The City of the Sacred Well

by T. A. Willard

Another part of the battle scene, covering the east wall, depicts the invading army coming over the mountains to attack the Itzas. At the left in the picture is an Itza general or ruler, supported as usual by his beneficent Ahau Can or king of serpents. He is identified as belonging to the Itzas by his typical Itzan costume. The figure with the symbolized protecting serpent is similar to many others to be seen elsewhere in Chi-chen Itza, in paintings and bas-reliefs. A little lower down is his commanding general, also with a protecting serpent, and all about are the Itza warriors, now, due to mutilation, indicated only by the heads of their spears, pointing upward toward the enemy. In the upper right-hand corner of the painting is an Itzan horn-blower, standing upon a temple. His nationality is evidenced by the knee-protectors he wears.

The invaders wear an entirely different style of clothing and their armament is not like that of the Itzas. For example, although they use the hul-che, their shields are rectangular—a shape never seen in Chi-chen Itza nor in the whole Maya area. Still more striking is the peculiarity of their head-dresses of three blue feathers with yellow tips surmounting the regular feathered head-gear. It is significant that Don Eduardo, some years ago in the excavation of a temple, uncovered a gigantic painted head having a head-dress of three blue feathers with yellow tips. The stone containing the picture of the head was found upside down, and from the situation in which it was discovered it had evidently been so placed originally and had not fallen or been displaced. The reversed position of the head was the Maya method of conveying the information that this foe was conquered.

Evidently the painting in the Tiger Temple was executed to commemorate the victory over the invaders of the blue feathers, and the other temple which Don Eduardo excavated also was decorated with murals that indicated victory.

On each of the shields of the invaders is shown a curious red symbol which indirectly gives a clue to the nationality of these foreigners. In the central part of the state of Vera Cruz are found the remains of a highly cultured people, the Totanacs. The descendants of this ancient clan still reside in the neighborhood and their language contains many Mayan words. Because of the peculiarity of the design, as shown on the engraving of a clay Totanac facing page 225 [missing], there can be no doubt that it is the same identically as appears on the shields in the Tiger Temple. The same peculiar design occurs frequently upon the ancient Totanac sculptures and pottery.

The Totanacs are neighbors to another tribe just to the north, the Huastecas, who spoke the pure Maya language and were a part of the Maya brotherhood. It seems probable either that they were left behind in the great Maya migration from the west or that their country was originally the home of those Mayas who later emigrated to Yucatan under the leadership of the mighty Kukul Can.

Either supposition might be correct, for it was in this locality that the now famous Tuxtla statuette was found which bears the earliest date ever discovered in this part of the world—113 B. C. The earliest date-stone in Chi-chen Itza is the one found by Don Eduardo and its date is more than seven hundred years later. During the interval between the two, or even before, the emigration to Yucatan from the west might have occurred.

Another curious thing in the Tiger Temple painting is the fact that the invaders are shown coming over mountains. Northern Yucatan contains no mountains, not even a high hill. But in the state of Vera Cruz there are mountains. There is little to substantiate any theory that the people of the Sacred City invaded Vera Cruz and it is much more probable that the Totanacs were the invaders.

In passing, another hypothesis of the ethnology of the Mayas is that they were descendants of the Toltecas, a peaceful and cultured people who inhabited Mexico proper before they were driven southward by the Nahuatl or Aztec tribes. In various places in Mexico, Toltecan remains have been found similar in construction and design to those in the Maya areas. Yucatan may have been the final stopping-place of these people, but as they moved ever southward, bands dropped out along the road, and settled.

It is known that many years later Aztec soldiers marched clear around the rim of the Gulf of Mexico and through the jungles to Chi-chen Itza, which was their final destination. Their influence is very evident in the buildings in newer Chi-chen Itza.

Because many of the murals in the Sacred City have reached the critical point of deterioration in the last decade or so, I have made a point of photographing as many of them as possible. Much of the photography has employed the color-separation process. All told, I have taken upward of a thousand photographs, and in addition I have made a large number of drawings or tracings where it was impossible to use the camera. A number of murals which were clear and perfect during my earlier trips to Yucatan, some eighteen years ago, are now entirely faded or chipped off.