Topoxte

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Topoxte is a pre-Columbian Maya archaeological site in what is now Department of Petén in northern Guatemala. As the capital of the Ko’woj Maya, it was the largest of the few Postclassic Mesoamerican sites in the area. Topoxte was located on a former island (now a peninsula) in the Yaxha lagoon across from the Classic period center of Yaxha. The name of the site, Topoxte, means “Ramón tree's seed.” The Ramón tree, commonly known as breadnut, was an important component of the ancient Maya diet.

Early Postclassic temple at Topoxte.

The site was first occupied in the Late Classic by elite families from Yaxha. Burial 49, which dates to AD 750, indicates a marriage of the Lady Twelve Guacamaya from Topoxte with a prince from Tikal. The site was abandoned by the end of the Classic period (ca. 900) and reoccupied in during the Postclassic at approximately 1350. After being inhabited for about a century, it was finally abandoned in 1450.

Ten different construction phases are apparent in the archaeological record of Topoxte. There are three distinctive groups at the site, two 5 meter tall platforms, and a low residential area consisting of more than 100 structures. The site’s central plaza is bounded by 3 temples constructed in the Postclassic architectural style (incorporating vertical walls, columns and flat stone ceilings).

There were two other islands Canté and Poxte, now also part of the main land, that where also occupied by people from Topoxte, the site was abandoned ca 1450, when the Ko’woj Maya, moved their capitol west to Zacpetén Island in the Salpetén lake, near the Peten Itza lake.