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Navarro-Castillo began the Rancho Ojo de Agua Archaeological Project in 2015 with the goal of investigating low-ranking sites in the Lacanjá river basin in the Lacandon jungle. When local students notified project members about the deterioration of Prehispanic graffiti (by both human and natural agents) at the site of Plan de Ayutla, we visited it to record and preserve what remained. Seven incised images were rediscovered, some of which had been previously published by Martos (2015:10-11). Video footage, photographs, and direct tracings were taken to fully document each image.
The site of Plan de Ayutla
This Late Classic site is located in the ejido of the same name, near the town of Nueva Palestina. It encompasses about 25 ha, and includes 74 structures distributed across three acropoli. The graffiti are located in Structures 2 and 13, both of which are still standing in the North Acropolis (Figure 1).
Figure 1.
Location of graffiti in the North Acropolis of Plan de Ayutla, based on Tovalín et al. 2004. Graffiti drawn by Sophia Pincemin and Carlos Hoover.
[Figure Omitted; See PDF]Structure 2 is a three-room temple with three front entryways: a central door accessed by a small staircase and two flanking doors. The central door opens into a hallway through which one can access each of the three temple rooms. Each of the side rooms has two points of entry - one from the front of the building and a second from the central hallway. Access to the central room is more restricted. It can be entered through the single door at the back of the hallway, directly behind the main entrance.
Structure 13 is an administrative building composed of front and rear galleries connected by a narrow doorway at the eastern end. A single bench is located next to the entrance on the western side of the front gallery. Due to the layout of the building, the front gallery is well lit from the entrance, but the rear gallery is quite dark (Martos 2005, 2009, 2015; Tovalín Ahumada y Ortiz Villareal 2003; Tovalín Ahumada et al. 2004).
The Graffiti
Structure 2 houses a single drawing located on the wall shared with the central room near both the outdoor and hallway entrances. Lighting is fair....