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Pendants and Pectorals
Mayas -  Belize
Mayas -  Honduras
Mayas -  Guatemala
Mayas - Tikal
Treasures of the rainforest
Mayas-  Campeche
Mayas -  Chiapas
The Jewels of the temple fo inscriptions
La mascara de Pakal

Pendants and Pectorals    Top

The hanging plates look like little steles and they formed the attire of the governors. They used these objects together with little hanging masks on a belt. In many of them it is given an account to events, which passed the carrier of his ancestors.

LEYDEN PLATE

It appears in the middle of three hangers. It was found on the Atlantic coast of Guatemala by a dutch engineer, who took it to his country. On the front side we can observe the figure of a personage, possibly of Tikal’s governing elite, richly decorated and with a captive to his feet. On the back side we can see many glyphes, which indicate the date 8.14.3.1.12.1, correspondant to the 13 September  of the year 320.

RIGHT AND LEFT AXE

These were found in the Guatemalan rainforest. On one of them we can observe the main personage above the glyph, which symbolizes the night (akbal). On the other one the personage is located above a bicephalous throne.

PECTORALS

They were used associated to necklaces on the chest as power symbol since the Olmec epoque, about 600 b. Chr.. In many cases these pectorals were used again about thousand years later on the peak of the Mayan culture. On the front of back part the were carved with eminent Mayan glyphs and figures to relate them to their new owners. (H. Castellanos)

Los Mayas - Belize   Top

The territory of Belize, near to the Caribbean Sea, was the seat of various Mayan cities, such as Caracol, Altunha, Nohmul, Lubantun, Lamanai, Xunantunich and Cerros.  In the epoque of the Spanish conquest this territory was abandoned and was occupied by British pirates, who afterwards brought a lot of African slaves. In Altunha, in the building called the “Green Tomb” there were found more than 300 pieces of jade, among them the biggest jade statue which was ever found on the Mayan territory. The piece (15-A) of 5 kg represents the figure of a heavenly bird, which wraps the head of the Sun God.

The delicate bar (15-B) carved on its four sides with a representation of the Kawil God, was located on the chest of awarrior in Nohmul, the biggest prehispanic settlement of Belize.

The surprising earflap (15-C) was discovered in a tomb in Pomona. It is carved with glyphes representing cosmic gods, such as the Sun God and the Corn God.

On the axe (15-D), located in the Kendal site and used as a ceremonial sceptre, we can observe many glyphes and among other things the head of Ahau or the governing lord. (H. Castellanos)  

Los Mayas - Honduras:   Top
On the actual territory of Honduras there is located the eastern boundary of the Maya World. Among the sites of the ancient Maya we find the enormous city of Copán and the site known as El Puente.

The beautiful Maya face (16-A) was found in Comayagua, a region of Honduras, where the Mayas never had been living. How this mask, obviously made in Palenque, came to a such remote place is a mystery. But it is assumed that it problably came to Copán as part of the dowry of the Lady Yax Nik from Palenque, who was married to the 16^th governor of Copan, the Lord Yax Ppasaj Chan – Yax-Pax / Lord Early Morning.

The figure (16-B), which represents a personage with the attributes of the sun deity, was located under the altar of the beginning of the stairway of Copán. It was used by the governor Kak Yipyaj Chan Kawil – Smoking Shell/ 15^th governor 749 – 761 a. Chr. As a power symbol. Actually the original piece is missing after it was lost in the San Idelfonso Palace in Mexico-City.

This little figure (16-C) was found by the archaeologist Alfonso Morales C. from Palenque during the investigation works in Copán. This figure rests in a shell, that represents a vulva and it was found coverd with cinnabar, which symbolizes the esence of the human blood. (H. Castellanos)

Los Mayas - Guatemala:    Top

On the whole Guatemalan territory there were adaptations between the nature and the human beeings in different epoques, which originated the cultural development of the Mesoamerican people. In the classic epoque the heart of the Maya World was located on Guatemalan territory.

The oldest evidence of human life was found on the coastal strip of the Pacific Ocean. This is a region of enormous volcanic activity and extremely fertile soils. From the year 1500 b. Chr. on the development, which gave pass to the origin of the Olmec and Mayan cultures, already has been obvious. The name of the ruins of the biggest elaborated town in this region is Abaj Takalic. In this site there were gound masks and other jade figures (17-C). 

Towards the north, passing the volcano chain, there are located the great mountains, where the jade sources are located. The plate showing a governor who talks from his throne to a dwarf, comes from Nebaj in the Quiche region. (17-B)

The amazing feminine figure comes from the Tamahu region.

It is in this mountain region in the north of Guatemala, where the evidences of all the mytology is located, which is the origin of the holy book of the Maya: the Popol Vuh. (H. Castellanos)

Jewels of Tikal:   Top

The ruins of the biggest and most fascinating city of the Maya World, which is located in the heart of the Mesoamerican tropical rainforests of the province of Peten, is known as Tikal.

The development of the place  begun in the 1^st century and had its splendour in the 6^th century. In the year 527 died the co-governor Kalomte Balam (Jaguar with the Crooked head), which at the moment of being buried, was put a mosaic mask on his face with which he perpetuates himselfe for the eternity. (18-B) This mask constitutes today onw of the most beautiful expressions of Mayan art.

Tikal was conquested by the governors of Caracol –Belize – but revived again under the government of Jasaw Chan Kawil (18-A) (the one who opens the heavens) between 682 and 733, when it defeats the town of Calakmul. The face of this personage is engraved for the posterity in the lid of the vessel – an offering which was put together with his body in the burial on the ground of the Temple of the Great Jaguar.

The strengthening of Tikal’s power continued under his son Yikin Chaan Kawiil (darkness of the sky), who started his journey to the underworld in the year 746, accompanied by a great quantity of offerings, among them a vessel, on the lid of which is represented the image of the dead person with the attributes of the Corn God, as well as the figures of the sleeping jaguar (18-D), the dancer (18-E) and the bar of a carved acrobat (18-F), which serve for his presentation with the owners of Xibalba. (H. Castellanos)

Treasures of the rainforest:   Top
The jade, then like today, is an object of enormous value and the possession of objects elaborated with this material have caused many histories and ledgends. In the north of Guatemala, in the province of Peten, there are located the ruins of the biggest Mayan cities; Ceibal, Dos Pilas, Yaxha, Nakun and Naranjo, from where the Tesela mask comes from.

Río Azul is a lost site in the rainforest on the border of Guatemala with Belize and Campeche, which was explored by investigations of the University of Texas in the early 1980’s. Years before that, the site already had been excavated by antique’s looters, who took with them the amazing mask (19-A), which accompanied the burial of the governor Sak Balam and which represents the image of the solar god. This piece was negociated in the United States and appeared years later as a loan at the Barbier Müller Museum in Austria, from where it passed to other premises of the same museum in Barcelona, Spain, where it was judically reclaimed by the Guatemalan government.

The little head (19-B) is a representation of the governor Kinich Yonal Ak II, who took over  the government of Piedras Negras at the Usumacinta River in the year 687. This piece arrives around the 12^th century as an offering or war prize at the Mayan Toltec city of Chichen Itza on the natural well of which it was offered. It was rescued during the exploration works on the natural well, lead by the Peabody Museum and it was published by the famous Investigator Tatiana Proskouriakoff. (H. Castellanos)

Los Mayas - Campeche:   Top

On the actual territory of Campeche, there are located in a region known as “Chenes”, slightly towards the Gulf of Mexico, ancient Mayan cities, like Edzna, Xcalumkin, Xtampak, Hochob and Jaina, and towards the side of the central rainforests of the Yucatan Peninsula we find the region of the Bec River with ruin cities, like El Tigre, Xpuhil, Chicanna, Becán, Balamku, Hormiguero and perhaps the most impressing and greatest of them all: Calakmul.

Like a scoreboard of the enormous importance, which reached the Kingdom of of the Snake’s Head with its base in Calakmul, until now there have been located nine magnificent jade masks in many burials of the site. Among those masks there are masks with dramatic human expression, found in the tomb of the structure 7 (21-A); in the structure 2D  there was found a mask characterized by snake’s teeth (21-B) and in the structre 15 there was found a mask with more than a thousand mosaic pieces (21-C). (H. Castellanos)

Los Mayas - Chiapas:   Top
Kinich Kan Balam II (Chan Balum) inherited the government of Palenque in the year 684. One of the power attributes of the governor were the ceremonial necklaces and bars. The bar with necklace showed here (23-A) was found in the archaeological digs on the natural well of Chichen Itza by Edward Thompson. It was located there as an offering in the 12^th century, but its use as a symbol of power goes back to Palenque, where it was decicated, according to the inscription, to the governor Ahau in the year 690. The identification glyph of this governor appears on the second column of the inscription. The set consists of one bar, 43 pearls, 2 spheres and 12 cylinders.

The plate (23-B) presents us a personage with the most classic sculptural style of Palenuqe, seated in a circular mark of perforated discs as the representation of the devine green stone. In front of the personage’s face levitates a symbol in form of a snake’s head, which could mean a speech. The plate just like the bar with necklace could have belonged to emigrants who came from Yucatan after the owershadowing of Palenque of they could correspond to prehispanic plunderings.

The pectoral in form of a human head (23-C), was taken from the chest of one of the leaders of the Tzotzil indigenous rebellion of 1869, which was demolished in the village of San Miguel Mitontic, in the cold mountains of Chiapas. The piece was used for the analyse and classification of the minerals which compose the jade family. The study was made by the famous investigator Andre Camour of the Antropological Department of the Trocadero in Paris.

The Jewels of the temple fo inscriptions:   Top

The exploration and investigation works in the major monument of Palenque, started in 1949 and lasted 10 years. In 1952 the imposing tomb of the 11^th governor of this city was discovered. In the stone sarcophagus were found the bone rests associated with a total of 1042 jade objects. This is up to now the the greatese burial found in Mesoamerica.

The little mask (24-A) with jade mosaics, probably represents the governor of advanced age, as it shows a prognatic jaw. Near this masks there wer found mosaic pieces which correspond to two further masks. From each of those masks there were hanging three jade plates and together they formed part of the royal belt of the governor.

The little figure (24-B) of a seated human beeing shows characteristics in the face, such as the big eyes, which identify it with the Sun God (Kinich Ahau).

The little antropomorphic figure (24-C), representing a butterfly with a human face, were put above the genitals of the corpse.

The trousseau also included a tiara, necklaces, bracelets, earflaps and rings for each finger. (H. Castellanos)

La mascara del     subir
Gobernante Kinich Janab Pakal:
Según los datos históricos interpretados a partir de los glifos Mayas, el mas grande gobernante de la dinastía de Palenque, asumió el poder  a los doce años de edad en el año 615, permaneciendo en el trono hasta la edad de 80 años cuando fallece en el año 683.

Las mascaras son una de las expresiones de arte mas bellamente logradas en Mesoamérica. Con ellas se podían caracterizar humanamente a los dioses o se podría asegurar un rostro eterno a las grandes personalidades que morían.  

Si un objeto de jade era valioso por si mismo, una mascara de este elemento solo era atributo de gobernantes.  Para su elaborada confección muy probablemente se dedicaba toda una vida de una familia o grupo de artesanos.

La mascara de Pakal, (20-A) de 25 centímetros de alto, encontrada por Alberto Ruz Lhuillier en las exploraciones del templo de las Inscripciones en el año 1952, nos presenta un rostro humano de fuerte carácter.  Estaba montada sobre el rostro del cadáver adherida mediante una  capa de estuco, que al pasar del tiempo se fue deteriorando y las teselas se fueron esparciendo.  Esta compuesta de 212 teselas de jadeita con adiciones de concha nácar y obsidiana en los ojos.

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