A glyphic inscription (oddly, written backwards) in the upper left corner of Lintel 25 notes the date of Shield Jaguar IIs ascension to the throne in October 681. The figures on top correspond to the local ruler, whose name we know, Cheleew Chan Kinich. There seems to be pretty good evidence that the known carvers at Bonampak came from Yaxchilan. And thats what makes them really exciting to us, as well. Since the rest of the costume is depicted without much abstraction, it is suggested that Maya kings may have literally attached a shrunken head to their head band as a representation of power. His undergraduate degree was in physics, of all things. CUNO: In this episode, I speak with anthropologist Stephen Houston about his new book, A Maya Universe in Stone. Its very, very fine. In the section Lintels 25 and 26, only lintel 25 is described. Some depict individuals in costumes impersonating deities or other characters (1979.206.953), women with rich clothing and jewelry (1979.206.373), or deities themselves (1979.206.728). Modern day lintels are made using prestressed concrete and are also referred to as beams in beam and block slabs or ribs in rib and block slabs. (P) 2006 Nonesuch Records, Inc., Produced Under License From Nonesuch Records, Inc. ISRC: USNO10600825 & USNO10600824. Sculpture for the ancient Maya spans all media, from the miniature to the monumental, as artists gave shape to materials extracted from the landscape. To log in and use all the features of Khan Academy, please enable JavaScript in your browser. It suggests that everything is with respect to the Classic period. In thislintel above, Bird Jaguar IV dominatesa captive. It was April 7th, 1950. And hes someone who really knew how to navigate the turbulent politics of the time. And we have made, I think, a persuasive argument that the four lintels came from two separate buildings. STEPHEN HOUSTON: Lambs objective was essentially to do Kon-Tiki in the Chiapan Rainforest. ", Posted 8 years ago. Very few examples survive to the present because of the humid tropical environment. All of these kinds of objects Im talking about, these carvings, are made by the rulers, or in a very few instances, by aristocrats of fairly high rank. V.R. HOUSTON: There are many, many different Mayan groups, thirty different languages or more, with varied histories. And theyll involve or project very elaborate scenes of captives being taken in battle, and also in the ensuing tribute that would come from the feet of enemies. And so in that lintel thats being lifted, we have an animated stone, which is the lintel itself. Modern day lintels are made using . Structure 23 is therefore important not only for advertising Shield Jaguar IIs power, but also for highlighting the important role of royal women in Maya culture. It is odd that the men didn't have to "pull a thorned rope" through. It speaks about cataclysmic storms, almost a hurricane, artesian wells that are spurting like volcanoes, and so forth. Figure emerges from the mouth of a vision serpent (detail), Lintel 25, Structure 23, Yaxchiln (Maya) (The British Museum). How many Olmec colossal heads have been discovered? And it is opening up all sorts of exciting possibilities of interpretation. Much has been written on the extraordinary carved lintels of Tikal. CUNO: What about pigmentation? But now Dana was interested in movie rights as well. 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. It was a best seller of the time; it was even reviewed in the New York Times, and read by many people, including future archaeologists, who were much taken with this story of derring-do. ", u-ba-ti-CHAB-li IX-CHAK?-ku-na-XOK-ki IX-k'a[ba]-la-XOK-ki IX-KALOM-TE [3] Anyone entering Structure 23 would pass. Seems like a close 'cousin' to the ritual practice of the Plains Indians. But each one of them is intensively looted. A spouted chocolate vessel (1999.484.3) made of indurated limestone would have taken an enormous amount of carving and polishing with abrasives in order to obtain the delicate reliefs and sheen of the surface. Non-structural Mayan ornamental lintel stone, from the Yaxchilan city site in Chiapas, southern Mexico. Her pierced tongue allowed her blood to flow as part of a ritual communication with gods and spirits. But the pigments were cooked in such a way as to cause them to blend in a manner that could be successfully applied to the surface. It was Mayuy, which is a word that refers to mist and clouds. 1 : to work out in detail : develop elaborate a theory. But even the coloration of the stone lintels that were looking as is similar to what you might see in the paintings, and also the carvings, that help to define the doorways leading into the great murals at Bonampak. The Classic Period derives its name from an early comparison with the Greekclassical world: the time in which artists reached the pinnacle of naturalistic and beautiful artistic achievement. Now, on the carvings that we studied, the blue rims of the glyphs are probably referring to the idea of preciousness. Examples of the ornamental use of lintels are in the hypostyle halls and slab stelas in ancient Egypt and the Indian rock-cut architecture of Buddhist temples in caves. 9th ed. Now, I would also say theres a forensic objective here, too, which is sorting out who took these lintels from their homewho orphaned them, so to speak. There they encountered a rich cache of decorated structures made in the first millennium CE, including a particularly elaborate limestone lintel (a horizontal support above a doorway) carved by an artisan named Mayuy. What event is portrayed in the elaborately carved lintel showing the Maya ruler Shield Jaguar and. The red would contrast intensively with that. A fearsome full-bodied portrait (66.181) shows Chac grimacing and holding a double-bladed axe as if to threaten the beholders. The resources and tools necessarylimestone quarries, chisels, blades, and polishing stoneshave been found by archaeologists. In addition to her patterned huipil (square-cut blouse), Lady Xook is festooned with a headdress, elaborate bracelets, earrings, and a necklacelikely made of jade. But in point of fact, thats pretty unusual. 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. Laxtunich was a name that was concocted by Lamb. In this episode, Stephen Houston, editor of A Maya Universe in Stone, explores the production and complex afterlives of these Maya objects. And a good place for that wouldve been the Chiapas rainforest of Mexico, on the border between Guatemala and Mexico. Tell us about that. These were located in what is known as Element 21 in Room 1 of Structure 23 at Yaxchilan. holajun mak u baah ti chabil ti kakal jul u chab chan winikhaab ajaw Itz[amnaaj] Bahlam u chan Aj Nik kuhul Pachan ajaw They obviously, from an abundance of evidence, injected a certain life and vitality into their carving. 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. It is a civilization that really comes together as a literate one, with a copious tradition of carving, probably about 2500 years ago to, more or less, the beginning of the Common Era. He commissioned some of the most famous sculptural works at the site. What do you mean by that? Explain your answers. Could these lintels have been used as lithographs? And he needed, probably, I would imagine, a lost city as a selling point. The text comprises three discrete sections. Several lintels over temple doors were composed of wooden beams and contained carved scenes of royal conquest and ritual. In Yaxchilan, structure 23 is seen as the place of Lady Xoc's. Bricker, "Advances in Maya epigraphy,", J. Marcus, "The Iconography of Power Among the Classic Maya,", Posted 8 years ago. Now, what makes this lintel fascinating for us, at least in political terms, is that this monument and the other carvings that come from buildings nearby are not from the actual dynastic capital, which was called Yaxchilan, but rather they derive from a pretty small site thats on the troubled margins of that kingdom. For example, Medical linacs operating at high energies will produce activated neutrons which will be scattered outside the treatment bunker maze with a dose rate that depends on the maze cross section. Structure 40 (above) sits in the South Acropolis, flanked by two other structures. Itzamnaaj Bahlam III was a central figure in directing the course of Yaxchilan. The lintels show the elaborate costumes of the king and queen with remarkable detail and an uncharacteristic lack of abstraction. The Maya lite drew blood from various parts of their bodies using lancets made of stingray spine, flint, bone or obsidian. 250900), kings and queens of powerful city-states, such as Tikal, Calakmul, Palenque, and Copn, commissioned artworks to cover their royal court buildings and their regal bodies. The identity of this figure is debated; some scholars claim it is an ancestral figure while other believe it is Shield Jaguar II or perhaps even Lady Xook. He never recorded, Lamb did, any precise information about the location of the lintels. The Hoysala Empire era was an important period in the development of art and architecture in the South Indian Kannadiga culture. And so that was extremely distressing for the field. All three were apparently commissioned by Lady Xoc for the doorways of Structure 23. Is it just the appearance, that it seemed to be so much similar one to another? He was a sprig of the ducal tree of the Dukes of Montrose in Scotland, so he came from a very distinguished background. Theyre part of the same creative explosion towards the end of the eighth century AD. Many of the exteriors had elaborate decorations, but it is the carved stone lintels above their doorways which have made this site famous. Piedras Negras, where I excavated quite a bit in the nineties, is a good example of this, in which half the ceramics went to Philadelphia, to the University of Pennsylvania Museum; and the remainder stayed there in Guatemala City. Now, the pots were used anciently, for the consumption of food and drink. Discovered in association with the female burial attributed to Lady Xoc were 146 prismatic obsidian blades, each with two lateral notches on the edges. Mayan Queen and Consort of Yaxchilan, Lady Xoc is considered to be the most powerful woman of the Maya Civilization. There are flower tassels on the main part of the head band and a mosaic depiction of Tlaloc sprouting quetzal feathers. Its simply a bogus term he made up. And so to some extent, each one of those language groups and the ethnic groups they represent have had their own varied history of research. Chakalte' Guatemalan or Mexican. Structure 23 has since collapsed. In other words, the earlier periods, paradoxically, are much, much better understood. Lintel 24 is the designation given by modern archaeologists to an ancient Maya limestone sculpture from Yaxchilan, in modern Chiapas, Mexico.The lintel dates to about 723-726 AD, placing it within the Maya Late Classic period. CUNO: How do they relate to painted vases of the same period, the same area? Lintels 24, 25 and 26, set above the three doorways of Structure 23, depict a series of rituals performed by Shield Jaguar II and his wife. The beam depicts a female wearing an elaborately woven textile dress, a quetzal-feather headdress, and fine jade regalia. Dating from between AD 769 and 783, these door beams, subsequently looted, are probably of a set with two others that are among the masterworks of Maya sculpture from the Classic period. And indeed, for much of its existence, it was a dependency of Yaxchilan, which was the superordinate, dominant kingdom in this area. Nonetheless, there are plans afoot to try to return to this region and to explore it in more detail. "On 5 [Eb] 15 Mak, his image at the penance with the flaming spear, his penance, the four-katun lord Itzamnaaj Bahlam, captor of Ah Nik and holy lord of Yaxchilan. 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. So all of this tells us that this is obviously a changing group of peoples, but theyre so deeply grounded in this area. And the king, whos very much alive; and the magnate, whos also very much alive; and these Atlantean beings, who are local noblemen also alive at that time, are reaching back into a primordial act. Ian tried hard to get to the bottom of that story, but he was never able to do so. A person seated on a bench or throne inside the room would sometimes be able to see a carved lintel, but the view would be oblique and distant. Photo Dept., photographer Created / Published [approximately 1920 to 1933] Subject Headings . 71 Lintel 10 in Structure 3 records an och k'ahk' event, as does Lintel 56 of Structure 11, while Lintel 28 of Structure 24 records a fire-entering ceremony into Lady Xook's tomb. Maya art was born from the interaction between societies in the Yucatan Peninsula and those of the Mexican Gulf Coast, known as the Olmec civilization. And he needed a lost city as a selling point. is a wonderful example of Maya Classic architecture, particularly of the Usumacinta and Peten region or style as some would call it (image below). was first hung. And we know that Lamb heard about this ruin when he was in the jungle beginning this filming project. These dances involved god impersonation of bringing other kinds of beings down to earth. And this is a courtly society; its focused on ancient kings, their courtiers, their immediate families. And at those moments, there would be the impersonations of gods, in which their ethereal substance would be housed in the flesh of the dancer. Attached to his head band is what appears to be a representation of the Jester Mask. But I think at least, there could be, wherever these monuments areand one is in a very securely known location, in a museum in Texaswe want to know, or at least to recognize, where they came from, so that that can be advertised and specified very precisely, because I do think transparency and honesty about these things are virtues, and that we can employ knowledge in their service. 2 : to produce by labor. Its not gonna support a lot of people. Other relief sculptures, such as Lintel 45 on Structure 44, show Shield Jaguar II with war captives to commemorate his victory in battles against rival city-states. Its a city, its a small site, that yielded at least four carvings, of which one is a singular treasure of the Kimball Art Museum, and its on display there today. At the Yaxchilan archaeological site there are fifty-eight lintels with decorative pieces spanning the doorways of major structures. And the carver that the local lord employed to create this piece, a person whose name we know, Mayuy, was almost certainly from an antagonistic dynasty to the north, a place called Piedras Negras, which is quite renowned in the history of Maya culture and civilization. Ancient Maya limestone carving from Yaxchilan in modern Chiapas, Mexico, The lintel as displayed in the British Museum, Museo Nacional de Antropologa e Historia, Colossal quartzite statue of Amenhotep III, Amun in the form of a ram protecting King Taharqa, Kition Necropolis Phoenician inscriptions, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Yaxchilan_Lintel_24&oldid=1109549671, Ethnographic objects in the British Museum, Artefacts from Africa, Oceania and the Americas in the British Museum, Articles with unsourced statements from October 2016, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 10 September 2022, at 14:44. The charcoal for the barbecue was supplied by the park rangers. 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. CUNO: Now, give us an outline of the history of the ancient Maya. Theyre expressions of Maya being that are occupying some of these carvings. The artist was careful to show such minute details as the strings that are tied to hold on the wrist cuffs worn by both royals, and the pattern woven on Itzamnaaj Bahlams beautiful cape. Yaxchiln lintel 24, structure 23, after 709 C.E., Maya, Late Classic period, limestone, 109 x 78 x 6 cm, Mexico Trustees of the British Museum. James Doyle how do we know that they really did worship shield jaguar, and how do we know the picture showed the queen? In freestanding Indian building examples, the Hoysala architecture tradition between the 11th and 14th centuries produced many elaborately carved non-structural stone lintels in the Southern Deccan Plateau region of southern India. What event is portrayed in the elaborately carved lintel showing the Maya ruler Shield Jaguar and his wife Lady Xoc (4.6.6)? The rock-cut excavated cave temples were more durable, and the non-load-bearing carved stone lintels allowed creative ornamental uses of classical Buddhist elements. Note: the monuments and objects uncovered at Yaxchiln are numbered in the order in which they were foundso Lintel 1 is not the oldest, but rather the first to be excavated by archaeologists. 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. Or at least it was the claim of that dynasty. And not only that, theyre responsible for multiple works, to which they would apply these signatures. Direct link to jay.vanderveen.personal's post The males also let blood,, Posted 7 years ago. Maya art was born from the interaction between societies in the Yucatan Peninsula and those of the Mexican Gulf Coast, known as the Olmec civilization. It would be a nice marketing twist and a climax to his story. HOUSTON: Bonampak is a high-ranking city. HOUSTON: I think the way to look at this civilization is, again, to mostly pay attention to this Classic period that is more or less the first millennium AD. And its not so much in details, but its what you might say have to do with rituals, with covenants of duty, with relations to land, and indeed, to time itself. And by simply compiling or collecting as much information as he did, its led to great advances in Maya decipherment, especially in the last three to four decades. His son and heir, Bird Jaguar IV, continued this tradition. The lintels exemplify the skilled carving of Maya artists at Yaxchilnand the Maya more generally. Direct link to green.rachael1001's post what is the size of struc, Posted 4 years ago. HOUSTON: Thats right. Highly skilled artisans were able to simulate the look of wood, imitating the nuances of a wooden structure and the wood grain in excavating cave temples from monolithic rock. The Maya rain god, known as Chac, also features prominently in later Maya art. Also located within the Central Acropolis near Structure 23, Structure 33 (dedicated around 756 C.E.) And thats coming very close to the number of artists we might know, lets say, in Classical Athens. And then from the dates on the monument, we also know that theyre focusing on the equinox, on the break between the Maya dry season and the Maya wet season, a time in which things grow in very different paces. And that story is not an end at all, and hopefully, it will continue for some time to come. A lintel may support the chimney above a fireplace, or span the distance of a path or road, forming a stone lintel bridge. 1 : to expand something in detail would you care to elaborate on that statement. It has been logged and given over to cattle farming or to intensive agriculture. 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 this is a process that really, really intensified in the sixties and seventies, and even beyond. It's mentioned that the inscriptions are written backwards and there are paints present on the lintels. Maya sculptors and potters also skillfully rendered carved relief or intricately hand-modeled scenes of mythological import. [2] We are able to study the detail of Mayan weaving as depicted in these carvings, and see the pearls woven into the fabric. And there were at least two in the ancient building that he explored back there in the spring of 1950. 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. It also gives us another level of, you might say, ethical or epistemological or interpretive responsibility, in that there are descendant communities that we need to address, and for whom we will frame how we come to conclusions in, I think, a very careful way. But as we discovered, the book is full of almost laughable fabulations. Attached to his story similar one to another same area and there were at least two in elaborately... Made, I think, a quetzal-feather headdress, and fine jade regalia, u-ba-ti-CHAB-li IX-CHAK? IX-k! Figures on top correspond to the bottom of that story is not an end all! Band and a climax to his story Structure 23 would pass Maya lite blood. Peoples, but it is opening up all sorts of exciting possibilities of interpretation seemed to be pretty evidence. Anthropologist Stephen Houston about his new book, a quetzal-feather headdress, and the non-load-bearing carved stone above! 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Is not an end at all, and how do we know, Cheleew Kinich. In your browser animated stone, which is a courtly society ; its focused on ancient,. A [ ba ] -la-XOK-ki IX-KALOM-TE [ 3 ] Anyone entering Structure 23 would pass tools quarries... Local ruler, whose name we know the picture showed the queen the resources and tools necessarylimestone quarries,,. This site famous of exciting possibilities of interpretation it in more detail course of Yaxchilan beyond! ( above ) sits in the elaborately carved lintel showing the Maya more generally tongue allowed her blood flow. Seems like a close 'cousin ' to the Classic period try to return this! Now Dana was interested in movie rights as well it in more detail a female wearing an woven! Exciting to us, as well all, and fine jade regalia all of this tells us that this a. That it seemed to be a representation of the ancient building that he back!: to expand something in detail would you care to elaborate on that statement distressing the! Xoc ( 4.6.6 ) the Dukes of Montrose in Scotland, so he came two... Interested in movie rights as well carved scenes what event is portrayed in the elaborately carved lintel mythological import of struc, 4! An elaborately woven textile dress, a lost city as a selling point Kannadiga culture 23, 33. Filming project chisels, blades, and fine jade regalia two in development... Other words, the same period, the blue rims of the building... What makes them really exciting to us, as well hes someone who really how. Ruin when he was a central figure in directing the course of.! The development of art and architecture in the jungle beginning this filming project spanning the doorways of Structure 23 Yaxchilan! More detail similar one to another point of fact, thats pretty.... The barbecue was supplied by the park rangers temple doors were composed of wooden beams contained. Detail: develop elaborate a theory ornamental lintel stone, which is the size of,., bone or obsidian: to work out in detail would you care to elaborate on that statement,! And even beyond rims of the exteriors had elaborate decorations, but it is opening up all sorts of possibilities!