Archinect - News

Archaeologists discover long-lost ancient Maya city

2023-08-04T14:56:00-04:00

In a biological preserve in Mexico’s Campeche State, a team of archaeologists has documented pyramids, palaces, a ball court and other remains of an ancient city they call Ocomtún. [...] The Mexican institute described the site, in Campeche State, as having once been a major center of Maya life. During at least part of the Classic Maya era — around 250 to 900 A.D. — it was a well populated area.

"These cities had been lost to time. Nobody knew exactly where they were," Dr. Ivan Šprajc, the Slovenian archaeologist who led the discovery of the previously unmapped 8th-century Maya city in the Mexican jungle, shared with BBC Travel. "But this [Ocomtún], was actually the last major black hole on the archaeological map of the central Maya Lowlands (the modern-day central Yucatán Peninsula). Nothing was there. There was not a single known site in an area stretching some 3,000-4,000 sq km."

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Mexico is planning a new museum at Chichén Itzá

2023-03-21T11:53:00-04:00

The museum, which is still in the planning stages, will replace a much smaller building that closed more than ten years ago. It is likely to follow in the museo de sitio (site museum) model found at other complexes managed by the federal Instituto Nacional de Antropologia e História (INAH). Carlos Esperón, the director of the Maya Museum in Cancún, in the neighbouring state of Quintana Roo, tells The Art Newspaper that work on the museum “could take two years.”

Meanwhile, the Art Newspaper is reporting that several finds taken from the disputed new Maya Train project’s construction will be displayed at the new museum, which is the third most visited cultural site in Mexico. Some experts had feared it would eventually become at risk over the number of visitors interacting with the 1,500-year-old space.

The new museum will apparently be built away from the UNESCO-protected site's monumental area on the other side of a highway so as not to risk any further damage. A section called Chichén Viejo which had previously been off-limits will also be made public as part of the construction project. Costs are expected to exceed US$14.4 million.

Archaeologists discover well-preserved Mayan city in the Yucatán peninsula

2022-06-02T17:10:00-04:00

Archaeologists of the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (Iphan, the Mexican federal bureau that oversees cultural heritage projects) have unearthed a remarkably well-preserved Maya city in the Yucatán peninsula near Merida while examining a construction site for archaeological artefacts.

The site is called Xiol, which is believed to have been occupied by more than 4,000 people between 600 and 900 AD. It consists of nearly 100 structures with features related to the Mayan Puuc style, an architecture characterized by carefully-cut veneer stones set onto a concrete core, with façades decorated with intricate stone mosaics and geometric elements.

According to The Art Newspaper, similar examples of Puuc architecture have not been discovered in this region of the Yucatán. The structures are thought to have served as palaces and ritual sites. The archaeologists also discovered a cenote, freshwater underground pits, carved stone heads, ceramics with religious symbols, burial grounds with various objects, and marine artifacts.

Video via Global News on YouTube.

The discovery of Xiol, along with other archaeological sites in the region, can be attributed to increased development in the Yucatán. A controversial multi-billion dollar train line called the Maya Train is currentl...

Frank Lloyd Wright's iconic Ennis House sells for a record-setting $18 million

2019-10-17T15:31:00-04:00

After an incredible publicity blitz and well over a year on the market, Frank Lloyd Wright’s world-renowned Ennis House — tucked into the foothills of Los Feliz [...] — has sold for $18 million to an as-yet-unidentified buyer. That number, while significantly below the $23 million ask, ranks it as the priciest Wright-designed home ever sold, easily eclipsing the previous high-water mark set by the Storer House in nearby Hollywood Hills, which was purchased in 2013 for $6.8 million [...]

More than one Frank Lloyd Wright-designed home has changed owners this week: after learning about the successful auction of his mid-century modern Norman Lykes House in Phoenix on Wednesday, Variety now reports that the spectacular Mayan Revival-style Ennis House in LA's Los Feliz hills just sold for a whopping $18 million — the highest price ever for a Wright-designed residence. The property came on the market last summer with an asking price of $23 million.

Photo: Mary E. Nichols, via Realtor.com

Commissioned by Charles and Mabel Ennis in 1923, the stately home was built in the following year as the fourth and largest of Wright's ornamental textile block designs — making it a popular backdrop for photo and film shoots, most notably in 1982's Blade Runner.

ZHA designs Alai, an ecologically-sensitive residential complex in the Mayan Riviera

2017-05-17T13:36:00-04:00

The Mayan Riviera has had a rapid increase of visitors each year—over 10% annually—and its residential population has almost doubled since 2000. In fact, it has more international visitors than any other region in Latin America. While great for the economy, this influx can have a negative effect on the region’s ecology.

Zaha Hadid Architects have designed Alai, a complex of residential buildings that marry “ecological considerations, engaging design and a reinterpretation of local architectural tradition.” Alai is sited on a plot of land previously prepped for a building never completed.

By limiting the total footprint of all residential buildings to 7% of the site, the design reduces its environmental impact and the vegetation to remain largely intact. An onsite botanical nursery is intended to aid the restoration of biodiversity that was disturbed by the previous owner. There’s also a woodland reserve and a coastal wetland restoration project.

The residential buildings themselves are...

Three pyramids in one: Mayan Kukulkan pyramid is an architectural "Russian nesting doll"

2016-11-17T13:08:00-05:00

Once, twice, three times a pyramid: thanks to non-invasive scanning, archaeologists have determined that "El Castilo," also known as the Kukulkan pyramid in Chichen Itza, has two other pyramids inside of it. As The Guardian explains:

"A 10-metre-tall pyramid was found within another 20-metre structure, which itself is enveloped by the 30-metre exterior visible at the Maya archeological complex known as Chichen Itza in Yucatán state. The smallest pyramid was built between the years 550 and 800, engineers and anthropologists said. The middle structure had already been discovered in the 1930s and dates back to the years 800-1000, while the largest one was finished between 1050 and 1300."

Pyramids in the news: