The royal courts of the Maya kings and queens employed full-time painters and sculptors, some of whom signed their works. Remember that the main figure is impersonating the sun god. Her elaborately carved huipil is trimmed with fringe and pearls. And then the final touch, which really, really caused us great joy when we figured this out, is that the two underlings are literally also lifting the lintel itself. JIM CUNO: Hello, Im Jim Cuno, president of the J. Paul Getty Trust. Such careful attention to detail as well as the formal qualities of the line compare to other Maya sculptures, as well as vase painting and murals. But because he had collected so much information, he continues to loom quite large, in a positive way, in my subject. CUNO: So we have three sites, if I have my numbers correct, El Tunel being one of them; Yaxchilan being another; and Bonampak being a third. The sculpture occupies almost the . And he needed, probably, I would imagine, a lost city as a selling point. HOUSTON: The area is well endowed with carvings. But also, as I mentioned before, that the setting truly matterswhere the building was found, what that building might have presented architecturally, what might be the archaeological deposits nearby. Department of the Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Its got a nose, its got an eye. There would be events taking place that would be eventually recorded on this monument. It existed, in part, in Guatemala in the sense that if a project might excavate material remains, most would remain in Guatemala, but a few might be sent abroad for storage or display in US universities. Its also a time in which theyre probably using a kind of lingua franca, the elites are speaking one language and its not at all clear that anyone else is communicating in that speech. Its about supporters of the king but its taken into an entirely different direction. Review the vocabulary list for "Uncle Marcos". And this mustve been in the air of the time, because of the release, in 1947, of a lot of publicity about the Kon-Tiki expedition by Thor Heyerdahl. 20002023 The Metropolitan Museum of Art. And in fact, we know these limestones are literally millions of years old. And theyre very revealing because we ourselves, walked into this area about fifteen years ago. And then later on, theres an afterlife that would includeand theres the kind of lithic biographyvisits by local later Maya, who would burn incense near or on these monuments. And this is a process that really, really intensified in the sixties and seventies, and even beyond. u baah ti chabil ix chakan xook Ix Kabal Xook ix kalomte Blood scrolls can be seen on her face. And we can understand by looking at all of these carvings, which are sometimes which sometimes affix his signature, how he developed, what fascinated him, how he grafted, in this instance, a political arrangement between a king and a magnate-lord onto a pattern that really gets into complex iconography or imagery. How does that relate, how does that site relate to El Tunel or Bonampak? So in all of these, what you do see is a kind of theme that threads through them, which is the stories had to be often rather desultory, like life itself. In the image below, you can see that the figure emerging from the vision serpents mouth is armed with a shield, spear and a war helmet. And that will never, never end. So he mustve been very concerned with being out in the forest, with being prepared for every possible contingency. He commissioned some of the most famous sculptural works at the site. Bird Jaguar was Yaxchiln's most prolific builder and at least a dozen major structures were initiated or remodelled during his reign. As a. sapodilla, (Manilkara zapota), tropical evergreen tree (family Sapotaceae) and its distinctive fruit, native to southern Mexico, Central America, and parts of the Caribbean. And so there is, in our mind, very, very little doubt that Laxtunich, which was so vaguely specified as to location by Dana Lamb, is this place called El Tunel. The other thing about the lintel that intrigues us is down below, supporting these two very exalted individuals, are other people in the pecking order politically. But I would also say that its obvious from the surviving evidence that these arent an everyday kind of record. maby it was to show the detail of the rope. The other thing to remember about Dana is that he was a very early Boy Scout and he was a committed scout master. Anyone entering Structure 23 would pass. CUNO: Now, thats extremely interesting. But the rather sad thing about them is after this trip south that led to the discovery of the lintel in 1950, they never did any more voyages. A miraculously preserved kneeling dwarf (1979.206.1063) would likely have held a plaque covered in tiles of obsidian or pyrite that reflected light upon the ruler gazing at it. ", Posted 8 years ago. Lambs objective was essentially to do Kon-Tiki in the Chiapan Rainforest. So they are very much part of the firmament of the United States, as well. The glyphs spell out her name. Hieroglyphic stairways are also kinetically fascinating from an interpretive viewpoint because you, of course, walk up and down them, but what is often depicted on them, in terms of imagery, or recorded on them in terms of hieroglyphic inscriptions, would be a succession of rulers over time. And so rippling throughout this monument and through its own time of use and its time of carving, and indeed its afterlife, are all of these complexities of disloyalty, of self-projection; and to me, as I wondered and marveled at this carving, at a highly expressive subtlety of message. Explain your answers. And by explore, I meant someone who was not burdened by the need to stay at one site, but he visited hundreds, if not a thousand Maya ruins, doing maps and also recording inscriptions. Recent excavations have unearthed what is thought to be the tombs of Itzamnaaj Bahlam and Lady Xoc within Structure 23. There seems to be pretty good evidence that the known carvers at Bonampak came from Yaxchilan. And this may, in turn, account for the kind of micro kingdoms or the political fragmentation that are illustrated or exemplified by the carving weve been looking at. HOUSTON: Bonampak is a high-ranking city. Many different building materials have been used for lintels.[1]. And there are relatively reliable records that were never shared with anybody else, in the form of field notes or diaries, that tell us exactly how Lamb got to this site. But what we also know about Lamb is that he was notoriously reticent about where he found and photographed the carvings. Naming someone for a Jaguar would be a little like how in Catholic countries people were named using the Saints' Days Calendar. And there are lots of grounds for thinking that its both a specific date in historic time for the Classic Maya, but its also replicating overall creation, with the lifting of the sky. And what they tell us is that these carvings were made by an identifiable, superlative sculptor whose name we know and can decipher. He never recorded, Lamb did, any precise information about the location of the lintels. It was a significant Maya center during the Classic period (250-900 C.E.) and a number of its buildings stand to this day. This Maya landmark was likely the carved lintel of a doorway from the site of La Pasadita in northwestern Guatemala carved in the early A.D. 770s. HOUSTON: This part of Guatemala, its highly broken in landscape. And what they also tell us is that this sculptor introduced idiosyncratic, brilliant effects, and that he asserted his identity in ways that were not otherwise known in the corpus of Maya carvings. The Spaniards are recording a great deal of information about the panoply of gods and the nature of Maya society at that time. how do we know that they really did worship shield jaguar, and how do we know the picture showed the queen? She kneels in front of Shield Jaguar who holds a great torch described in the text as a "burning spear illuminating a ritual that was probably held at night or set in the dark recess of a private chamber. And so these arent just random aesthetic choices, but the colors applied to the stone are going to be carrying a lot of different meanings that were vitally important to the Maya. In Yaxchilan, structure 23 is seen as the place of Lady Xoc's. The first two glyphs in the text at the top of the lintel indicate the event and the date on which it took place, October24, 709 C.E. Describe it for us and its importance in the history of Mayan sculpture, but also, perhaps, just in sheer beauty itself. Lintels may be visible or recessed in the roof of the facility, and reduce dose rate in publicly accessible areas by reducing the maze cross section. Two are explicitly named as being by him. Why did the looting take place? Theyre found in many, many palaces. The beam depicts a female wearing an elaborately woven textile dress, a quetzal-feather headdress, and fine jade regalia. The rope falls on to an open codex. A lintel is the horizontal beam that spans the opening between two upright architectural elements. How do we know the names of those mentioned in the article? In classical Western architecture and construction methods, by Merriam-Webster definition, a lintel is a load-bearing member and is placed over an entranceway. This sacrifice mirrored the Maya story of creation, when the gods let their blood to create the human race. Draw two lines under each verb or verb phrase. Figure emerges from the mouth of a vision serpent (detail), Lintel 25, Structure 23, Yaxchiln (Maya) (The British Museum). And then it concludes, I would say, with what we call the Post-Classic, which is a very tendentious term. This buildings construction is therefore important, and so too are the individuals it showcases. Its also very helpful if you plan to travel to one of the locations. A fearsome full-bodied portrait (66.181) shows Chac grimacing and holding a double-bladed axe as if to threaten the beholders. Thanks for listening. Alfred Maudslay had the lintel cut from the ceiling of a side entrance in 1882 and shipped to Great Britain where it remains today in the British Museum of London. Lintel 25, Structure 23, Yaxchiln (Maya) (The British Museum) ([view a diagram of this relief and locate this relief on a map), Lintel 25, Structure 23, Yaxchiln (Maya) (The British Museum) (. And so Lambs objective was essentially to do Kon-Tiki in the Chiapan Rainforest. And this is something weve known about for some time, but its only recently being documented to a fuller extent. And we know the exact date. And its also about that time, or maybe a century or so before, that theres a lot of contact with the great city, the metropolis, of Teotihuacn, which is pretty close to what is now Mexico City. Lady Xook holds a bowl in her left hand while she looks up towards the rising serpent. Some of the most famous lintels are those on Structure 23a yotoot (palace building . Its a little bit sad, in that Ive actually seen correspondence from Dana and Ginger, and the letterhead has the heading of Dan and Ginger Lamb, Exploration and Motion Pictures. But there would be only one movie called Quest for the Lost City, which was released in the 1950s and went into broad distribution. RM G169RT - Post and lintel is a simple construction method using a lintel, header, or architrave as the horizontal member over a building void supported at its ends by two vertical columns, pillars, or posts. The one scholar who heard from him on this subject in the 1950s was the doyenne of my studies, someone named Alfred Tozzer at Harvard. Are there pigments left on the stone still? After the collapse of the Classic Period kingdoms, Maya artists at northern cities like Chichn Itz drew influence from Central Mexico and southern Central America as they adorned their temples and created spectacular offerings to their rulers and deities. Shield Jaguar II's commissions at Yaxchiln's central complex of buildings (called the Central Acropolis) include carved lintels (the beam at the top of a doorway), stairs faced with hieroglyphic writing, and stele (upright wood or stone slab monuments). CUNO: How do they relate to painted vases of the same period, the same area? And so in many ways, the worst looting in Guatemala actually took place also, I would say, prior to that terrible civil war in that country. Structure 21, commissioned by Bird Jaguar IV, housed lintels 15, 16 and 17. The most prominent of these is the equestrian warrior, who is depicted frontally sitting regally on a diminutive horse. 1 : to expand something in detail would you care to elaborate on that statement. "Her image at the penance, the cut lady, Ix Kabal Xoc, female autocrat. And for me, the task of this kind of scholarship that is exemplified in this book, we think, is to retrieve that knowledge in various ways and for various objectives. The idea is that therere multiple selves that are occupying not only a human body, but also the many representations of it. In the bowl are pieces of paper stained with her blood. The Maya. Many of the exteriors had elaborate decorations, but it is the carved stone lintels above their doorways which have made this site famous. How many Olmec colossal heads have been discovered? And we have made, I think, a persuasive argument that the four lintels came from two separate buildings. Now, the sculptures from all of these communities, these smaller places like El Tunel or Laxtunich, tend to be fairly emphatic in emphasizing that almost suffocating centralized control that emanates from Yaxchilan. One building was constructed a bit early; the later came about ten years after that. They allowed him, I think, to survive. At the Yaxchilan archaeological site there are fifty-eight lintels with decorative pieces spanning the doorways of major structures. What effect it might have on the physical condition of the limestone of which the Mayan stones are primarily made. Just a made up name. It speaks about cataclysmic storms, almost a hurricane, artesian wells that are spurting like volcanoes, and so forth. Why does he feature so much in your book? Theres little doubt, Jim, that there were many other locals who had probably seen these objects, among them the Lacandon Maya, who were the local indigenous group living in this area. And the lintels are features of buildings that span doorways. The lintels are a little bit complicated in another way, in that of course, they are difficult to look at, in that once you get into one of these, or pass through a narrow doorway in a Maya building, you have to arch your back and bend your neck. So all of this tells us that this is obviously a changing group of peoples, but theyre so deeply grounded in this area. In the Lintel 23, Communication with Ancestors, Blood Sacrifices and preparing the King for Battle is seen performing by Lady Xoc in the presence of the King Jaguar. To become a master, a journeyman has to submit a master piece of work to . And he eventually produced and helped to release the Kon-Tiki movie itself in the United States. Direct link to Eric Bush's post Seems like a close 'cousi, Posted 4 years ago. There are four carvings known. HOUSTON: Well, we have a few examples of reliefs that have essentially transferred designs from pots. It is possible that this is Bird Jaguar IV. Shield Jaguar IIs commissions at Yaxchilns central complex of buildings (called the Central Acropolis) include, Some of the most famous lintels are those on Structure 23a yotoot (palace building) showing Shield Jaguar IIs wife, Lady Kabal Xook. Theyre part of the same creative explosion towards the end of the eighth century AD. Yaxchiln lintel 16 (commissioned by Bird Jaguar IV for Structure 21), after 752 C.E., Maya, Late Classic period, limestone, 76.2 x 75.7 cm, Mexico Trustees of the British Museum. HOUSTON: Thats right. But it really is a time with a profoundly different constitution of society, and suddenly things become much more opaque to us. And Ive sometimes wondered if that had to do with an attempt to heighten their claim to authenticity. The colossal statue of Constantine the Great departs completely from statues of earlier Roman The Maya lite drew blood from various parts of their bodies using lancets made of stingray spine, flint, bone or obsidian. Its very, very fine. Each of the works is signed, indicating that the production of such works was regarded as a highly specialized skill rather than a trade. A beautiful diamond pattern decorates Lady Xooks huipil, for instance, in Lintel 24 (below). Now, what we know about Lamb, Dana Lamb, is that he comes across as a blundering neophyte in this deep jungle. Nonetheless, there are plans afoot to try to return to this region and to explore it in more detail. CUNO: Now, you call the carved Maya stones orphaned carvings. (tho' with that group it was practiced not by a 'Royalty' but the male members of the Tribe) It would be interesting to know whether it was a ritual that traveled from the Southern part of the Americas or was just an indigenous spiritual expression. And you say that it thrives in conditions of relative stability. CUNO: Thank you, Steve, for joining me on this podcast. Lady K'abal Xook pullinga thorned rope through her tongue (detail). And so by walking around it, youre, in some ways, participating in whatever kinetic activity that involved. The Narmer Palette is the name of an elaborately carved shield-shaped slab of gray schist made during the Old Kingdom of Dynastic Egypt (ca. 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what event is portrayed in the elaborately carved lintel