Chetumal was a Postclassic Maya polity (kuchkabal) in the Maya Lowlands, in what is now northern Belize and southern Quintana Roo, Mexico. It is thought to have been established in or prior to 1514, possibly during the Postclassic period, and to have been annexed by Spanish Yucatan in 1544, upon the successful Pachecos entrada. Its last known governor (halach winik) was Nachan Kan (fl.c.1514–1544), who notably led his province during the Spanish conquest of Yucatan, alongside his slave and later son-in-law, Gonzalo Guerrero, a stranded Spanish sailor. The former province has been the subject of Mayanist study since the late 19th century, and is notable in popular culture as one of the last coastal kuchkabals conquered by the Spanish, and for the Guerrero–Kan family, who are thought to number amongst the earliest Mestizo families in the New World.
History
Chichen Itza ruins
The first settlements in what would become Chetumal were established by Palaeoindians before 8000 BC, during the Lithic period. The first permanent settlements in the area, though, are credited to Maya farmers newly arrived from the Maya Highlands by 2000 BC, during the Archaic to Preclassic period transition.[citation needed] The first complex polity encompassing said settlements is presumed to have been formed by AD 100, during the Preclassic.[citation needed]
The completion of the Classic collapse in the Maya Lowlands saw both the reformation of Classic polities and the rise of Chichen Itza to regional power. The collapse does not seem to have been catastrophic in the (future) territory of Chetumal. At least twenty-five settlements in the area are known to have survived, most likely by reorienting economic activity towards the Chichen Itza-driven coasting trade. There is, nonetheless, evidence of limited social upheaval.
Chichen Itza, established by Itza settlers in circa 750–800, was the most influential city-state in the northern lowlands until circa 1050–1100. It appears to have started a sustained, and successful, programme of conquest in circa 900, resulting in the formation or reformation of various polities, possibly or likely including Chetumal.
Mayapan ruins
Mayapan succeeded Chichen Itza as the regional power in the northern lowlands during k'atun 8 ahaw, equivalent either to 1080–1104 or to 1185–1204. Their rule lasted thirteen k'atuno'ob, thereby ending either during 1392–1416 or 1441–1461.
During circa 1450 to 1500, Pachimalahix I, fifth ruler of the Acalan, led a military force to the eponymous port and capital of Chetumal, and exacted tribute. Further details on this event remain obscure, though given the reputed commercial pre-eminence of said port at the time, it has been suggested that Pachimalahix I raided the city to settle trade-related damages, rather than actually having exacted tribute.
Columbian
The first non-Amerindian person known to have arrived in Chetumal was Gonzalo Guerrero, a Spanish sailor stranded off of Yucatan in 1511 or 1512. In 1514, Guerrero entered the civil or military service in Chetumal. He was likely gifted to Kan as a slave by a batab ('mayor') from the neighbouring Ekab province, a presumed ally of Chetumal. By 1519, Guerrero had fully assimilated to Maya culture, having married Kan's daughter and fathered three children with her. Guerrero would thereafter devise or at least contribute to the military strategy of Chetumal and allied states against at least three Spanish entradas.
Three events predating Guerrero's 1514 arrival have been proposed as marking first contact by Chetumal residents and non-Amerindian people: the said 1511 or 1512 stranding to Cozumel, the 1508 voyage by Pinzón and Solís to Lake Izabal, and the 1502 voyage by Columbus to Guanaxa. Maya settlements near Cozumel, Lake Izabal, and Guanaxa are known to have been part of the riverine and coastal trading networks of merchants in Chetumal. Any news of newcomers obtained by the former is thus presumed to have been passed on to the latter.
Spanish conquest
Hispano-Maya hostilities commenced on 5 March 1517 in Cape Catoche, when an expeditionary force led by Francisco Hernández de Córdoba was ambushed by Ekab's forces near that province's eponymous capital. Hernández and his men were similarly received by neighbouring Maya polities, thereby foiling the Spaniards' pecuniary aims.
The expeditionaries' reports of grand Maya cities would nonetheless spur further Cuban expeditions to Yucatan, including a 1518 trading and reconnoitering voyage by Juan de Grijalva and another in 1519 by Hernán Cortés, the latter of which quickly morphed into the 1519–1521 conquest of the Aztec Empire and a contemporaneous smallpox epidemic in the lowlands. The latter is presumed to have affected Chetumal severely. The reports likewise prompted Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar, the Cuban governor who had commissioned the Hernández expedition, to petition and be granted letters patent authorising his conquest of the Maya Lowlands on behalf of the Charles I of Spain. The newly minted adelantado, however, did not proceed with the conquest of Yucatan.
On 8 December 1526, the Salamancan conquistador Francisco de Montejo, who had participated in the aforementioned Grijalva and Cortés expeditions, was granted letters patent for the conquest of Yucatan and Cozumel by Charles I. Unlike Velázquez, former holder of the patent, the new adelantado did promptly undertake the called-for conquest.
His first expedition towards this end, with Alonso Dávila as his principal lieutenant, saw them land in Cozumel in late September 1527 with four ships and over 250 men from Seville. They were pretty successful in the northern lowlands (in Ekab and Chik'in Che'el), and so next proceeded via land and sea south to Chetumal in the summer of 1528. Their efforts here proved less successful though, as a ruse by the province soon convinced the men to retreat that same summer.
Montejo's second attempt came three summers later, led by his lieutenant, Dávila. With some fifty men, Dávila marched across the lowlands from the provincial capital of Kanpech east to Chetumal in mid-1531. They reached the now-deserted port capital that summer, where they were vigorously besieged by the province and neighbouring allies. The men thus made their retreat by sea in the autumn of 1532, reaching Puerto Caballos in spring 1533, after an arduous journey of seven months.
The next and final entrada came a decade later. Gaspar Pacheco, with some 25 to 30 conquistadors, marched south from Mérida in late 1543 or early 1544. This last expedition, notably one of the bloodiest of the Spanish conquest to date, proved successful, resulting in the dissolution of the province and incorporation of its (vastly depopulated) territory to Spanish Yucatan in 1544.
Society
Chicken Itza temple dedicated to K'uk'ulkan
Chichen Itza is known to have (coercively) sponsored the pre-eminent worship of K'uk'ulkan. The cult of K'uk'ulkan is thought to have been the first state religion to transcend linguistic and ethnic differences in Mesoamerica. The cult is believed to have strengthened or been strengthened by the Postclassic coasting trade.
It has been suggested that Chetumal, in particular, was home to a cult of Itzamna which focussed on the god's association with large ocean creatures. He has featured prominently in material finds from former Chetumal which, unusually, frequently depict him emerging from the jaws of said creatures.
Government
Chichen Itza is believed to have been governed either by a multepal ('council of lords'), or by a king and a privy council. It has been suggested that the city-state's realm was administered as a confederacy of provinces.
Mayapan is commonly held to have been ruled by a multepal ('council of lords'), composed of members from the Canul, Chel, Cocom, Cupul, and Xiu ch'ibalo'ob ('noble houses'). Its realm is believed to have been organised as a confederation of provinces, called the League of Mayapan, each of which was overseen by a kalwak ('governor').
Columbian
Civil organisation of Chetumal towards the Columbian era
Chetumal's form of government in and towards the Columbian era is presumed to have remained mostly the same as that during its infancy in the Postclassic, and to not have differed significantly from that of nearby unitary kuchkabals, like Kehpech, Mani, and Sotuta.
Chetumal's head of state and government was the halach winik ('governor'), who would also have been the batab ('mayor') of the province's eponymous capital. His office and title, Ahaw ('Lord'), were hereditary, and his rule considered a divine right. The office's powers and duties included: exacting tribute from the province's cities, towns or hamlets; conscripting men for military service in times of war; conducting war; sitting as the highest tribunal for inter-municipal conflicts; officiating religious ceremonies of state.
At least one of Chetumal's later governors is known to have held authority over some part or much of Waymil, the province's neighbour to the north. This was likely effected through the threat of force, rather than diplomacy, as said authority was only reluctantly acceded to.
Immediately subject to the governor were the batabo'ob ('mayors') of the cities, towns and hamlets of the province. This office was likewise hereditary. The office's powers and duties included: having a town farm kept for his pecuniary benefit, keeping houses and farms in order, sitting as a tribunal of original civil and criminal jurisdiction, and maintaining the municipal forces in times of peace.
The constitution of local government has not been fully elucidated. The following offices were nonetheless known to have been involved in at least some cities, towns or hamlets:
nakomo'ob ('commanders-in-chief'), who exercised municipal military authority in the mayor's stead in times of war,
kuch kabo'ob ('aldermen'), who severally exercised at least executive authority over kuchteelo'ob ('wards'), and who jointly, in court or council assembled, exercised veto power over at least some of the mayor's executive, judicial, or military decisions,
kulelo'ob ('town officers'), who carried out the mayor's orders.
Local government were also responsible for administering the commons, which included all municipal land, as private land ownership either did not exist or was forbidden. It is not clear whether non-municipal land within the province was likewise held in common.
Economy
At least since circa 1450, the provincial capital was a major port of call for the peninsular coasting trade from the Ulua River or Bay Islands up to the Ekab. It was, at least towards the Columbian era, a large town of circa 2,000 households, abutted by sapodilla and cacao orchards, maize fields, and apiaries of stingless honey bees. Its merchant class fully occupied one-fourths of Nito, an out-of-province port of call on the Dulce River. It traded the province's cacao, honey, wax, and marine products for obsidian, jade, turquoise, copper, and gold. Chetumal also had commercial links to the Ulua Valley of Honduras, and even sent a military expedition there when the Spanish began to jeopardize their business interests.
The province was the only significant cacao-producer in Yucatan. It provided the capital's merchants with cacao, honey, wax, and marine products. Articles for local consumption are thought to have included pottery from Lamanai and settlements on Honey Camp Lagoon, and salt and salted fish from coastal settlements on the Northern River Lagoon.
Legacy
Portrait of Thomas Gann (right) in the 1920s
None of Chetumal's records are extant. Consequently, all scholarship on the province has relied on later Hispanic or Maya records and modern archaeology.
After Gann, archaeological work on the province languished until the 1964–1970 Altun Ha Expedition of the Royal Ontario Museum. The project was pushed for by the Archaeological Commissioner of colonial Belize, A. H. Anderson, and led by David M. Pendergast. The substantial corpus generated quickly prompted a renaissance of archaeological work in the area, which has continued to the present day.
Historical work on Postclassic Maya polities was first published by the Mérida-based polymath Juan Francisco Molina Solís in 1896. This was followed by two works in 1943 and 1957 by Ralph L. Roys, a Mayanist of the Carnegie Institution. The latter of these (Political Geography of the Yucatan Maya) has become the authoritative text on the subject, and is most commonly cited as the first of its kind, being significantly more rigorous and complete than preceding works. Despite this progress, Chetumal remained one of the least elucidated provinces until the seminal 1989 Maya Resistance to Spanish Rule by Grant D. Jones, then a professor at Davidson College.
Social
The Guerrero–Kan family by Raúl Ayala Arellano (one of dozens)
The province's Guerrero–Kan family are widely believed to have been amongst the first Mestizo families in the New World. Numerous public works of art depicting them have been installed in Yucatan and Quintana Roo. A turtleshell statuette of Guerrero was gifted to Juan Carlos I and Queen Sofía of Spain during a royal visit on 16 November 1978 in Cancun. Quintana Roo's state anthem, adopted 14 January 1986, celebrates the Guerrero–Kan family. Othon P. Blanco's highest civic honour, introduced 29 September 1997, was named after Guerrero.
On 20 December 2012, the National Institute of Culture and History and the Belize Tourism Industry Association held a public re-enactment of the Guerrero-Kan wedding in Santa Rita, Corozal. Public re-enactments have since been held on 22 March 2014, 5 February 2015, 20 February 2016, 6 July 2017, 19 May 2018, and 29 March 2019.
Notes and references
Notes
↑Also Chakte'mal, Chacte'mal, Chaktemal, Chactemal; often preceded or succeeded by province or Province (as in Province of Chetumal or Chactemal province). Pronounced /ˌtʃɛtʊˈmɑːl/che-tuu-MAHL. Natively u kuchkabal Chakte'mal.
↑In this article, Mayan orthography follows , though at least two other orthographic systems exist. So kuchkabal and Chetumal or Chakte'mal in are preferred here over their variants. Dates of pre-Columbian periods follow , but see periodisation of Belizean history for discussion. Chetumal is termed a polity or province here, and is variously called a chiefdom or province or state in literature, but some Mayanist works distinguish these terms.
↑As of 2016[update], evidence of Palaeoindian presence in Chetumal includes an undated, fishtail projectile point recovered near present-day Orange Walk, and an undated, lanceolate projectile point recovered from August Pine Ridge.
↑Namely: Colha is thought to have been attacked and thereafter settled by northern polities (patterns in its Postclassic material culture have been described as "totally different from those of the Classic period"); Nohmul is thought to have been attacked and thereafter settled by northern polities; mass executions of the local Classic aristocracy have been suggested.
↑In . The city is known to have been conquered or sacked towards circa 1050–1100. Later Columbian accounts hold that Hunak Ke'el, ruler of Mayapan, conquered Chichen Itza, thereby cementing his city's rule over the latter's dominion. At least three other dates proximal to the 1050–1100 date have been suggested for the end of Chichen Itza's dominance over northern Yucatan: 1000–1050, 1100–1200, and 1200–1250.
↑In . Said conquest most likely extended at least throughout central Yucatan. It has been further suggested that the city-state established direct rule, whether by conquest or the threat thereof, over key ports in the coasting trade which circumnavigated Yucatan, from the Chontalpa region to the Bay Islands. One of these may have been Nohmul in Chetumal, where a colonnaded courtyard building, apparently styled after those of Chichen Itza, has been excavated.
↑In . Various Columbian era accounts detail Mayapan's history during these thirteen k'atuno'ob. However, two types of k'atuno'ob were in use then: the Classic period k'atun of 7,200 days (circa 19.713 tropical years), and a later ahaw k'atun of circa 24 tropical years. This has resulted in much uncertainty regarding Mayapan's chronology. It has been suggested the rise of Mayapan was preceded by a breakdown of the peninsular coasting trade.
↑In . The Acalan were an ostracised group from Cozumel who settled the Tenosique valley on the Usumacinta River. This event is tentatively dated to during 1350 to 1375 by , upon the following calculus: a six-generation pedigree of Acalan rulers ranging from the date of their expulsion from Cozumel to the death of their sixth ruler in circa 1526, and a 30-year period in office per ruler. This places the fifth ruler's years in office during circa 1465 to 1496.
↑In . Ekab seems to have lacked a halach winik ('governor'), and was likely rather organised as a confederation of towns. It has been suggested that the Pat ch'ibal ('noble house') were the most influential in the province.
↑In . Antón de Alamilla, chief pilot of the flotilla of three ships and over 100 men, seems to have convinced Hernández de Córdoba to sail directly westwards of Cuba, thereby taking them to Ekab. (The expedition's initial destination was apparently either the Bahamas or the Bay Islands.) Alamilla had sailed with Columbus on his fourth voyage in 1502–1504.
↑In . The Grijalva expedition, of four ships and 250–300 men, and the Cortés one, of ten ships and circa 400 men, were piloted by Antón de Alamilla, and included Pedro de Alvarado, Alonso Dávila, and Francisco de Montejo as principal subordinates. The former's survey of Laguna de Términos led to a mistaken belief that Yucatan was an island.
↑In . The petition was formally made on 16 November 1526, and backed by Pánfilo de Narváez and Antonio de Sedeño. His letters patent required that the conquest begin within a year.
↑In . Though the god's introduction to the Maya pantheon likely preceded the arrival of the Itza to Yucatan, via pre-existing trade links with the Aztec civilisation.
↑In . Classic Maya cosmology is believed to have held that: Earth lay on the back of a large ocean creature; during the moment of creation, Itzamna set up one of three cosmic hearth stones.
↑In . The material culture unearthed includes: late Postclassic polychrome murals formerly in Santa Rita (not extant, though reasonably complete reproductions survive in ), and at least eight effigy censers recovered from Santa Rita. Significantly, Santa Rita has variously been proposed as the likeliest location of the eponymous capital of the Chetumal province.
↑In . That is, the city-state was likely not ruled solely by a king. Despite this, one of Chichen Itza's known rulers, K'ak' u Pakal, may have been a divine king. Furthermore, it has been proposed that K'uk'ulkan (lit.'Feathered Serpent') was a title for Chichen Itza's (non-divine) kings. In the case of rule by a king and privy council, it has been further suggested that the balance of power lay with the council during the city's earlier history, and thereafter lay with the king.
↑In . It has been suggested that, of these five houses, the Xius were initially the pre-eminent one, followed sometime thereafter by the Cocoms. On the other hand, this Xiu–Cocom pre-eminence may have been at least a de facto monarchy.
↑In . Governors, though, were apparently required to reside in Mayapan, so it is unclear who exactly delegated for them in provincial capitals. Later Columbian era accounts commonly hold the League of Mayapan to have been ruled jointly by Mayapan, Chichen Itza, and Uxmal. Archaeological evidence, however, indicates that the latter cities were virtually deserted during Mayapan's rule.
↑The office passed from father to first-born son (primogeniture). In cases when the office passed on to an infant, the former governor's brothers would exercise the office's powers in regency.
↑Waymil is not known to have had a halach winik ('governor'). It may rather have been a confederation of towns, with Maçanahau, Yuyumpeten, and Bacalar being the largest known.
↑In some neighbouring provinces, a hol pop (lit.'head of the mat') would sometimes be mayor, acting mayor, or mayor ad interim. This office is not well understood. Roys suggests the patriarch of the pre-eminent ch'ibal ('noble house') in town held the office. Its Columbian era duties were purely social or ceremonial.
↑Inherited via primogeniture. Some mayors are known to have been appointed by the governor in neighbouring provinces, so this may have also been possible in Chetumal.
↑The court or council's full range of powers and duties, and its form of decision-making, are not understood. Its pre-Columbian Yucatec Maya name is not clear. A Spanish cabildo was called a molay, mulkan, tankab kabil or tan kah. The Columbian era term for aldermen was chun t'ano'ob.
↑Town officers ranked below aldermen, but it is not clear whether the former also deputised for the latter.
↑Though lands were held in common, improvements thereon, like orchards and buildings, were not. It is not immediately clear whether or how administration of the commons was divided amongst local offices, though it is known that local government were responsible for apportioning it, and that the almeheno'ob or local aristocracy or upper class were preferred in such matters.
↑In . This activity is known to have declined by circa 1000–1100, likely due to being outcompeted by salt from the northern Yucatan coast.
↑These are presumed to have been copious, given known pre-Columbian record-keeping practice in peer lowland states. Most were likely burnt or otherwise destroyed during the Spanish conquest and ensuing Catholic proselytising efforts. Any which may have survived are presumed to have decayed past recognition, Chetumal's tropical climate being notoriously unforgiving to Mesoamerican bark paper.
↑In . Gann's offices in colonial Belize included District Commissioner, District Medical Officer, Principal Medical Officer, JP, and MP. Notably, Gann uncovered very rare Postclassic polychrome stucco murals on Structure 1 (Str. 1) of Santa Rita. One of these included an extremely rare and substantial hieroglyphic inscription. With no tracing paper to be had in nearby Corozal, Gann was only able to reproduce half of said mural on oiled paper before locals repurposed its plaster for medicine. He managed to copy the remaining murals before they degraded. The surviving stencils were published in . Matthias Levy, Danish consul to colonial Belize during 1860–1869, collected a number of Postclassic effigy censers from Santa Rita and Lamanai in 1860–1865. It is unclear how the censers came to be in his possession, as he is not known to have conducted archaeological work in the area. His collection was donated to National Museum of Denmark and an unspecified museum in Brussels. A flint implement, recovered by a Royal Navy officer some years prior to 1871, and then exhibited by Augustus Pitt Rivers for the Society of Antiquaries of London on 2 March 1872, may likewise have come from Chetumal, though suggested otherwise.
↑In . The collection now housed in constituent museums of National Museums Liverpool, and formerly housed in the Public Museum of Liverpool, was damaged during the Liverpool Blitz in 1941. As of 2011[update], the extent of this damage had not been assessed. Gann also donated artefacts to the former Wellcome Historical Medical Museum, which were subsequently dispersed upon said museum's permanent closure. The number and destination of the Gann–Wellcome artefacts is not clear. At least one of them is now housed in Oxford's Pitt Rivers Museum.
↑In . Gann's work, spanning his 1894–1936 career, has been described as "more destructive than protective of evidence from beginning to end" by , though notes that Gann's work, if judged by archaeological standards of the late 19th rather than late 20th century, would not be so harshly judged—though concedes that it would still be found wanting.
↑In . The project's work is detailed in , and in various journals. Brief, sporadic work occurred in the meantime though, including:
Francis de Paula Castells briefly examined a Spanish mission church in Lamanai in September 1902. Castells mistook the church for a pre-Columbian structure, thereby confounding archaeological work for nearly 80 years.
The Expedición Científica Mexicana de 1937 (lit.'Mexican Scientific Expedition of 1937'), led by Luis Rosado Vega, examined at least nine sites in former Chetumal in June–December 1937.
A. H. Anderson, then a government librarian in colonial Belize, conducted unpublished salvage work in 1937–1938 in Santana. In 1952, as First Assistant Secretary to the governor, he was given responsibility for archaeology, the first civil servant so charged. And in January 1957, he was appointed the country's first Commissioner of Archaeology.
Wolfgang Haberland, of the Museum am Rothenbaum, and A. H. Anderson, briefly examined some artefacts and a structure at Louisville on 27 October 1954. They had been discovered by a local resident, Luis F. Ramirez, and were subsequently destroyed by Hurricane Janet on 27 September 1955.
Michel Peissel explored some coastal sites near former Chetumal in 1961.
The Royal Ontario Museum, led by William R. Bullard Jr., conducted excavations in San Estevan in 1962, as part of their broader archaeological project in colonial Belize.
↑In . As part of a survey of the history of Yucatan in . The provinces' existence had been known to non-Maya people since Columbian times, but previous attempts at their exposition had been cursory.
↑In . Namely, and . These were both preceded by a University of California, Berkeley PhD thesis. The latter may have been preceded by a critical edition of the 1688 Historia de Yucathan in , whose commentary by Jorge Ignacio Rubio Mañé, a colleague of Roys, took up the topic of Postclassic Maya states.
↑In . Roys proposed sixteen geographically-delimited sovereign provinces, namely, the provinces of Ah Canul, Chakan, Cehpech, Hocaba, Mani, Ah Kin Chel, Sotuta, Chikinchel, Tases, Cupul, Cochua, Ecab, Uaymil, Chetumal, Chanputun, Canpech, herein spelt Kanul, Chak'an, Kehpech, Hokaba', Mani, K'in Ch'el, Sotuta, Chik'in Che'el, Tases, Kupul, Koch Wah, Ekab, Waymil, Chetumal, Chanputun, Kanpech, respectively, per . Entries for Tases and Kanpech are missing in , but are elsewhere used and spelt as herein rendered, as in .
An untitled sculpture by Raúl Ayala Arellano, installed in Akumal in January 1975
At least 25 replicas or near-replicas of the aforementioned Ayala Arellano sculpture, including one inaugurated on 16 November 1980 by the 58th President of Mexico, José López Portillo, in Mérida
Nacimiento de la raza mestiza (lit.'Birth of the Mestizo Race') by Nereo de la Peña, a mural for the Palacio de Gobierno in Chetumal in 1979
Forma, color e historia de Quintana Roo (lit.'Form, Colour and History of Quintana Roo') by Elio Carmichael Jiménez, a mural inaugurated in Chetumal in 1981 by former Mexican President José López Portillo
Alegoría del mestizaje (lit.'Allegory of Miscegenation') by Carlos Terrés, a sculpture inaugurated in Chetumal on 1 April 1981, by the first Governor of Quintana Roo, Jesús Martínez Ross
Cuna del mestizaje (lit.'Cradle of Miscegenation') by Rosa María Ponzanelly and Sergio Trejo, a sculpture inaugurated in Chetumal on 25 October 1996 by the 61st President of Mexico, Ernesto Zedillo
La cuna del mestizaje by Rodrigo Siller, a mural installed on 17 November 2007 in the Museum of Maya Culture, Chetumal
Gonzalo Guerrero by Fernando Castro Pacheco, an oil painting for the Palacio de Gobierno in Merida
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