Editing Chacmool (section)

==Discovery and naming==

The ancient name for these type of sculptures is unknown. The term ''chacmool'' is derived from the name "Chaacmol," which [[Augustus Le Plongeon]] in 1875 gave to a sculpture that he and his wife [[Alice Dixon Le Plongeon]] excavated within the Temple of the Eagles and Jaguars at [[Chichen Itza|Chichén Itzá]] in 1875; he translated ''Chaacmol'' from [[Yucatecan Mayan]] as the "paw swift like thunder."<ref>Desmond, Lawrence G. "Chacmool." In [[David Carrasco|Davíd Carrasco]] (ed). ''The Oxford Encyclopedia of Mesoamerican Cultures'' : Oxford University Press, 2001{{ISBN|9780195188431|}}</ref>  Le Plongeon believed the statue, which he had found buried beneath the Platform of the Eagles and the Jaguars, depicted a former ruler of Chichen Itza.  Le Plongeon's sponsor, [[Stephen Salisbury]] of [[Worcester, Massachusetts]], published Le Plongeon's find, but revised the spelling to "Chac-Mool."<ref>Salisbury, 1877, p. 80.</ref>

Le Plongeon sought permission from Mexico's president to display the statue at the [[Centennial Exposition|Centennial Exhibition]] in Philadelphia in 1876, a request that was denied. In 1877 the Yucatecan government seized the statue and brought it to Mérida. Weeks later Yucatán turned over the statue to the federal government, which brought it to Mexico City to the [[National Museum of Anthropology (Mexico)|National Museum of Anthropology]].<ref>Desmond 1988, chapters 5 and 6</ref> Museum worker Jesús Sanchez realised that the Chichen Itza sculpture was stylistically similar to two sculptures from central Mexico and the wide occurrence of the form within Mesoamerica was first recognised.<ref name="Miller85p7">Miller 1985, p. 7.</ref> The 19th century discovery of chacmools in both central Mexico and the Yucatán Peninsula helped to promote the idea of a [[Toltec]] empire although the chacmool sculptures may have originated in the Maya region.<ref>Miller 1986, 1996, p. 174.</ref>

Although the name ''chacmool'' was inappropriately applied, it has become a useful label to link stylistically similar sculptures from different regions and periods without imposing a unified interpretation.<ref name="Miller85p7"/> Besides these sites, the sculpture was also found in [[Michoacán]], where it is called Uaxanoti (The Seated One) in the [[Purépecha language]].<ref>Diccionario de Mitología y Religión de Mesoamérica, Yolotl González Torres. Edt. Larousse pp. 56, 57</ref>