Maya Flashcards
What and when was ancient Maya?
Overlapping time frame with Teotihuacan, the ‘Classic Mayan Period’ 200-900CE. Peak of Mayan civilization. Some major cities: Yaxchilan and Tikal. Their glyph system and documentation of rulers means that lots is understood about Mayan civilization.
What is a Stela?
An ancient slab, stone or wooden, taller than it is wide with a carved face.
What is the Mayan Glyph system?
Mainly syllabic but also a mixture of logograms and phonetic qualifiers.
What is the importance of the longest surviving Mayan text, The Hieroglyphic Stairway
From Copan, Honduras a dynasty founded in 426CE it is a comprehensive documentation of Copan’s rulers. Extremely important historical documentation.
Who was Mayan ruler 18 Rabbit
Great patron of the art, he commissioned 7 stelae carving if himself and they are unprecedentedly detailed. The style of carvings are 3 dimensional (Carved in the round) with shortened limbs, but they have unique features of 18 rabbit that would allow him to be identifyable. Carved mainly from red sandstone. The Copan Stelae
The Temple of Inscriptions- TOUMB OF LORD PAKAL
Aka PALANEQUE
Burial site of Mayan ruler Lord Pakal. This temple has 9 steps leading to it which is the same number of levels of the Mayan underworld. Seen as ‘axis mundi’ (spiritual world axis linking earths surface to the heavens, and is what the universe revolves around) 13 levels of heaven. On Pakal’s sarcophogi an image details him falling and being swallowed by the jaws of the earth. As he falls a tree grows from his chest with The Principle Bird Deity perched atop it. This tree symbolises the importance of kings tying the worldly with the divine. He is the axis mundi, and is needed to keep the universe together.
Mayan polychromes
Were paintings that were sometimes on walls or drinking vessels and often depicted specific political or religious events like battles. The Mayan art style is considerably more naturalist than other Mesoamerican civilizations. The bodies are more proportional. Figures are still two-dimensional. Mayan hieroglyphs can be seen in blocks above figures detailing speech or labelling names most often. An impressive example is the very well-preserved polychromes at Bonampak.
Yaxchilan Lintels- Lintel 24
Lintels top doorways and are carved from stone or wood, there were many very elaborate Mayan lintels. Lintel 24 depicts an act of ritual bloodletting before Lord Shield Jaguar pulls thornes through her tongue where the blood is collected on the paper below. After the paper is burnt forming a ‘snake of smoke’, the glyphs accompanying it are written backwards and this would have been difficult to view properly, suggesting it had a function beyond being visually appraised such as an offering in itself, or a purifying effect on those who pass below it, reaping the benefits of Lady Xooc’s sacrifice.
