Reading Maya art: A hieroglyphic guide to Ancient Maya paintings and sculpture

250 Pages·2011·35.93 MB·Spanish

by  Andrea Stone

Reading Maya Art

Reading Maya Art
A Hieroglyphic Guide to Ancient Maya Painting and Sculpture
Andrea Stone and Marc Zender
with 535 illustration.\
1"t!J..
Thames & Hudson
READER'S GUIDE
Although inspired by Richard H. Wilkinson's admirable Reading Scholarship is cumulative and collaborative, and we have been
Egyptian Art, the presentation of this book is largely of our own blessed in equal measure with brilliant forebears and generous,
devising.' The Introduction is significantly longer and, as a result, insightful contemporaries. We have documented their outstanding
able to effectively highlight and delve more deeply into major themes contributions to decipherment, iconographic exegesis and
of interest, which would otherwise be scattered in different sections archaeological discovery in the Notes, keyed to sources listed in the
of the book. Equipped with its own illustrations, but also with ample Bibliography. (Notes in the Introduction are indicated by superscript
cross-references to images and ideas in the Catalog, the Introduction numbers, those in the Catalog are grouped together by entry number.)
is intended to provide a suitable point of departure for general reader Several colleagues also loaned us their drawings, for which we make
and specialist alike. grateful acknowledgment here and in the Sources of Illustrations.
Our visual Contents list is neither as authoritative nor as A word about orthography: we follow widespread conventions in
exhaustive as Alan Gardiner's famous list of Egyptian signs'- this representing Nahuad and Mayan words. 3 Thus, the Nahuatl glottal
for the simple reason that the decipherment of Maya writing is still stop is indicated by an h (e.g., ahtlatl "spearthrower," Ehecatl "Wind
very much in progress. So the organization of our list is a thematic God"). The Maya convention is to mark such sounds with an
convenience rather than an attempt to set a new standard. apostrophe ('), while glottalized consonants are likewise followed by
Nonetheless, we hope that it will serve as an intuitive guide to the one an apostrophe. These markers should not be confused with the acute
n
hundred topics-each encapsulated in one or more hieroglyphs- that and grave(') accents marking high and low tone, respectively, in
we have chosen to illustrate the extraordinary interdependence of Yucatec Maya. Several of these markers- initial glottalization, high
Maya art and writing in all time periods. tone and intervocalic glottal stop -can be seen in the Yucatec word
These topics are explored in detail in the Catalog: the heart ch'i'en "cave". Classic Mayan contrasted "hard" (velar) and "soft"
of the book. In addition to an entry number and illustration of the (glottal) variants of "h," writtenj and h, respectively. Thus huun
hieroglyph(s) in question (in the upper right corner of every text "book" is distinct fromjuun "one," the initial consonant of the latter
page), each entry is also accompanied by its own illustrations (on being pronounced farther back in the mouth. Long vowels are
the facing, left-hand page), several of which make use of a second indicated in Mayan by doubling the vowel in question (kao.n "snake")
color to pick out details of relevance to the illustrated sign(s). These and in Nahuatl by the use of the macron (eMil "snake"). Both
illustrations are referenced within the entry by parenthetical citations languages follow the sixteenth-century Spanish convention of using x
-e.g., "ill. 1." Cross·references direct the reader to relevant for the sound "sh." Mayanya.x "blue/green" therefore rhymes with
illustrations and discussions in other entries. Image cross·refercnces English "gosh," and the first syllable of the Nahuatl name Xochipilli
are of the form "see 2.3," where the first number indicates the entry, is pronounced like English "show." But whereas Nahuatl retains the
the second the relevant illustration. This cross-referencing system is older hu-and qu-to indicate "w" and "k" (e.g., Huitzilopochtli, qU£tzallz)
employed throughout the Introduction, Glossary and Notes. The Mayan now uses wand k. Note that some traditional god names (Ek
reader need merely flip through the upper right corners of the page Chuah, Huitzilopochtli) are given in an older, less precise orthography.
openings to find the cited entry number. Textual cross-references are Stress is unmarked in these languages, as Mayan words are generally
indicated by the placement of an asterisk(*) after key terms in the accented on the final syllable, Nahuatl on the penultimate.
text. These terms are then listed, with their entry numbers, in the We adhere to long-standing and logical epigraphic conventions
lower right margin.·Unfamiliar technical terms are defined in the in transcribing Maya word signs in bold uppercase (BAH LAM) and
Glossary, and may be tracked using the Index. Each hieroglyph has its phonetic signs in bold lowercase (ba-la-ma).' All Mayan words are
own entry in the index, which gathers the cross-references in one indicated in italics, whether cited from modern languages (e.g.,
place, and highlights the page numbers of main entries in bold. Thus, Yucatec baa/am) or transliterated from hieroglyphic inscriptions
although the book is designed to be read from cover to cover, we hope (Classic Mayan bah/am). See the Introduction (pp. 11-12) for
that the cross-references and index will facilitate its use as a reference additional details on the Maya writing system, and the Glossary for
work on Maya hieroglyphs and iconography. definitions of some of the technical vocabulary.
Copyright© 2011 Thames & Hudson Ltd, London Frontispiece: A wahydemon reaches up into a dedicatory glyphic text.
Painted vase from AJtar de Sacrificios, Guatemala. Late Classit·.
All Rights Re~rved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or Photo Jan Graham (courtesy Corpus of Maya Hieroglyphic
transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including
Inscriptions, Peabody Museum, Harvard University).
photocopy, recording or any other information storage and retrieval system,
without prior permission in writing from the publisher.
first published in 2011 in hardcover in the United States of America by
Thames& Hudson lnc.,500 Fifth Avenue, New York, New York 10110
thamesandhudsonusa.com
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 20 I 0932491
ISBN 978·0-500-05168·9
Printed and bound in China by Toppan Leefung
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
CATALOG OF SIGNS 29-229
P·-E-O--P-L-E-- -:-1-0-:-1-7- -----------------------------------------· GOeDS 3 8-51
~ rt ~ ~ ~ 2} ~ :.~
~
I. Baby 2.Ciown 3. Lady 4. Lord 5. Akan 6. Chahk 7. Death 8. Hero Twins 9.1tzamnaaj
UNEN pa IX/IXIK .\JAW AKAN CHAHK CHAM JUUN .\JAW and ITZAM-?
YAXBALUUN
THF. HUMAN BODY: PARTS, MOVEMENTS, POSITIONS 52_-_6_9 ___
Ia) R B 9
~ ~.
10. K'awiil I I . Paddler Gods 12. Blood 13. Bone 14. Chop 15. Front 16. Penis 17. Sit
K'AWJJL CH'JCH'? BAAK CH'AK I CHON AAT CHUM
RITUAL REGALIA AND IMPLEMENTS 70-81- --
8 e
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
0
18. Skull I 19. Strike 20. Throw 21.Jade Celt 22. Mirror 23. Obsidian 24. Rope 25. Stingray Spine 26. Weaving
Head JATZ' CHOK HUT? NEHN Bloodletter CH'.\}AN? KOHKAN JAL
JOL CH'AHB
IMPLEMF.NTS OF WARti\RF. 82-87 MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS 88-91 SEATS AND ALTARS 92-99
------------- a
m
flj
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~. ~
"'
27. Flint 28. Helmet 29. Shield 30. Drum 31. Trumpet 32. Altar 33.Bone 34. Cushion Throne 35. Litter
TOOK' KO'HAW PAKAL HUUB? Throne TZ'AM PIIT?
-
ARCHITECTURE 100-109 WRITING IIG--15
a e
rB {(I 81iJJD
~ ~ ~
'
36. Ballcourt 37. House 38. Pyramid 39. Step 40. Tomb 41. Book 42. Leaf 43. Writing
OTOOT EHB MUHK HUUN AAN TZ'IHB
N-U-MB-ER-S -11-6---19 --- COWRS 12G-27
tl
~
.
44. Six 45. Zero 46. Black 47. Blue-Green 48. Red 49. Yellow I Ripe
WAK MIH IHK' YAX CHAK K'AN
TRAVEL 128 31 TERRESTRIAL AND SUBTERRANEAN PLACES 1:12-41
g
CQ) el D
. ~ ~ ~
50. Canoe 51. Road 52. Cave 53. Cenote I Watery Cave 54. Earth 55. Mountain 56. Ocean I Sea
JUKUUB bi CH'EEN WAAY? KAB WJTZ PO LAW
THE HEAVENS 142-53 I~REANDBURNING 154 61
57. Cloud 58. Darkness I Night 59. Moon 60. Sky 61.Star1PlanetiConsteUation 62.Sun 63. Censer I Offering Bowl
MUYAL AK'AB UH CHAN EK' K'IN EL
:-IArURAL ELEMENTS AND MArERIALS 162 -75
m
I " () f;
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
. .
64. Fire 65. Spark 66. Torch 67. Rain 68. Rubber Ball 69. Spontf,ylw Shell 70. Stone 71. Tree I Wood 72. Water and Pool
K'AHK' TOK TAAJ HA'AL CH'ICH'? TUUN TE' HA'andNAHB
ANIMALS 176-207
.
<® ®
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~. ~
73.Wmdl 74. Bat 75. Centipede 76. Coati 77. Crocodile 78. Deer 79. Dog 80. FireAy 81. Fish
Breath SUUTZ' CHAPAHT TZ'UTZ'IH AHliN CHIJ TZ'I'/OOK KUHKAY? KAY
IK'
m
00
~~~ ~ ~ ~ ~ . ~
82. Gopher 83.Jaguar 84. Monkey 85. Rabbit 86. Serpent 87. Shark 88. Tail 89. Turtle
BAAH BAH LAM MAAX T'UHL KAAN XOOK NEH AHK
•
BIRDS 208 17 PLANTS AND THEIR PRODUCTS 218 29
tE (I
~ ~ ~
90. Hummingbird 9l.Macaw 92.0wl 93.Quetzal 94. Turkey 95. Cacao I Chocolate 96. Cattail Reed 97. Flower
TZ'UNUN MO' 0' I KUY K'UK' AK'AACH KAKAW PUH NIK
GLOSSARY 230
NOTES 232
98. Maize 99. Square-nosed Serpent 100. Tamale
NAL WAAJ I OHL
BIBLIOGRAPHY 237
SOURCES OF ILLUSTRATIONS 242
INDEX 244
INTRODUCTION
I
t should come as no surprise that two of the world's best-loved archaeological
cultures, the ancient Maya and the Egyptians, have each left exceptionally
rich artistic legacies, a fact accounting in no small measure for their enormous
popularity with the general public. A great deal of credit must be given to their
magnificent objects and buildings, infused with uniquely pictorial forms of
hieroglyphic writing, for allowing people in the twenty-first century not just to
admire ancient handiwork, but even, to a surprising degree, to understand the
tastes, beliefs and politicking of people from civilizations long-vanished for over
a thousand years. Egyptian art can claim an especially long track record as an
object of fascination in the West. Greeks and Romans aside, it kept steady pace
after the Napoleonic era, and movie classics, such as The Mummy ( 1932), are but
one nostalgic reminder of twentieth-century Egyptomania, which has continued
to inspire art, architecture, and popular culture into the twenty-first century.
What is all the more remarkable, the Western passion for ancient Egypt shows
no sign of abating. On the other hand, it is really only in the past few decades
that the ancient Maya have enjoyed anything approaching Egypt's broad public
appeal, but this has gained noticeable momentum, spawning hieroglyphic work
shops, popular books, high-profile exhibitions and even a few Hollywood
movies. In order to understand this growing interest in the ancient Maya, we
must turn to their remarkable artistic heritage and examine it in terms of a
rather technical subject: the signs and symbols at the heart of its formal structure
and communicative mission. Symbols populate Maya art with an intensity and
flair not seen in any other art tradition; and this is precisely why their art is so
compelling and worthy of our attention. Lavishly distributed in elite material
culture, symbols were inscribed onto almost any kind of visually attractive object
they produced, from tiny beads, bones, shells and chips of obsidian, to exquis
itely painted ceramics, tomb and cave walls, to towering carved stone
monuments and stucco-encrusted building fa\ades.
Well before Maya art came to serious notice in the West, in the early twentieth
century, its symbolic complexity drew the attention of antiquarians. Among the
earliest and most astute was the American explorerJ ohn Uoyd Stephens, 1 whose
popular travel accounts, published in the mid-nineteenth century, first introduced
Maya civilization to a wide audience. In one book, Stephens recorded his reac
tion to a Classic Maya sculpture, a stela from Copan, Honduras, in the following
7
words:" ... silent and solemn, strange in design, rich in ornament, different from
the works of any other people," only to lament in the very next breath, speaking
of the cryptic hieroglyphic symbols, "Often the imagination was pained in
gazing at them." We might explain Stephens' "pain" by considering that in the
1840s he truly was contemplating something inexplicable. Yet a similar reaction
to the perplexing beauty of Maya art would not be out of place, even by today's
standards. Stephens' mixed feelings of awe and puzzlement are instructive as
they remind us that Maya art can be appreciated at face value by almost anyone,
certainly for its elegant line, sumptuous detail and relative naturalism among
indigenous American art styles. However, understanding what its enigmatic pic
torial inventions actually mean, something that must be confronted if we wish to
go beyond subjective impressions, is another matter entirely. While much
progress has been made since Stephens' day, comprehending the symbolism of
Maya art still remains a challenge, yet not an insurmountable one. For those
willing to take the plunge, this book will hopefully ease the pain of Maya art
appreciation by explaining the meaning of a large portion of its symbolic vocab
ulary, as well as the rules that govern how artists could forge these symbols into
fantastically complex pictures.
SETTING AND BACKGROUND
The setting of the art and writing discussed in this book is the tropical lowlands
of southeastern Mexico and the countries of Guatemala and Belize, as well as
portions of northwestern Honduras. This region is conventionally referred to as
the "Maya Lowlands" because most of it lies on a relatively flat limestone shelf
embracing the Yucatan Peninsula. At the margins, however, Maya civilization
spilled into the surrounding highlands, and some "lowland" sites, such as Copan
and Tonina, are really in moderately mountainous terrain. Lowland Maya civi
lization began to coalesce around 2500 BC when the inhabitants of the Central
American rain forest started to settle into a village way of life founded upon
maize agriculture. Evidence for the earliest stages of maize cultivation is indi
rect, however, and the first documented farming communities date from a much
later period, roughly 1200 BC. While seemingly isolated, these tropical farmers
had long-distance trading contacts with other parts of Mesoamerica that had
already achieved political complexity, such as the Gulf Coast Olmec and the
Pacific Coast cultures of Chiapas and Guatemala. The Olmec, considered by
many Mesoamerica's "mother culture," were already constructing large archi
tectural complexes, monumental sculpture and refined artworks by II 00 BC. By
the Middle Preclassic period (I 000-400 BC), the Lowland Maya were on the way
to an equivalent level of complexity and began building large stone platforms by
at least 800 BC. The following centuries saw the rise of an increasingly powerful
and well-organized elite class who commanded extensive labor. Indeed, some of
the most massive architectural projects ever undertaken in ancient Mesoamerica
can be credited to the Late Preclassic Lowland Maya (400 BC - AD 250). With
8 Introduction