In the sculptured wall of the Temple of the Jaguars at Chichen Itza are represented a considerable number of warriors and priests dressed in elaborate costumes and paraphernalia. Several of these persons wear the typical triangular head-band or crown of the Nahuas, on which may be distinguished turquois-mosaic decoration (fig. 12). Two of these priests or warriors have their faces covered with unmistakable turquois-mosaic masks (figs. 13, 14).[87] This points to Nahuan influence, and we have other instances of this influence both at Chichen Itza and at Uxmal. We are thus led to the belief that the mosaics recovered from the cenote were brought to Chichen Itza from Nahuan territory.
PL. XXI
SHIELD OF WOOD WITH MOSAIC DECORATION
STATE MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY, VIENNA
Fig. 13 Fig. 14
Another example of a turquois mosaic mask in stone sculpture is found at the back of the profile face, in front of the ear, of the human figure carved on the front of stela 11 at Seibal, in the region of the upper Usumacinta, Department of Peten, Guatemala. It was photographed by Maler in 1895, and illustrated and described by him in his monograph, Explorations of the Upper Usumatsintla and Adjacent Region (Memoirs of the Peabody Museum, Harvard University, vol. IV, no. 1, Cambridge, 1908). Morley has deciphered the date on this stela as 10.1.0.0.0, corresponding approximately, according to his method of correlation, to 590 A.D. It appears to have been a hotun-marker, or stone erected every five years, and is placed in the Great Period of Mayan civilization.
Major Examples
The more important major specimens now remain to be considered. As all these objects are of wood, with the exception of numbers 3 and 9, we will not repeat this in our descriptions. They are: