Archaeologists discover 'Land of the White Jaguar,' centuries-old stronghold of rebel Maya in Mexico

Archaeologists think they've found the remains of a centuries-old Maya rebel stronghold in Mexico where Indigenous people resisting the Spanish lived for over a century.

The city of Sak-Bahlán, or the "Land of the White Jaguar," was home to the Lakandon-Ch'ol people, Maya who resisted Spanish conquest and are known today as the last Maya rebels of Chiapas, a state in modern-day southern Mexico. Its location has evaded archaeologists for decades — until now.

After the Spanish captured their capital of Lacan-Tun ("Great Rock") in 1586, the Lakandon-Ch'ol moved farther into the jungle, where they established Sak-Bahlán. They remained there for nearly 110 years, until an exploration party led by Friar Pedro de la Concepción discovered the stronghold in 1695. Soon after, Spanish forces subdued the city and renamed it Nuestra Señora de Dolores ("Our Lady of Sorrows"). By 1721, the site was abandoned. Its location was lost, though records of the city were noted in documents and letters from that time.

Now, researchers think they have found the remains of the site again. Using historical records and geographic information system (GIS) technology, a team led by Josuhé Lozada Toledo, an archaeologist at the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) in Mexico City, pinned down the most likely location of the stronghold.

Lozada Toledo relied on accounts from Spanish friar Diego de Rivas to narrow down where Sak-Bahlán might be. A 1695 letter from de Rivas explained that Sak-Bahlán was located on a plain along a bend in the Lacantún River, which runs through Chiapas. Notes from de Rivas in 1698 describe a four-day walk with soldiers from the city to the Lacantún River, followed by a two-day canoeing journey to the junction of the Lacantún and Pasión rivers.

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Alongside these accounts, Lozada Toledo considered the difficulty of the terrain and how much cargo a person might be carrying to estimate the actual distances de Rivas covered during those journeys.

"By combining all these variables, I was able to … obtain an approximate range of where the Sak-Bahlán site could be located," Lozada Toledo said in a translated INAH statement.

That range turned out to be quite accurate: Archaeologists found what they believe to be Sak-Bahlán near the Jataté and Ixcán rivers, near the border between present-day Mexico and Guatemala.

"It was the most arduous field trip I've ever had in my life, but in the end, we found the archaeological evidence, right at the spot I had marked," Lozada Toledo said.

Archaeologists have already spent two field seasons mapping and excavating the site and testing for when it was occupied, with more still to come.

The research will be detailed in the next issue of the journal Chicomoztoc.