Comalcalco (archaeological site)

Comalcalco is an ancient Maya archaeological site in the State of Tabasco, Mexico, adjacent to the modern city of Comalcalco and near the southern coast of the Gulf of Mexico. It is the only major Maya city built with bricks rather than limestone masonry and was the westernmost city of the Maya civilisation. Covering an area of , Comalcalco was founded in the Late Classic period and may have been a satellite or colony of Palenque based on architectural similarities between the two. The city was a center of the Chontal Maya people. The name is linked to the adjacent modern city of Comalcalco and derives from the Nahuatl words comalli (comales) calli (house) and the locative co, literally meaning "At the House of the Comales" or "Place of the House of the Comales". This name is a reference to the bricks of the ruined Maya site, which later people thought resembled comales. The ancient place name associated with Comalcalco is Joy Chan hoj tʃan, (also spelled Hoi Chan), which means "round sky" or "clouded sky". Located in the Chontalpa region on an extensive alluvial plain once covered by low evergreen rainforest interspersed with mangrove swamps, Comalcalco lies west of the modern city of Comalcalco on a small rise surrounded by lowlands. It is from the city of Villahermosa, and approximately north of Palenque. Before modern times the important Mezcalapa River flowed east of the main buildings in the site. The city's strategic placement on the old Mezcalapa River meant that Comalcalco controlled the important trading link between Yucatán and the Gulf Coast and the highlands of Chiapas and Guatemala. Archaeologist George F. Andrews of the University of Oregon believes that since Comalcalco was in the largest cacao production zone in Tabasco, it must have been involved in the distribution of this commodity. Comalcalco was also an important centre of clay figurine production and commerce between 600 and 1000 CE In and around the site, archaeologists have found identical clay moulds and figures, as well as tools, pit kilns and dumping grounds, indicating standardized mass production.