MAYA
1. Restoration of the ball-court temple at Chichen Itza, Yucatan; after Maudslay. (See Plate XXVIII)
2. Buildings of the “Monjas” group, Chichen Itza, Yucatan
One of the most interesting ruins of British Honduras consists of a huge mound near Benque Viejo, sixty feet high and built of limestone, which supports a three-storeyed stone building. This is surrounded by three others of similar type, at the foot of each of which is a plain stone monolith, recalling the plain stelæ mentioned above, which doubtless were once ornamented with painted designs. The ruins of this site probably belong to the same series as Tikal, Naranjo, Seibal, etc., and though more excavation, combined with accurate surveying, is necessary before we can speak with confidence regarding the monuments of British Honduras as a whole, we may assume that they fall into two classes, viz. ruins connected with the early central Maya area, those to the north of British Honduras at Tulum being in part a “provincial” extension of the early culture,[10] and later edifices which owed their birth to Toltec influence filtered southward through Yucatan.
In the west of the Maya area, the remains, though plentiful, are inferior in quality, and have not attracted the attention of explorers to the extent which their importance, as indicating the spread of Maya culture, and its relation to that of Oaxaca, deserves. Sacchana and its neighbourhood is a site of great interest, since Seler has discovered there two stone slabs bearing initial dates in the Maya style, falling just each side of the date at Chichen Itza, which is otherwise the latest known. The style of these slabs is rude and decadent, but they are of the highest importance as indicating that the early method of reckoning time had spread as far west at least as the department of Huehuetenango. Otherwise the remains of this district are rude and coarsely built, of unsquared blocks usually without mortar; but mortar is found in some cases, notably in the tlaxtli-courts, which, as well as the pyramidal mounds, bear a very close resemblance to those of Quiengola in Oaxaca (p. 175). A feature of this district is constituted by the number of cave-temples, which again recall the last-named province of Mexico. It is perhaps worthy of mention that a tendency appears in this neighbourhood to arrange temple-mounds in groups of three, in a straight line from north to south, with the stairways facing west. The western position of pyramid stairways, which implies that the worshippers faced east, has already been observed in Oaxaca and Mexico. An account of certain ruins at Utatlan, Iximché and Rabinal is given in the works of Maudslay, but they cannot compare with those of the central Maya area, and seem rather to resemble those of the district of Huehuetenango.
The Maya appear to have resorted occasionally to caves as dwelling-places, and certain investigations have been made in caverns at Copan and Loltun (immediately south of Uxmal), in Yucatan. The remains however do not imply that their occupation was of early date, and it is probable that the caves served as places of temporary refuge in times of war. This chapter would be incomplete without some mention of the peculiar bottle-shaped subterranean structures found at certain sites in Yucatan. These are known as “chultunes,” and, since they invariably occur at places remote from rivers, may almost certainly be regarded as cisterns for preserving a supply of water, though in some cases they have served the secondary purpose of burial chambers. They are lined with dressed stone or a coat of stucco, and the mouth is furnished with a stone ring which is closed by a slab. Careful exploration of the chultunes at Labna has been made by Thompson and reported in the “Memoirs” of the Peabody Museum.
Fig. 85.—Stone gargoyle, Copan.
(After Gordon)
It will be unnecessary to enter into a discussion of Maya art, since the subject has been fully treated by Spinden in a monograph which was published only a week or so before this chapter was written, and, moreover, much may be gathered from the preceding pages supplemented by the illustrations. The kinship of the stone reliefs with wood-carving, except at Copan and Quirigua, has already been indicated, and the symbolic nature of Maya ornament is too obvious to need especial mention. Attention may be called to the use of glyphs, extremely ornamental in themselves, to give balance to a design, and to the horror vacui which appears in all reliefs except those of Palenque. Though bound by convention, the result in a large measure of the symbolic nature of his designs, the Maya artist occupies a relatively high plane amongst barbarous peoples. In particular the quality of his line is excellent, even in stone, and in certain respects, notably foreshortening (especially in the treatment of feathers, for which see Figs. [61] and [87]; pp. 297 and 367), he was superior to the sculptor of Egypt or Assyria. One peculiarity of Maya art lies in the fact that the artist was obsessed by the motive of the serpent (rattle-snake) head. In nearly all its essentials this design appears in the remarkable gargoyle from Copan shown in Fig. [85]. We have here the exaggerated upper jaw, the front fang, and the curl at the corner of the mouth. One detail is lacking, viz. the nose-ornaments which were usually added to the reptile. Maudslay has shown how derivatives of this design, often modified almost beyond identification, are constantly applied to every form of ornament, such as the edges of girdle-flaps and so forth, and the point has been elaborated by Spinden. Most interesting is the almost invariable occurrence of the serpent-motive on the wings of birds (e.g. Figs. [48] and [49]; pp. 225 and 230), the combination no doubt expressing the high god Kukulkan, who, among the early Maya, seems to have been represented only in this indirect way (see p. 226). In the later art, especially that exhibiting Toltec affinities, we have a more direct delineation of the deity in the shape of a human figure whose face is surrounded by the jaws of a serpent, but who is provided with wings carved in the best Maya style (Fig. [87]). The foreshortening of feathers has already been mentioned, but it may be added that perhaps no people has shown in its art such an appreciation of this form of ornament as the Maya, and for sheer beauty the feather-motive shares the honours with the plant-design (see Fig. [60]; p. 289), often shown in combination with fishes and grotesque masks, which appears not only on the sculptures, but also in the frescoes.