Acanceh: Faces of Gods

Acanceh (The Cry of the Deer)

20.8131497, -89.4524755

Yucatec Maya

Inhabited since at least the pre-classic period (600-150 BCE). Fluorescence in the classic period, beginning around 150 AD, showing influence from Teotihuacan following that city’s conquest of the Peten region in the 4th century. Strong architectural connections to the Peten indicate that this may have been an early site of the Itza. Other local powerful cities such as Izamal and Uxmal seem to have been connected to it, although the nature of the relationship is unclear. Thought to have never been abandoned. A carved face was first noticed in the early 1900’s and excavated, but it was not protected and soon eroded away. The others were excavated in the 1990’s.