Altar de Sacrificios — Pasión–Usumacinta Pyramid Plaza
Altar de Sacrificios · Altar de Los Sacrificios
Preclassic to Late Classic (800 BCE–950 CE)·Maya — Pasión trading port·🇬🇹 Petén, border with Mexico, confluence of Salinas and Pasión forming Usumacinta, Guatemala
About
About Altar de Sacrificios — Pasión–Usumacinta Pyramid Plaza
Strategic junction town where Salinas + Pasión = Usumacinta, defining southern Maya lowlands trading hub, excavated by Harvard 1958–63 after Morley identification, revealing 12 stelae dated 455–849 CE and Altar ceramics sequence foundational for Maya lowlands. Main pyramid (Structure A-II) with vaulted temple faces stela plaza; Group B luxury palace with shell workshops controlling jade and cacao. Last stela 849 CE records foreign Mexican artistic influence matching Ceibal. River erosion has cut west edge.
Why it mattersAltar Sequence ceramics type site; Pasión trade model; latest stela at Usumacinta.
Open questions
Mysteries & theories
Mysteries
- 01Abandonment after 950 vs Ceibal florescence
Theories
- 01River capture shifted trade to Ceibal, starving Altar
Theories are interpretations, not findings. The seal above tells you how much scholarly weight the place carries.
History
How it came to be
- Built
- c. 400 BCE–900 CE
- Period
- Preclassic to Late Classic (800 BCE–950 CE)
- Culture
- Maya — Pasión trading port
- Builders
- Maya
- Purpose
- River-port pyramid plazas (Structure A-II) controlling Pasión–Usumacinta trade — three plazas with pyramids and longest stela chronology to 950 CE
- Excavation
- Excavated
1895
Teobert Maler visits Altar
1958
Harvard Peabody expedition clears Group A pyramid
849 CE
Last dated stela erected
On the ground
Structures & features
16.4667° N · 90.5317° W · 80 m · 2 mapped features
Structure A-II pyramid temple
pyramidEast side pyramid of Plaza A with summit temple and dated stela base
16.4672° N · 90.5312° WGroup B palace court
palaceVaulted palace compound with shell workshop debris, river view
16.4662° N · 90.5322° W