Iximcheʼ () (or Iximché using Spanish orthography) is a Pre-Columbian Mesoamerican archaeological site in the western highlands of Guatemala. Iximche was the capital of the Late Postclassic Kaqchikel Maya kingdom from 1470 until its abandonment in 1524. The architecture of the site included a number of pyramid-temples, palaces and two Mesoamerican ballcourts. Excavators uncovered the poorly preserved remains of painted murals on some of the buildings and ample evidence of human sacrifice. The ruins of Iximche were declared a Guatemalan National Monument in the 1960s.Centro de Acción Legal - Ambiental y Social de Guatemala (CALAS). The site has a small museum displaying a number of pieces found there, including sculptures and ceramics. It is open daily.
For many years the Kaqchikel served as loyal allies of the Kʼicheʼ Maya.Schele & Mathews 1999, p.295. The growing power of the Kaqchikel within the alliance eventually caused such friction that the Kaqchikel were forced to flee the Kʼicheʼ capital and founded the city of Iximche.Schele & Mathews 1999, p.296. The Kaqchikel established their new capital upon an easily defensible ridge almost surrounded by deep ravines.Guillemin 1967, p.23. Iximche developed quickly as a city and within 50 years of its foundation it had reached its maximum extent.Guillemín 1965, p.24. The rulers of Iximche were four principal lords drawn from the four main clans of the Kaqchikel, although it was the lords of the Sotzʼil and Xahil clans who held the real power.Polo Sifontes 1986, pp.39-40. Schele & Mathews 1999, p.300.
After the initial establishment of Iximche, the Kʼicheʼ left the Kaqchikel in peace for a number of years. The peace did not last and the Kaqchikel soundly defeated their former overlords around 1491.Schele & Mathews 1999, p.297. This was followed by infighting among the Kaqchikel clans with the rebel clans finally being overcome in 1493. Wars against the Kʼicheʼ continued throughout the early 16th century. When the Spanish conquistadors arrived in Mexico, the Aztec emperor sent messengers to warn the Kaqchikel.Polo Sifontes 1986, p.70. After the surrender of the Aztecs to Hernán Cortés, Iximche sent its own messengers to offer a Kaqchikel alliance with the Spanish. Smallpox decimated the population of Iximche before the physical arrival of the Europeans. At the time of the Spanish Conquest, Iximche was the second most important city in the Guatemalan Highlands, after the Kʼicheʼ capital at Qʼumarkaj.Guillemín 1965, p.12. Conquistador Pedro de Alvarado was initially well received in the city in 1524 and the Kaqchikel kings provided the Spanish with native allies to assist in the conquest of the other highland Maya kingdoms. Iximche was declared the first capital of the Kingdom of Guatemala in the same year. Due to excessive Spanish demands for tribute, the Kaqchikel soon broke the alliance and deserted their capital, which was burned 2 years later by Spanish deserters.Schele & Mathews 1999, pp.298, 310, 386n19. The Europeans founded a new town nearby but abandoned it in 1527 due to the continued hostility of the Kaqchikel,Schele & Mathews 1999, pp.299, 386n20. who finally surrendered in 1530.Schele & Mathews 1999, pp.298. Lutz 1997, pp.10, 258. Ortiz Flores 2008.
The ruins of Iximche were first described by a Guatemalan historian in the late 17th century.Guillemín 1965, p.14. They were visited various times by scholars during the 19th century, who published plans and descriptions.Kelly 1996, pp.195-196. Serious investigations of the site started in the 1940s and continued sporadically until the early 1970s.Kelly 1996, p.196. Guillemín 1965, p.5. In 1980, during the Guatemalan Civil War, a meeting took place at the ruins between guerillas and Maya leaders that resulted in the guerillas stating that they would defend indigenous rights.Frühsorge 2007, p.45. A ritual was carried out at the site in 1989 in order to reestablish the ruins as a sacred place for Maya ceremonies.Frühsorge 2007, p.48. United States President George W. Bush visited the site in 2007,BBC News, 12 March 2007. and in the same year Iximche was the venue for the III Continental Summit of Indigenous Peoples and Nationalities of Abya Yala.Secretaría Cumbre Continental de Pueblos y Organizaciones Indígenas 2009.
Etymology The site's name derives from the Mayan name of the ramon tree (Brosimum alicastrum), from the words ixim and che, meaning literally "maize tree".Recinos 1998, p.81. Iximche was called Guatemala by the Spanish, from the Nahuatl Quauhtemallan meaning "forested land".Schelle & Mathews 1999, p.292. Since the Spanish conquistadors founded their first capital at Iximche, they took the name of the city used by their Nahuatl-speaking Mexican allies and applied it to the new Spanish city and, by extension, to the kingdom. From this comes the modern name of the country. The site has also been referred to as Patinamit by 19th century investigators, a Kaqchikel word meaning "the city".Kelly 1996, pp.192, 195-196.
Location Iximche is located south of Tecpán,Guillemín 1965, p.9. and west of Guatemala City,Frühsorge 2007, p.44. in the northwest of the Guatemalan department of Chimaltenango.Kelly 1996, p.192. The city was built at an altitude of in an easily defensible position on a ridge surrounded by deep ravines, in order to defend the city from its hostile Kʼicheʼ and Tzʼutujil neighbours.Kelly 1996, p.192. Schele & Mathews 1999, p.299. Guillemin 1967, p.23. The ridge is called Ratzamut and is a promontory of Tecpán hill, a mountain to the northwest of the ruins, which sit at the southeastern end of this promontory. The ridge is flanked by two rivers flowing in deep ravines, Río El Molino and Río Los Chocoyos, which both join to flow southwest into the Madre Vieja River, which empties into the Pacific Ocean. Geologically, this promontory is composed of steep volcanic pumice and dacitic ash deposits, creating precipitous natural cliffs that provided the late Postclassic Kaqchikel kingdom with a highly defensive topographic enclave above the upper Madre Vieja River basin. Iximche is located among pine forests common to highland Guatemala.
Political organization The Kaqchikel kingdom itself was divided among four clans that between them contained ten principal lineages or "big houses".Polo Sifontes 1986, p.40. The clans themselves were the Xahil, who were the main branch of the Kaqchikel, the Sotzʼil, the Tukuche and the Akajal.
The rulers of Iximche were four principal lords with the titles of Ahpo Sotzʼil, Ahpo Xahil, Kʼalel Achi and Ahuchan, although in reality it was the first two of these that held the real power.Schele & Mathews 1999, p.300. Polo Sifontes 1986, p.39. Sotzʼil also has the variant spellings of Zotzil and Tzotzil. They should not be confused with the Tzotzil Maya of Chiapas, Mexico. The two main clans of the Kaqchikel people each provided a leader, one was the Ahpo Sotzʼil ("Lord of the Sotzʼil") and the other was the Ahpo Xahil.Schele & Mathews 1999, pp.299-300. These royal titles were originally bestowed upon the leaders of the Xahil and Sotzʼil clans by the Kʼicheʼ in gratitude for their military services to the Kʼicheʼ Kingdom of Qʼumarkaj. Both leaders were supposed to be equal in rank but in practice the Sotzʼil king was the senior (or nabʼey al, "firstborn child") while the king of the Xahil was subordinate (the , "lastborn child").Schele & Mathews 1999, p.300. The Kʼalel Achi and the Ahuchan were the other two lords, which translate from Kaqchikel as the "principal person" and the "speaker". The Kaqchikel document Testamento de los Xpantzay gives alternate titles for two of the four lords. This document lists the Ahpo Sotzʼil and the Ahpo Xahil as the two most important, the other two lords were drawn from two additional clans and were the Ahpo Tukuche ("Lord of the Tukuche") and the Ahpo Raxonihay ("Lord of the Raxonihay").Polo Sifontes 1986, pp.39-40.
The titles of Ahpo Sotzʼil and Ahpo Xahil were passed from father to son. The Xahil heir bore the title Ahpop Achi Ygich, and the Sotzʼil heir bore the title Ahpop Achi Balam. They were important positions in their own right and the heirs were military leaders who commanded on the battlefield.Polo Sifontes 1986, p.41.
When Iximche was founded in the late 15th century AD Wuqu-Batzʼ was Ahpo Sotzʼil, Hun-Toh was Ahpo Xahil, Chuluk was Kʼalel Achi and Xitamel-Keh was Ahuchan. According to the early Colonial Kaqchikel document Memorial de Sololá, the last two of these were not very important.Polo Sifontes 1986, p.39. Each of the four lords had his own section in the new city that included his palace, royal court and temples.
Known rulers Ahpo SotzʼilSchele & Mathews 1999, pp.296-297, 307. Polo Sifontes 1986, p.94. Ahpo XahilSchele & Mathews 1999, pp.296-297. Guillemin 1967, p.34. Polo Sifontes 1986, p.94. Kʼalel Achi AhuchanWuqu-BatzʼHun-TohChulukXitamel-KehOxlahuh-TzʼiʼLahuh-AhKablahuh-TihaxHun-IqʼLahuh-NohCahi ImoxBelehe Qat
History
Early history Archaeologists only found traces of one pre-Kaqchikel occupational phase and this was an ancient level dating to the Late Preclassic.Guillemín 1965, p.30. Occasional Early and Late Classic remains have been found but they are incidental and do not represent a Classic Period occupation of the site.
Late Postclassic history
The Kaqchikel people were closely related to the Kʼicheʼ, their former allies.Schele & Mathews 1999, pp.293-294. The Kʼicheʼan peoples (including the Kaqchikel, the Kʼicheʼ and others) had received strong influences from central Mexico since the time of the great Early Classic metropolis of Teotihuacan.Schele & Mathews 1999, p.294-295. The history of Iximche is largely drawn from the Annals of the Kaqchikels, a document written in the Kaqchikel language but using Latin characters soon after the Spanish Conquest. This document details the origins, history and conquest of the Kaqchikels. The Kaqchikel served as close allies of the Kʼicheʼ for many years. The Kaqchikel rulers Hun-Toh and Wuqu-Batzʼ served the great Kʼicheʼ king Kʼiqʼab with such loyalty that he rewarded them with the royal titles Ahpo Sotzʼil and Ahpo Xahil and the power to rule. The sons of Kʼiqʼab became jealous of the growing power of the Kaqchikel lords and led a revolt against their father that seriously damaged his authority. This revolt had serious consequences for the Kʼicheʼ as their conquered domains seized the opportunity to break free from their subjugation.
A minor incident in the Kʼicheʼ capital Qʼumarkaj escalated to have important consequences. A Kʼicheʼ soldier tried to seize bread from a Kaqchikel woman who was selling it in the market. The woman refused the soldier and drove him off with a stick. The Kaqchikel demanded the execution of the Kʼicheʼ soldier while the Kʼicheʼ nobility demanded the punishment of the Kaqchikel bread seller. When the Kaqchikel lords refused to hand her over, the Kʼicheʼ lords sentenced Hun-Toh and Wuqu-Batzʼ to death against the wishes of the Kʼicheʼ king Kʼiqʼab. King Kʼiqʼab warned his Kaqchikel friends and advised them to flee Qʼumarkaj. On the day 13 Iqʼ of the Kaqchikel calendar the four lords of the Kaqchikel led their people out of the Kʼicheʼ capital to found their own capital at Iximche. The exact year of this event is not known with certainty but is believed to have been between AD 1470 and 1485, with some scholars, such as Guillemín, preferring 1470.Schele & Mathews 1999, p.296. Guillemín 1965, p.11. The Kaqchikel abandoned their previous capital Chiavar (speculated to be modern Chichicastenango) because it was too close to Qʼumarkaj.Guillemin 1967, p.25.