Mayan Art Megathread

That is cool, good to know someone on this site has been there! I am jealous, I hope it was a good trip!

 

Some potentially Lizardmen themed looking weapons from the internet:

Spoiler

 

Found this one on pinterest. Mayan glyphs are always so mysterious...



I like the little white face on the left side, he looks like he is up to no good.

 

Bunch of questions there, I will do my best!

As far as the picture concerning Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli (wow what a name) that you found, it is originally from the Codex Borgia, an Aztec codex that I used a picture from on a previous post. The picture you mentioned is part of plates 53 and 54, specifically in the lower right-hand corner:



It took a bit of reading, but the author of the book has broken down much of the symbolism that these panels depict. Many have to deal with day signs on the Aztec calendar.

All six panels are read, one to six, in this order:



Panel 1 is unrelated to the rest of them however, it depicts an Aztec god Xochipilli as a deer, with some day signs unrelated to the rest on the page.

Starting in panel 2 and going all the way to panel 6, each depicts the Aztec god Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli in various costumes/disguises/aspects, in the act of sacrificing victims. Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli is known as the god of Venus, who in Aztec and Mayan mythology deals very often with warfare. It is believed that many of the pre-columbian cultures would start wars when Venus was in its highest in the sky with the specific goal of gathering captives for blood sacrifice. The blood sacrifice was in turn used to "feed" the gods of the earth, which would respond by "feeding" the living humans with maize (corn) and other crops.

Specifically in panel 2, Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli, wearing a skull, is sacrificing the Aztec goddess Chalchiuhtlicue, who is the goddess of running water, hence why she is shown in a river. Around here is some additional animals (a turtle and something else, I am guessing a shell or a fish). Why they are bleeding too I am not sure, maybe the venus-god really was feeling froggy...

This panel also starts the Aztec years' calendar sequence, starting with the date 1 Alligator in the very lower right-hand corner, and the next three day-signs hover above Chalchiuhtlicue's head (2 Wind, 3 House, 4 Lizard). The days continue in this order all the way till 13 Reed, and start over with 1 Jaguar.

Spoiler: more info on the Aztec Calendar

The Aztec calendar depicted here is the 260-Day Calendar, very similiar to the Mayan calendar which I used to make the Lizardmen variant in the fluff section.

The calendar was ceremonial in nature, with 13 sequences of 13 days. A total of 20 day-signs were used, which repeated until the final set of 13 was reached.

Here is the list of day-signs used in this part of the codex:

• 1 Alligator (Panel 2)
• 2 Wind
• 3 House
• 4 Lizard
• 5 Serpent (Panel 3)
• 6 Death
• 7 Deer
• 8 Rabbit
• 9 Water (Panel 4)
• 10 Dog
• 11 Monkey
• 12 Grass
• 13 Reed (Panel 5)
• 1 Jaguar
• 2 Eagle
• 3 Vulture
• 4 Movement (Panel 6)
• 5 Flint
• 6 Rain
• 7 Flower

And here is what all the Aztec day-signs look like:


I also included this picture; they aren't in the same order for some reason, but the pictures were prettier:

I have put some notes in the margins on this picture for an easier read; starting in the top right-hand corner to go in a general order...




ok... that was a lot. Fortunately I own a modern-day copy of the book

As far as clothing habits for the Aztecs/Mayans, I don't have the source in front of me. But based on what I have read (I remember Bishop Landa had something to say on it in that primary source), it came down to status and ceremony.

Commoners and poor people dressed sparsely. Men usually just loincloths, women often the same (just a loincloth, this caused lots of consternation with the Spanish when they showed up) but also quite frequently wore dresses that kept the shoulders bare and extended to about knee-length. Most often had their ears or noses pierced from a young age. Children normally ran around naked until they were older.

Rich people dressed more lavishly of course, with feathers, jewels and even more piercings on every orifice of the body. Women wore long, carefully made and beautifully detailed clothing, while men wore large-belted loincloths and capes of feathers, and of course the both wore huge hats with even more feathers. During ceremonies and depending on their status, they would wear ornate headdresses of wood, feathers, and other materials, that most likely mimiced the lavish designs we see in the artwork, but I find it hard to believe that these people wore those kinds of things every day either.



I think I hit all the questions, that was enjoyable to research and write about

 

Some cool pictures from a restaurant in Mexico (haven't visited it myself) from Trip Advisor, but it also says its now closed...



Named "Xulam the Mayan Fisher." I would loved to check out the artwork they painted on the walls before they closed.

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Found some (psychedelic) modern-day? Aztec art on pinterest. Quite beautiful, makes me think of codex-related artwork such as the Codex Borgia, but its much newer. Most was in Spanish so I couldn't place the artist.

Xochiquetzal the Plumed Blossom (God/dess of Love?):



Sacrifice of Quetzacotl:


Ce Coatl, the One Serpent: (I love the flames on this one)


Beautiful work.

Spoiler: More pics

Ce Ozomatli, the One Monkey:


Sacrifice of Xolotl:

 

Got some Mayan and other temple pictures for more terrain ideas.

Palenque:

Spoiler: Palenque

Small top-temple, from Chichen Itza:


Tulum:


allegedly Teotihuacan:

Spoiler: few more

Hochob:


Uaxactub:

 

A small group of pictures pertaining to Xibalba, the Mayan underworld.



Depending on which sources, there are several levels/houses of the underworld. Specifically the Hero Twins (important in the Mayan creation mythos) traveled through the underworld, defeating the challenges in the torture houses the gods set against them. Jaguars in the jaguar house, fire in the fire house, one of them even was decapitated in the bat house and later resurrected-ish in the form of the Maize god.

Spoiler: Xibalbans: Gods of the Underworld

There are many, nine main ones, but I couldn't tell you which ones are which without more research. Good mix of gods and monsters here.

Spoiler: More art

Yum Kimil, one of the death gods




Xibalba translates to "Place of Fear"

And here is what the actual Mayan underworld looks like. Many caves like this, and others, throughout the entire Mayan region.

 

... Well it's not the main plaza with the pyramids...
it might be a reconstruction of the "Palace of Quetzalpapalotl" though.
https://uncoveredhistory.com/mexico/teotihuacan/teotihuacan-palace-of-quetzalpapalotl/

 

You may be right. That picture looked more like Copan than Teotihuacan, I think it was a mislabel. Someday I will make myself a collection of city-layouts so I can recognize them at a glance.

Also that is a very interesting link, lots of beautiful pictures and good information. I had never heard specifically of the Palace of Quetzalpapalotl, but the link does talk about the cross-cultural blending (mostly through conquest) of the Mayans by the warlords of Teotihuacan, specifically Smoke Frog.

I also noticed that some of the stone carvings on the palace pillars look suspiciously like skink priests...

Spoiler

Another picture I found, it could be a whole row of skink priests!

 

The thing I remembered from my visit is all the bits of obsidian set in to the stonework,
specific all of the eyes but also some other random places.
oh also this style of odd stonework was everywhere, even on the pyramids.

Spoiler

 

Spoiler: if you look up

oh one other thing, the palace roof is still the the original roof... you can see the rough wood timbers under the outer stone layers.

 

Thanks for putting so much effort in this. It's really an inspiring source for information and background

 

There is lots of great stuff out there, I just like the pretty pictures and artwork.

Impressive!

This I really find shocking, and almost hard to believe but its amazing if this is actually true. Most Mayan buildings that have wooden roofs are either collapsed due to decay in a jungle environment, or preserved in such a way as to have become basically rocks.

The only buildings that I have seen either have reconstructed roofs, or else they have just collapsed.

 

I have been exploring @n810 's link at undiscovered history, they have tons of high quality images on almost every mesoamerican ruin I have heard of, plus some I haven't encountered yet.

I have been using the images from Chicanna for inspiration on a current project. I didn't realize there were a number of different buildings on the same site. The famous one, the "House of the Serpent Mouth," is structure II, one of several structures that used to have highly detailed snake-monster mouths of astonishing detail, and is currently the best preserved.

They also had it in color, mostly to highlight the individual important parts.




I especially liked how the page was able to break down the imagery so easily, showing how the snake-mouth related to other Mayan images such as the witz-mountain monster, snake-centipede entrances to the underworld, and even the serpent-tree bar of Mayan rulership and authority. Great stuff.

 

Went to a restaurant the other day, happened to see two Mayan-inspired cast plaques on the wall. First one is definately inspired by one of the lintels from Yaxchilan, the second one I am not sure but they both caught by eye:

 

Random find: Joan Jade and the Gates of Xibalba. Apparently its a cheap computer/phone game, it came up while I was running a "xibalba" search. Nice artwork, so I have added it here.



Lots of nice Mayan-Mesoamerican looking artwork on all the drawing panels that are very thematic.

Spoiler: Joan Jade artwork

Underground cave:

 

A few more that didn't fit. Lots of Lizardmen terrain potential.

Spoiler