Corpus Volume 15

La Mesa de los Cautivos from Chichén Itzá, Yucatán, Mexico

La Mesa de los Cautivos lies in four quarters that fit together to form a rectangle roughly 165 x 127 cm and 14.5 cm thick. When found it was on a bench but at the time of my visit it had been moved to the floor to gain access to all four sides.

La Mesa de los Cautivos lies within an interior room of the Caracoles (Snails) building (5C5) (Figs 1, 2) accessed through the main entrance to the lower level of the Caracoles on the west side of the building (Fig 3). The piece was cleaned and measured during the afternoon (Fig. 4), then photographed at night to capture the details with raking light (Fig. 5).

Vicinity Map: Location of Chichén Itzá, Yucatán, Mexico. Source of base map: Mundo Maya, Maya World. Edición Quimera (2007).
Figure 1. A portion of the J.O. Kilmartin and J.P. O’Neill map of Chichén Itzá (Karl Ruppert 1952 Chichen Itza: Architectural Notes and Plans. Carnegie Institution of Washington Pub. 595. Washington D.C.).
Figure 2. West entrance to the lower level of Templo de los Caracoles.
Figure 3. Interior room of Caracoles that was once filled with rubble, where the “mesa” or table top was found.
Figure 4. The four pieces joined together measure approximately 165 cm by 127 cm and 14.5 cm thick.
Figure 5. Photography was done at night to capture details brought out by raking light.

Photographs and drawings by Bruce Love.

La Mesa de los Cautivos, Chichén Itzá, Yucatán, Mexico (photographed 2021)
click on the image then the (i) in the lower right to view full image

North Side, photo and drawing
Length: approx. 1.65 m
Thickness: approx. 14.5 cm

West Side, photo and drawing
Length: approx. 1.27 m
Thickness: approx. 14.5 cm

South Side, photo and drawing
Length: approx. 1.65 m
Thickness: approx. 14.5 cm

East Side, photo and drawing
Length: approx. 1.27 m
Thickness: approx. 14.5 cm


Suggested Citation: Love, Bruce. “Corpus Volume 15: La Mesa de los Cautivos from Chichén Itzá, Yucatán, Mexico.” Contributions to Mesoamerican Studies, September 2, 2024. https://brucelove.com/corpus/corpus-volume-015.

Downloadable PDF: CtMS_Corpus_V015_LaMesadelosCautivos_ChichenItza_Mexico

The corpus photographs and drawings may be freely used and distributed in non-commercial use and are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0