Tres Islas facts for kids
Tres Islas (meaning "Three Islands" in Spanish) is a small ancient Maya site in northern Guatemala. It's an archaeological site where people lived long ago, from about 400 BC to 900 AD. The most important part of Tres Islas is a group of three tall stone monuments called Maya stelae and a stone altar. These stones are arranged in a special way that looks like an ancient Maya observatory, used for watching the sky.
Tres Islas is one of the few Maya cities that put up dated monuments during the Early Classic period (around 250 AD to 600 AD).
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Where is Tres Islas Located?
Tres Islas is found on the west side of the Pasión River in the Petén Department of northern Guatemala. It's about 20 kilometers (12 miles) west of the ruins of Machaquila and about the same distance north of Cancuen. It's also about 20 kilometers (12 miles) south of another famous Maya site called Seibal.
The History of Tres Islas
Long ago, Tres Islas might have been the first capital city of a kingdom that later moved its main center to Cancuen. This is suggested by a special symbol, called an Emblem glyph, found at Tres Islas that was later used by the Cancuen-Machaquila kingdom.
During this time, a very powerful city called Teotihuacan in Mexico had a big influence on the Maya region. You can even see this influence in the art and style of the monuments at Tres Islas.
How Tres Islas Was Discovered
Even though explorers like Teobert Maler and Sylvanus Morley visited nearby Maya sites in the early 1900s, they didn't explore Tres Islas. Maler's map from 1905 mentioned Tres Islas, but he put it on the wrong side of the river!
Later, a researcher named Ian Graham visited Tres Islas in 1965, 1966, and 1970. He reported finding three fallen stone monuments (stelae). In 2003, a project called the Cancuen Project started exploring Tres Islas properly. Their early studies showed that people lived in this area from the Late Preclassic period (around 400 BC) all the way to the Late Classic period (around 900 AD).
What You Can See at the Site
The site of Tres Islas has a main group of three stelae and an altar. These are located about 200 meters (656 feet) north of three smaller buildings, each about 1.5 meters (5 feet) tall. Both of these groups are on the edge of a hill that looks out over the Pasión River.
The platform that holds the three stelae is about 8.5 meters (28 feet) long from north to south and 5 meters (16 feet) wide from east to west.
The Ancient Stone Monuments
The three stelae at Tres Islas were originally lined up in a row, facing west. They stood on a low, long platform made of carved stones. An altar was placed right in front of the middle stela. This arrangement of the stelae and altar is very similar to the "E-Group" astronomical complex found at another Maya city called Uaxactun. This suggests that the monuments at Tres Islas were also used for watching the sky, especially the sunrise, because they are on a hill facing east.
Archaeologists found pottery near the stela platform that dates back to the Late Preclassic and Late Classic periods.
The carvings on the three stelae include 137 hieroglyphic symbols and 12 dates from the Maya calendar. All three stelae were officially put up in 475 AD, but they talk about events that happened earlier, in 400 AD and 416 AD.
Stela 1 is very damaged. Pieces of it were dug up in 2003 and moved to the town of Santa Elena.
Stela 2 is the middle stela of the three. Near it, archaeologists found an offering: two ceramic pots placed together. Inside them were 9 small jade figures, including shapes of shells, a tortoise, and a human head. They also found pieces of coral, shells (like a cowry), nine pieces of obsidian (a sharp volcanic glass), and over 300 pieces of worked flint stone.
Stela 3 is the smallest of the three stelae. It is broken into two pieces. This stela shows a person dressed in the war clothes of Teotihuacan. This person holds three feathered darts in their left hand. They wear a fancy feathered headdress with cheek guards and a fan-shaped tail made of feathers and three coyote tails. This warrior looks a lot like the famous Tikal king Yax Nuun Ayiin I, as seen on Stela 31 in Tikal.
Above the warrior, there's a flying bird, often seen on monuments from the Pacific Coast. The warrior stands on an image of a scarlet macaw, which is thought to be a special symbol for Tres Islas. The writing on this stela is hard to read because it's worn away, but it seems to record a date from 400 AD.
See also
In Spanish: Tres Islas (sitio arqueológico) para niños
