Interests | Maya Civilisation

Arts and Culture

Contrary to popular belief, the Mayan civilization was not one unified empire, but rather a multitude of separate entities with a common cultural background. Similar to the Greeks, they were religiously and artistically a nation, but politically sovereign states. As many as twenty such states existed on the Yucatan Peninsula, but although a woman has, on rare occasions, ascended to the ruling position, she has never acquired the title of 'mah kina'.

The art of the Maya, as with every civilization, is a reflection of their lifestyle and culture. The art was composed of delineation and painting upon paper and plaster, carvings in wood and stone, clay and stucco models, and terra cotta figurines from molds. The technical process of metal working was also highly developed but as the resources were scarce, they only created ornaments in this media. Many of the great programs of Maya art, inscriptions, and architecture were commissioned by Mayan kings to memorialize themselves and ensure their place in history. The prevailing subject of their art is not anonymous priests and unnamed gods but rather men and women of power that serve to recreate the history of the people. The works are a reflection of the society and its interaction with surrounding people.

One of the greatest shows of Mayan artistic ability and culture is the hieroglyphic stairway located at Copan. The stairway is an iconographical complex composed of statues, figures, and ramps in addition to the central stairway which together port ray many elements of Mayan society. An alter is present as well as many pictorial references of sacrifice and their gods. More importantly than all the imagery captured with in this monument, however, is the history of the royal descent depicted in the heiroglyphs and various statues. The figurine of a seated captive is also representative of Mayan society as it depicts someone in the process of a bloodletting ceremony, which included the accession to kingship. This figure is of high rank as depicted by his expensive earrings and intricately woven hip cloth. The rope collar which would usually mark this man as a captive, reveals that he is involved in a bloodletting rite. His genitals are exposed as he is just about to draw blood for the ceremony.

In the Indian communities, as it was with their Mayan ancestors, the basic staple diet is corn. The clothing worn is as it was in the past. It is relatively easy to determine the village in which the clothing was made by the the type of embroidery, color, design and shape. Mayan dialects of Qhuche, Cakchiquel, Kekchi, and Mam are still spoken today, although the majority of Indians also speak Spanish.

Mayan Discoveries

Astronomical clues crack Mayan calendar's code
(New Scientist, Vol. 138, page 12 - 03 April 1993)

A calendar that could unravel the history of the Maya Indians has been deciphered after meticulous study of four Mayan manuscripts. Franz Joseph Hochleitner, an archaeologist at the Federal University of Juiz de Fora in Brazil, says the calendar will allow him to date important events described in the documents. 'These manuscripts depict a lot of dynastic history but at the moment, without any dates, we can't say what is happening,' he says.

The Maya lived in the forests of what is now Guatemala, Honduras and southern Mexico. Their civilisation was one of the most advanced in the Americas and they recorded their history. But little is known of the Maya because only four of their manuscripts survived plundering by the conquistadors. They are kept in museums in Dresden, Paris, Madrid and the US.

Mayan hieroglyphics have proved particularly difficult to untangle. The Maya had a complex system of calendars, and parts of three calendars have been deciphered from some of the preserved manuscripts. Hochleitner has now found a fourth calendar which uses a system of hieroglyphics to represent dates and appears in all four manuscripts.

The key to recognising the new calendar was the discovery that a 'chuen figure', the head of a rain god, represents a period of time, and that all dates are connected with some astronomical event, such as an eclipse or particular positions of planets or comets. The chuen figure represents 'katuns' - periods of 20 years of 360 days - while dots and dashes represent years, months and days.

Hochleitner has worked out how Mayan dates relate to the modern calendar, and hence to astronomical events. The Maya timed their most important ceremonies to tie in with such events, the most important of which was the appearance of Venus. On this day, they held religious festivals with human sacrifices. Perfect accuracy was demanded from the astronomers who predicted the dates. Execution was the usual penalty for getting it wrong.

The Maya Civilisation

Arts and Culture