The Petén

The Petén is arguably the definitive region for Maya civilization in popular culture. As a geographic region, the Petén comprises the heavily forested lowlands in the center of the Maya zone. Much of this region lay in what is today the northern half of Guatemala, whose northernmost Department is named Petén, but the culture also extends into northwest Belize, and in Mexico into eastern Tabasco, southeast Campeche, and southwest Quintana Roo States. The stele fragment here comes from the Guatemalan Petén and is dated to the late Classic period, 600-900 AD. It depicts a nobleman bearing a large crocodilian headdress.

National Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology

The city of Dos Pilas was situated near one of the tributary rivers of the Usumacinta, toward the southern Petén in Guatemala. The stele here shows one of the kingdom's lords, standing in left profile. Following the end of its dynastic rule, Dos Pilas exemplified the extreme measures of a people under the hardship of war. The ruling authorities having already abandoned the administrative center of the city, the remaining commoners claimed that formerly elite district. In one of the most spectacular acts of social survival in Mesoamerican history, the people dismantled portions of the temples, palaces, and other structures to compose two palisaded walls for the city's security - an act of necessary vandalism for the sake of survival.

National Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology

The small city of Seibal lay east from Dos Pilas, but the city had a rocky history through the Classic period. It had been under the political control of Dos Pilas, which prevented it from attaining autonomy. Toward the Terminal Classic (800-909 AD), however, Seibal sought to strengthen cultural and political ties with Tikal, which promoted a new surge of artistic and political activity, according to Martin and Grube. This came too late, as many of the great Classic Maya cities were facing social decline, leading to the so-called "Collapse" at the beginning of the 10th century after which we have no written records of any further Classic dynasties. Seibal's artistic work emulated the emerging styles coming in from central Mexico, but it still retained some of its own Maya art, as with this wonderful fresco portrait of a lord facing right.

National Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology

Rio Azul was a small site by the Hondo River, toward the north border of Guatemala with Quintana Roo, Mexico. The image at right displays a full reproduction of the amazing cave burial that had been discovered nearby, with a large glyph of a bird-faced figure in profile and other lavish linear paintings around the back walls. Among the Rio Azul ceramics include this fascinating polychrome jar, painted with animals, and the famous "Ka-ka-wa (Cocoa) Jar."

National Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology

Now this is a marvelous fish in Mesoamerican art. A pair of flares emerges from the four "corners" of the white fish in this polychrome vase. These delicate vases were delivered for royal ceremonies or burials, but it is unlikely that they could have contained much in terms of practical use because they were too fragile to hold even liquids. Their value in Maya society was probably more aesthetic than functional. Tayazal lay south of Lake Petén-Itzá, in the Department of Petén, Guatemala.

National Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology

Compare the standing figure with the lord in Kaminaljuyú Stele 11 to see the remarkable similarities between them, despite the centuries and miles of separation between them. The flaring headdress, the toponymic symbol stood upon, the left-facing profile, and the outward holding of a symbol of political power are shared in both stelae. These similarities point to the conventions for artistically portraying Maya rulers across the region. The symbol of power here is the k'awiil scepter, which the lord holds by its one foot, which transforms into a serpent head at its end.

National Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology

The synthesis of human and owl features into a single creature was diffuse across Mesoamerica, as in the ancient central Mexican pictorial manuscripts and the infamous Aztec tlacatecolotl, the "Man-Owl" that the Spanish missionaries used as a Nahuatl name for the Christian Devil. Nobility from Classic-period Teotihuacan introduced into the Maya region military symbols of a human warrior with owl attributes. Finally, in his discussion of the Chilam Balam books, Ralph Roys makes an interesting (if creepy) Yucatec alternation between the screech owl, ah-coo-akab or "unrestrained one of the night," and the insane u-co-akab, "mad one of the night." Purulhá, the origin of this ceramic owl, is in the Department of Baja Verapáz, Guatemala.

National Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology

Formerly identified as a portrait of a solar god, the central figure on this long stucco facade was a prince or at least a youthfully depicted ruler. Many rulers were portrayed as youths, even if they died in old age, because of the association between the young maize god, the divine king, and the belief that they would return to the earth as surely as the maize plant emerges from the buried seed. This is a replica from a wall in Placeres, Campeche. Two supernatural figures flank the central ruler.

National Museum of Anthropology and History

The main figure in this stele is the lord standing at right. Much like in ancient Egyptian art, the main or highest-ranking figure is made to look taller than the subordinates in the event. Look at the difference in size between the lord and the bound captive he is standing upon. This was an artistic convention used to represent victorious battle, by demonstrating the presence of stripped and bound captives that appear beneath the lord's station, often directly beneath his feet. The lord is receiving the k'awiil scepter of rulership from the smaller figure at left.

National Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology

This is one of the largest stone stelae I have ever seen, one of seven that had been dedicated by the king Took' K'awiil to observe the turn of the katun cycle. Took' K'awiil is in fact the king featured in this stela, and Martin and Grube observe that his unusually wavy hair is prominent in this portrait. Its Long-Count date is 9.14.19.17.0 10 Ajaw 13 Ch'en, corresponding to July 29, 731 - 20 days prior to the turning of the 7200-day katun count. With an area of 11 square miles and 117 monuments, Calakmul was perhaps the largest and most artistically prolific city of the Classic Maya, as well as one of the most populated, according to Martin and Grube. It was established near what is today the southeast corner of Campeche, Mexico.

National Museum of Anthropology and History

The Maya "eccentrics" were carved from single pieces of flint, which was believed to originate from the places where lightning struck the earth. Because lightning was such a powerful natural force, a ruler's political power could be symbolically represented with such a piece of flint, affixed to a scepter that would then be called k'awiil, like the god of political authority who shared this name. This finely carved flint features rulers in profile, and it is from El Palmar in southern Quintana Roo.

National Museum of Anthropology and History