Edzná’s New Museum is a Must for Visitors to the Site

The Edzná archaeological site’s old museum was little more than a palapa tightly packed with stelae. It had its charm, but it lacked much in the way of actual museography. 

Over the summer, INAH opened a new and much-improved museum and visitor center at Edzná. 

The only downside to this trend towards more sophisticated onsite museums is that it’s hard to maintain the fantasy of being lost in the jungle when surrounded by touchscreens. But perhaps that is a topic for another day. 

The museum has a modern look and is divided into rooms for each era or style. Because Edzná was inhabited for well over two millennia, this information is, of course, condensed, but it serves as a great starting point to delve deeper into the city’s history. 

The oldest artifacts in the museum date to the Preclassic Period (600 B.C. – A.D. 250), when early settlers embarked on an ambitious hydraulic project, constructing a vast network of canals to drain swamps and store water. Though these types of pieces are not as engaging to most visitors, they are vital to the history of the city as they are a testament to the engineering and engineering prowess that transformed Edznás’ lowland valley into fertile farmland, supporting a growing community and allowing for the first monumental constructions in the city’s core.

Edzná’s rise to power culminated during the Early Classic Period (C.E. 250 – 600), when it became a dominant regional capital. This era saw the construction of its most iconic structure, the foundational layers of its famous Temple of Five Stories, and the development of the Great Acropolis. 

Edzná’s museum does an excellent job of contextualizing the Temple of Five Stories, not just as an architectural marvel, but as an invaluable source of dynastic information, given the multiple glyphs on its staircase, which have allowed epigraphers to identify a previously unknown 10 rulers of the city-state. 

For example, Stelae 8 and 9 depict two hunchbacked characters dressed in feather capes and jade jewelry (likely captives of war), relating the stone binding ritual performed to commemorate the end of the 9th Baktun (in the long form calendar, corresponding to June 28, 810 C.E.), presided over by Chók Choya’ as he elevated the heir of the city to the lofty title/name of Naah Kaan (First Serpent/Sky), a clear allusion to the already by then ancient Kaan dynasty and a tribute to his ancestors.

The museum also displays a grand stone frame on the temple’s west side. Though most of its upper section is missing, it preserves carvings of the four deities corresponding to the holders of heaven or bacabs and celestial bands depicting Venus (Yax) and the Milky Way. 

The archaeological record on display at the museum highlights this period as one of transition when Edzná’s relationship with the other great capitals of the period was truly cemented, especially through strategic intermarriages with the Kanu’l dynasty of Calakmul.

The city’s influence, now clearly in league with Calakmul, continued into the Late Classic Period (C.E. 600-900), a period of peak artistic expression marked by further architectural elaboration and the influence of the Puuc style from the north, indicating active trade networks. It is also roughly during this time that the emblem used to represent the city experiences a shift, likely reflecting the new political reality. Evidence of this transition can be seen in the museum’s Stelae 23, which dates to January 27, 633 A.D. 

More generally, the influence of Calakmul and the Péten region is most explicitly visible in the architecture of the so-called “Small Acropolis”. However, few artifacts from this part of the city are on display at the museum. 

The Terminal Classic Period (A.D. 900 – 1200) saw the decline of virtually all city-states and settlements. Edzná experienced a dramatic population drop and ceased major construction, likely due to environmental and political pressures. 

The city was largely abandoned until a small group, the Itzá, returned during the Postclassic Period (A.D. 1200 – 1450). They built modest shrines among the ruins, leaving their name — “House of the Itzá” — as the final chapter before the jungle swallowed the site for centuries.

Many are surprised that the arrival of the Izá comes so late in the history of Ednzá, as the city is most famously known as the second city of the Itzá. In reality, the presence of this group is not much more than a historical footnote in the grander scheme of thousands of years of history. 

Exploring Edzná’s museum is worth the time, as it gives a good deal of context to the gorgeous archaeological site just a few hundred meters away. Most signage at the museum and archaeological sites can be read in Spanish, Yucatec-Maya, and English. 

If you go

Edzná is roughly an hour southwest of the city of Campeche. Finding a tour to take you to the site should not be a problem, as it is the most visited archaeological attraction in the state. Though there is a Tren Maya station called Edzná, keep in mind that this station is (anoyingly) over 10 miles from the site, so additional transportation is necessary. During the high season in the winter and summer, there are usually buses or vans offering train goers the much-needed transfer, but like everything Tren Maya, there are never any guarantees.

If you would like to experience Edzná with us, or any of the other amazing sites in the region, email us at carlos.rosado@gmail.com