically of vital importance to the peoples, and we have already seen that Tlatelolco was a very important cultural center thanks to its port.

Ortega analyzed stable isotopes of strontium and oxygen in more than 300 bone fragments from five archaeological sites in Quintana Roo:

• Meco
• King.
• San Miguelito.
• Overalls.
• Okstankah.

He also looked at previous studies on the diet and cranial features of 87 other skeletons from the sites of Teotihuacán, Palenque, Monte Albán, Toniná, El Mirador, Copán or Kaminaljuyu. There were individuals of both sexes and all ages, making it possible to draw a kind of migration map that reveals geographical mobility patterns along the eastern Guatemala coast and other cities in the Gulf of Mexico.

Everything is changing. This study has made it possible to confirm population exchanges in these areas. For example, people from the Gulf arrived at Tulum or El Rey at some point, where remains of people from northern Belize have also been found. But as Ortega points out, Oxtankah is the point at which most contact with other sites can be established, and this was already suspected.

They therefore think that this was a meeting point with other sites from the Preclassic and Early Classic periods, such as the Altar de Sacrificios in Guatemala, as well as Dzibanché, Calakmul and Kohunlich in Campeche. This meant that there was an exchange of populations between these areas, but it also clearly transformed Oxtankah into an ancient multicultural center of political, economic, demographic and biological exchanges.

Archaeological site. In the Late Classical and Postclassical period, the city went into decline. It ceased to be a major commercial and cultural centre and was reduced to a place for local people to make offerings. When the Spanish arrived, they built a chapel, but the area had not been used as a city centre for centuries.

Once an important commercial and geopolitical point, one of the most powerful Maya ports, this site now contains many niches, residential floors, buildings that may have been sacred spaces, and the remains of a 16th-century Spanish chapel (and graffiti), the design of which is very similar to that of Dzibilchaltún in the north of the peninsula.

Maybe Oxtankah could have a glorious second life with the Mayan Train.

Pictures | INAH

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