Mayan Art Megathread

Kind of like the pyramid more with the vegetation growing on it!

 

Agreed, it does make it look more mysterious...

I always have a hard time remembering that back when most of these temples were created, they were actually painted bright red!

 

Some cool glyphs and art courtesy of JesmondCat over at deviantart.

This one is another "full glyph" showing the entire spelling/art of the Yaxchillan king "Bird Jaguar," also one of my named Lizardmen heroes Yaxum Balum!

Spoiler: JesmondCat

"Playing the Drums" Glyph


Merchant God/Mad King making Fire


Turkey and Vulture

 

Really?!?! I wonder how red temples would look like on the table

 

Tis true! The overwhelming majority of the paint has worn away, leaving just the stone left. Its similar in concept to the bleached-white Roman and Greek ruins of the Meditteranean; at one point those buildings were all painted bright colors, mostly reds, yellows, and blues!!

More pictures today: concerning Chac Tok Ich'aak I, the Mayan king of Tikal deposed by Siyaj K'ak (general of Teotihuacan)

Name glyph:


Beautiful stela 26 from Tikal, concerning aforementioned king and what I believe is his ascension to the throne record? Not sure exactly, but what is left is stunning.

Spoiler: Chak Tok Ich'aak

 

Temple of Inscriptions, mural in color! Some fan artwork from a site I cant remember, wonder how it looked in real life!

 

Some more sculptures and faces from Copan

Spoiler: Copan

 

Also from Copan, a lizard! (Probably supposed to be a crocodile though...)

Spoiler: Copan Lizard

 

That tirtle head and this other lizard head are amazing! That turtle head is particularly impressive.

 

Copan- Howler Monkey God

- Normally Monkeys were considered the patron of the arts and scribes. Not sure why this dude has a snake coming out of his mouth though... creepy sculpture.

Spoiler: Copan Howler Monkey God

statue at varying stages of being rebuilt

Also an awesome comparison between Mayan and Balinese monkey-god sculptures!

 

Monkey-scribe, this one from a bowl.

 

Not Mayan, but too interesting to pass up.

Zapotec snake-idols, carved out of stone. Most of them have a very characteristic snake-tongue and an elaborate headdress, almost Mayan-looking in appearance.

Spoiler: Zapotec snake-gods

 

Yaxchillan Lintels

Time for some more research! Some of my favorite examples of Mayan art are the beautiful series of carved stone lintels decorating the site at Yaxchillan. Situated on a bend on the Usumacinta river, the ruins are situated on a hill, and are some of the best preserved examples of Mayan carvings throughout the entire peninsula (my opinion of course).




Most of the lintels are carved above the doors on the ceilings of the various temple structures around the site (see below for an idea of what I am talking about). There are at least 50 of them, but I will just be sharing the best looking ones here! For those of you who are interested, the fantastic database over at the Peabody Museum should have all the information you could ask for.


Really hope I can visit the site someday!

 

Yaxchillan Lintels: Numbers 1 to 3. All depict Yaxchillan ruler Bird Jaguar IV

First one depicts Bird Jaguar IV, king of Yaxchillan, apparently dancing with his wife/consort Lady Great Skull.


Originally I thought Lintel 2 was the one pictured above the door in the post above, but it looks different now that I am posting it. This one shows Bird Jaguar IV again, this time with his son, future Shield Jaguar IV.


Lintel 3 depicts Bird Jaguar IV again, this time alongside one of his sajals, K'in Mo'Ajaw. The sajal would have been a noble who lived in Yaxchillan, must have been pretty important to have been depicted in stone alongside his king.

 

Yaxchillan Lintels: Lintel 8, 9, and 10

Lintel 8 shows Bird Jaguar IV again and his Sajal K'an Tok Wayib grabbing their two captives (Jeweled Skull and Kok Te' Ajaw) in the midst of a battle. I have seen this lintel used as proof that shows the Yaxchillan kings were actually loosing power by this stage of Mayan history, due to the fact that a KING was forced to SHARE the glory by having to depict his powerful noble supporter in almost equal stature on a stone mural, a place normally reserved for the deeds of the King alone.

Spoiler: Lintel 8 Art

Apparently this one is from a t-shirt. If I end up becoming an archeologist someday, I want one.

Lintel 9 shows Bird Jaguar and his brother-in-law Chak Chami, dancing with jasawchan


Yaxchilan Lintel 10 does not have any people in them so far as I can find, instead they are covered in beautifully articulated glyphs. The first one deals with king K'inich Tatbu Jol III, and details his victory during a "star war" fought during an auspicious conjunction of Venus against a rival polity.



Edit: Also shown here is Stelae 11; originally I thought it was the missing Lintel 13 but I was mistaken. Still a great drawing! The first two columns of glyphs is a date, rest I am not sure.

 

Yaxchillan Lintels: Lintels 12, 13, 14

Another beautiful set. Lintel 12 shows Bird Jaguar with a noble/lieutenant, surrounded by what looks like a pack of worshippers. Most likely they are actually war captives, probably about to the sacrificed in his honor.



Lintels 13 and 14 are basically identical, in fact in half the sources I found they are mislabeled. Both show Bird Jaguar IV and his wife/consort Lady Chak Chami, along with their future son Shield Jaguar IV being born out of a vision serpent. The serpents name is Chanal Chak Bay Kaan, or "towering red thorn snake." The creature is known as a way (also spelt wei or whey in other sources), its basically a vision/dream creature interacting between the spirit world and the physical world. Also bears similarities with the demon concept from Japan, and the idea of a guardian angel.

Lintel 13:


The way I was able to tell these two apart is the pose that Shield Jaguar is in (in Lintel14 he is bending down slightly) and the number of columns of text that Shield Jaguar is perched on (Lintel 13 has 2, Lintel 14 has 3). Both are beautiful pieces.

Lintel 14:

Spoiler: Lintel 14 additional pics

Amazing stuff. Also here is another quick picture showing just where the majority of these lintels were actually found at the Yaxchillan site (up on the ceiling).



Can't tell which one it is though, could be Lintel 1-3.

 

Yaxchillan Lintel 15



This is one of the most famous of Yaxchillan's artwork, and one of the most recognizable Mayan images. The lintel depites Lady Wak Tuun ("Lady Six Stone," from the "Ik' " polity), a wife/consort of Bird Jaguar IV. She is experiencing a vision (brought on by the basket of bloodletting equipment in her hands) and sees a reat vision serpent in front of her. Its supposed to be an aspect of a deity, a "waterlily serpent," also an aspect of the lightning deity K'awiil, known as a nagual.

The vision serpent image is widely copied all over the place, just try typing "mayan vision serpent" or "vision serpent" into google.

Spoiler: Lintel 15

 

Time for some more lintels.

Lintel 16

Another famous one from Yaxchillan, showing Bird Jaguar with a prominent captive, the king of Santa Elena, at his feet (Pay Lakam Chahk).

Spoiler: Lintel 16

Lintel 17

Depicts Bird Jaguar IV and another one of his many wives, Lady Mut Bahlam of Hiix Witz. She is conducting a bloodletting ritual of passing a rope through her tongue. I really like the skull-headdress he wears in this one, also the huge amount of intricate detail in their costumes.

Spoiler: Lintel 17- in color!

 

Two more lintels to go.

Lintel 24


Famous mural depicting Shield Jaguar III holding a flaming torch orver his wife/consort Lady K'abal Xook drawing a thorn-rope through her tongue (bizarre blood-letting ritual). Seems like she did something wrong, its apparently a penitential thing.

Spoiler: Lintel 24

 

Lintel 25



Another one of favorites for last. Lintel 25 depicts the same lady as in the previous lintel, Lady K'abal Xook, conducting a bloodletting ritual that has caused a vision of another vision serpent. This one appears to her dressed in the costume of a warrior of Teotihuacan, and is probably Shield Jaguar III. Not sure what it means...

Spoiler: Lintel 25

Hope you enjoyed the Yaxchillan! Really hope I can visit there someday.

Also random note, I was originally going to post this next cool picture concerning Mayan headdresses being designed in artwork to mirror ruler's names. When I earmarked this site the first time I had labelled it as "Lintel 25," but one look at the picture as I posted it I realized I was in error. Turns out the lintel is actually Lintel 1 from La Pasadita... never heard of that Mayan site before. Still a cool picture. Link

Spoiler: La Pasadita Lintel 1