This passageway runs between the Structure IV Annex and Structure VIII
"A vaulted passageway having its entrance in the west face of the terrace south of Structure IV, extends eastward some 17 m. Beyond this point, as though the passageway had not been completed, there is an irregular depression extending to the eastern edge of the terrace.
The passage is 1.70 m. wide; the vertical wall rises 1.92 m. the the vault, an additional 1.88 m. to the capstones, which have a span of 35 cm. It is approximately 30 cm. from the under side of the capstones to the roof."
Ruppert, Karl & John H. Denison, Jr. Archaeological Reconnaissance in Campeche, Quintana Roo, & Peten. Publication 543. Washington D.C. Carnegie Institution of Washington. 1943, p. 59
Photo courtesy of Jeff Purcel
Structure VIII and its monumental stairway bound the great central plaza on the east. Two classic Rio Bec style towers sit on top of a pyramidal base, with a single story building of nine rooms stretching between them.
In 1971, a narrow passageway and stairway were discovered in the north tower. David F. Potter notes that the passage is now blocked by masonry debris but apparently led up to an exit on the roof level of the building between the towers. Similar interior staircases have been found in other Rio Bec sites, for example at Xpujil or Rio Bec A.
The south half of the seemingly solid base of this building is honeycombed with at least nine rooms interconnected by sloping passageways and interior stairs.
David F. Potter. Maya Architecture of the Central Yucvatan Peninsula, Mexico. Middle American Researach Institute. Publication 44: New Orleans, 1977, p.58
"Inside the south half of this seemingly solid substructure, a series of at least nine small, roughly finished rooms is located in plan just outside the perimeter of the upper structure. It is probably that more such rooms exist in the north portion of the structure but no entrance to them has been found.
In fact, the north wall of Room 10, the innermost room at the west side, is a secondary blockage of what obviously was a more extensive area approached by a stairway.
The entrance to these rooms from the south is through a narrow passageway that is definitely an intentional entrance; the entry near the center of the east side of the building is merely a place where disintegrations of the building has opened this room to daylight at the surface of the debris. An astonishing aspect of these rooms is their height, over 8 m in some cases, compared to their small area.
No satisfactory reason for the construction of these rooms has yet been proposed. Their utility for storage purposes could hardly have been great, and their effect in lightening the mass of the building would have been slight.
Photo from January 3, 2003
Contrasted with other Rio Bec constructions, Structure VIII rests atop a pyramid rather than the more common low platform. Examples of a more typical design can be seen at Xpujil, Rio Bec B, Hormiguero, and Dzibilnocac.
The center doorway lintel has long since collapsed, and with it, the upper central portion of the motif with what were probably the distinctive upper portions of the mask.
North of the doorway, an exploratory trench excavated in 1971 revealed the lower area of the sculpture. This portion, by comparison with Str. II, Chicanna, and others, appears to represent the profile serpent jaw of the typical Chenes motif, complete with what seem to be two teeth protruding upwards.
Above it here, and also south of the doorway, are largely rectilinear scrolls, probably representing the ear and ear ornament portions of the motif. In comparison with those at Str. II, Chicanna, these are very simple and stylized.
David F. Potter. Maya Architecture of the Central Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico. Middle American Research Institute. Tulane University, New Orleans, 1977 P. 56
Photo courtesy of Jeff Purcell
The relief sculpture on each side of the door was painted a dominant red plus gold and bluegreen.
Typical of many structures at Becan and elsewhere in the Rio Bec region, the pyramidal substructure is honeycombed with chambers and passageways as well as the mysterious openings referred to as ventilators. As David Potter laments, however, due to a lack of extensive excavation, our knowledge of this hidden infrastructure is limited.
What is known for Structure X can be seen in the diagram below. However, Potter goes on to note that his diagram does not show any doorways on the west side boardering the ballcourt.
He states "The steepness of the debris here suggests the absence of a stairway but doorways could have exited at this side of the upper structure without leaving evidence. There are openings in the mound part way up the west side, but these lead into rooms of an undoubtedly older structure intentionally filled with rubble."
David F. Potter. Maya Architecture of the Central Yucvatan Peninsula, Mexico. Middle American Researach Institute. Publication 44: New Orleans, 1977, p.58
Map of Ballcourt Area
Ruppert, Karl & John H. Denison, Jr. Archaeological Reconnaissance in Campeche, Quintana Roo, & Peten. Publication 543. Washington D.C. Carnegie Institution of Washington. 1943: Plate 68
"Structure XI, a ball court, lies at the southwest corner of Structure X. The two parallel ranges, with their long axes north and south, are 32 m. long; between them is the playing area, 9.20 m. wide. The walls of the bench, rising vertically from the floor of the playing area to a height of 90 cm., are composed of six courses of narrow blocks with long tenons...
The east range abuts a high mound (the west side of the south court of Structure X), which may in some way have served as a superstructure, a not uncommon plan (cf. Chichen Itza). The west range did not support a superstructure nor was any trace of a stairway observed on its west slope.
Excavations on the benches along the east-west axis did not disclose stone rings tenoned in the wall or lying in the debris, but this fact does not deny the supposition that rings of some sort were used. No stone disks or end-markers were found set in the playing area along its north-south axis."
Ruppert, Karl & John H. Denison, Jr. Archaeological Reconnaissance in Campeche, Quintana Roo, &Peten. Publication 543. Washington D.C. Carnegie Institution of Washington. 1943, p. 61-62
January 3, 2003
"Structure X, which bounds the west end of the great central plaza. has lateral wings that consist of lower structures, each surrounding a courtyard. From the shape of the debris, these can be presumed to consist of a single level of rooms.
This small residential courtyard probably housed high-ranking members of the nobility.
A wonderful Early Classic stucco facade has recently been discovered in the building at the far end of this small courtyard.
Photo courtesy of Jeff Purcell
The iconography of these Early Classic stuccos is remarkably stable across the entire Mayan region, even though this stucco probably represents a noble of the court rather than a more explicit sun god.
For example, the jaguar mask under the chin and the bird mask headdress are almost identical to those of the Early Classic stuccos at Kohunlich. The Kinich Ahau masks of Edzna exhibit similar bird headdresses.
Notice how much of the original paint is still intact.
Ballcourts were always oriented in a north/south direction with alleys on the east and west sides and the ball players bounced round rubber balls off the sides of these alleys. Since the balls represented the sun's movement from east to west in its daily cycle, the spatial orientation of a ballcourt had immense significance.
INAH, the Mexican Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, provides signs in transliterated Maya as well as Spanish and English.
Their website, called Lugares INAH, is a fantastic resource and has a section of spectacular drone videos of archaeological sites, including Becán.
The large rubber ball used in the ballgame was probably associated with the sun. Since most Mayan ballcourts are oriented in a north-south direction, the ball was played off of the east and west walls of the court to emulate its daily east/west passage.
Ruppert, Karl & John H. Denison, Jr. Archaeological Reconnaissance in Campeche, Quintana Roo, & Peten. Publication 543. Washington D.C. Carnegie Institution of Washington. 1943:Plate 68
These low masonry structures seem to define an entrance area to the ballcourt.
"Toward the end of the Late Classic periiod, Becan was a center with at least two foci of activity -- the plazas at the southeast, and the center of the site defined by the dry moat constructed hundreds of years earlier.
By this time the dry moat was not being kept clear of refuse, but the seven causeways that crossed it would still have functioned as routes to and from the center."
David F. Potter. Maya Architecture of the Central Yucvatan Peninsula, Mexico. Middle American Researach Institute. Publication 44: New Orleans. 1977, p. 10