PALENQUE

ruined ancient Mayan city of the Late Classic period (c. AD 600900) in what is now Chiapas state, Mexico, about 80 miles (130 km) south of Ciudad del Carmen. Its original name was lost, and thus it was named for the neighbouring village of Santo Domingo del Palenque. The Palenque builders used plaster to obtain a smooth finish unlike the usual Mayan tooled-limestone construction. They used carving, however, on the interior walls; the best examples are on tablets affixed to the walls with plaster. Stucco and terra-cotta images have been found. The Palace shows three parallel walls housing two corridors covered with pointed vaults of the Palenque style. One of the largest and best-preserved structures, the Temple of the Inscriptions, is noted for its hieroglyphic inscriptions. In 1952 a crypt was discovered under the temple, in which were found the jade-ornamented remains of what may have been a ruler-priest of the 7th century AD. The small Temple of Beau Relief is noted for a large stucco bas-relief of a beautifully modeled, enthroned figure. also called Guarine, Indian tribe of northern Venezuela at the time of the Spanish conquest (16th century). The Palenque were closely related to the neighbouring Cumanagoto (q.v.); their language probably belonged to the Arawakan family. They were a tropical-forest people known to eat human flesh, to be warlike, and to live in settlements surrounded by palisades (palenques). The Patngoro (q.v.) of Colombia were also sometimes called Palenque because of their fortified settlements.