Paxil Archaeological Site

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("These ... animals gave them the news of the yellow corn and the white corn, and told them to go to Paxil and showed them the road to Paxil."
-Popol Vuh. The ancient stories of the Quiché.

In November 1990, according to archeologist J. Omar Ruiz Gordillo, students at Ignacio Mejía middle school in Misantla wrote a letter to the president of Mexico requesting the reconstruction of the ruins at Paxil and Los Idolos. Although at Los Idolos the current settlement is literally built atop the remains of the prehispanic site, at Paxil the nearest village (Morelos, in the municipality of Misantla) is somewhat removed. Currently the ruins at Paxil stand on private property, surrounded by cattle and a cemetery. Because of this, Paxil turned out to be the most fortunate of the two sites, and the federal government, by means of the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), decided to invest in its conservation. With Ruiz Gordillo in charge, the project earned INAH's Annual Prize in 1996. Given the nation's economic situation, the government deserves praise for devoting resources to renovate this site. It is also laudable that students in Misantla, a town that oftentimes seems rather apathetic, proposed this project. José García Payón appears to have been the first Mexican archeologist to visit and explore Paxil, in 1939-1940. As with other sites in the region of Misantla, Paxil had already been mentioned by the German Hermann Strebel in his book Ruinen aus der Misantla, published in 1884. Paxil, which in English loosely means river of rubble, is approximately 10 kilometers (6 miles) northeast of Misantla. As happens with many archeological sites, people in the region have nearly forgotten its Totonac name, and in Misantla the place is known as Morelos. Although the ancient Mayan text the Popul Vuh refers to Paxil, a fact that García Payón noted in his writings, the place cited could be the one in the municipality of Colotenango, Guatemala. When one arrives at the archeological site of Paxil, the pyramid or building of the Palm is among the first visible, on the road from Santa Cruz to Tapapulum. To one side of the pyramid lie the ruins of a Meso-American-style ball court. In front of the Building of the Palm, across the road, one finds the rest of the archeological zone. Upon entering the place, which is private property, one passes between two "hills" that in reality are two pyramids (buildings D and I). Cattle often graze next to the pyramids. Toward the rear, to the east, rises one of the site's most beautiful pyramids, which García Payón "provisionally" called Building A. Its northern facade reveals a subterranean passageway that, according to Ruiz Gordillo, measures 15.2 meters long (about 50 feet) between the entrance and the staircase, which consists of 21 steps leading up to a platform. Strebel believed that the tunnel served as a tomb, while García Payón thought it had an architectural purpose, proved by the existence of similar constructions near the city of Martínez de la Torre and at El Tajín Chico.