MAYA
Stela 24; Naranjo, Guatemala
As regards habitations, no doubt the early inhabitants of the Maya country lived, for the most part, in huts constructed of perishable materials, and reserved the more permanent buildings for the service of the gods and the use of the tribal chiefs. So close a similarity does the present-day native house of Yucatan bear to the typical form of Maya room as exemplified in the ruins, that it seems probable that the early habitations did not differ essentially from those of later times. The Yucatec house is a rectangular structure of wood and leaves, with a gabled roof supported by a ridge-pole; it is usually constructed on a raised foundation, which renders it considerably cooler than if built upon the ground level, and the floor is mortared. Like the early structures, it contains no windows. Landa describes the houses of Yucatan in much the same terms, stating that the building was divided by a longitudinal wall, pierced with doorways giving access to small rooms used as sleeping apartments. The front was open, and constituted the living and reception room, and in the houses of chiefs, the walls, which were plastered, were ornamented with frescoes. A certain amount of building in stone was carried on right up to the conquest, though the buildings erected do not seem to have been either as important or as ornamental as those of earlier date. Diaz mentions stone-built habitations in Yucatan, and waxes enthusiastic over the towns of Chiapas, which were of no great importance, a fact which goes far to prove that the great sites such as Palenque were never visited by the conquerors, and must have been even then deserted. The Quiché and Kakchiquel were good builders in stone and lime, and an early and somewhat high-flown description exists of their chief towns, Utatlan and Iximché, though the ruins in that locality show clearly that the chronicler’s imagination has completely run away with him. But on the whole it may be concluded that the Maya, like the Mexicans, dedicated their architectural masterpieces to the purposes of religion, and lived for the most part in dwellings of a more temporary nature. The population seems to have moved about a great deal, probably around the religious centres distinguished by the more extensive ruins, and the construction of elaborate dwellings would have been rather a waste of time.
Fig. 64.—Objects of flaked stone; British Honduras.
(British Museum)
Fig. 65.—Stone mask from Benque Viejo, British Honduras.
Like the Mexicans, the Maya were living at the discovery practically in an age of stone. Copper and gold they knew, but the former was rare, and gold ornaments have not been found in great numbers in the country. The elaborate monuments, such as are described in the next chapter, must have been worked almost entirely with stone implements, though copper chisels, hardened at the edge by hammering, may have been used to a limited extent; indeed blocks of stone have been found bearing marks which could hardly have been made except by a metal tool. Stone, including jadeite, and obsidian must have furnished by far the larger proportion of the implements used by masons and carvers, and the latter was imported into Yucatan from the volcanic districts. Examples of stone-flaking are not very common in the Maya area, but little excavation has been carried out. It must have been widely practised, since the glyph representing a knife, and the spear-heads as shown on the reliefs, both exhibit marks indicating flaking. Objects of flaked stone, of a very interesting class, are found in some numbers in British Honduras; these include obsidian arrow-heads of extremely graceful design, and a large number of what may be ornaments or ceremonial objects made from a kind of chert and exhibiting great variety of type. A few of these are shown in Fig. [64], but it should be mentioned that human and animal forms are also found. Objects of exactly similar type have been found at Naranjo in Guatemala. Maya stone-carving is considerably more elaborate than Mexican, and their art stands on a higher plane. It is true that much of it is in fairly soft material, but the remains of certain sites, notably Quirigua, prove that the Maya mason could handle large masses of hard stone with almost equal facility. Still many of the large Mexican carvings are in much harder material than any in the Maya area. Smaller works of stone art consist for the most part of jadeite beads and pendants, carved in relief (Pl. [XI, 1 and 2]; p. 140), and stone masks, furnished with holes for suspension and probably worn as breast-ornaments, (as shown in Pl. [XXII]; p. 294). A fine stone mask discovered in a cist near Benque Viejo, in British Honduras, is illustrated in Fig. [65], and is interesting as showing the connection which this region evinces with the Totonac country, a specimen almost identical having been discovered in Vera Cruz. Unfortunately no early author has left an account of Maya arts and crafts as Sahagun has of Mexican, but it may safely be conjectured that the methods of the two peoples were similar.
