Not Believing Can Be Lonely

Riots in London, Gaddafi in hiding, a hurricane in New York and flailing stock markets around the world could make even a thinking person wonder if the end of the world is nigh. Of course, there are some folks who really believe that the world is about to end, often hanging their hats on the purported Maya prophecy that December 21, 2012 represents either doomsday or the dawn of a new era in human consciousness. So which is it? Does 2012 signify destruction or transformation? Or will it just be another winter solstice caught in the clutches of the West's Christmas consumer frenzy?

Fortunately for all of us, Matthew Restall and Amara Solari offer some even-handed analysis of all things 2012 in their recently published book entitled 2012 and the End of the World: The Western Roots of the Maya Apocalypse. Although slim, the six chapters which make up this volume pack a lot of information about the Maya and their calendar, Europeans and their Christianity, and 21st century New Agers and their claims of secret wisdom about the end of the world as we know it.

Indeed, Restall and Solari have woven the topic of 2012 into three distinct, but interrelated, strands: about the Maya, about European Christianity, and about modern (mostly American) attempts at synthesizing the two. As a result, our authors have embroidered a fast-reading explanation of historical events, artistic works and contemporary psychological projections in an attempt "to explain what the 2012 fuss is all about" (5).

The first thread includes a summary of what the Maya said and the ways in which they said it. A helpful, albeit simplistic, explanation of the Maya Long Count calendar (which, in our numbering system, looks like 13.0.0.0.0 and begins on or about August 13, 3114 BC) accompanies this portion, along with a general description of Maya creation mythology. This material overlaps with a few specific locations, including ancient Maya sites at Coba in Mexico, Quirigua in Guatemala and El Tortuguero, also in Mexico.

These three Maya sites are significant for dating purposes because they each contain glyphs with dates that figure prominently in 2012ology. For example, the "oldest date recorded by the Maya" appears at Coba's Stela 1 in the form of a Long Count date consisting of twenty four places. The date is "about a billion years larger than 13.7 billion BC, which is the age that astrophysicists currently assign to the universe" (17). Although some Mayanists, such as Prudence Rice call this "computational virtuosity," Restall and Solari suggest the "Maya elite at Coba may have been demonstrating how the calendar was the formula that could be used to decode time" (17). In short, this glyph may well have been an embellishment by a light-hearted stone carver, which offers us a glimpse into the playful nature of the Late Classic Maya, or it could be pointing us to the realization that “the ancient Maya were accomplished scientists a millennium or two before the West’s scientific revolution even began” (125).

In the case of Quirigua, Guatemala this site contains Stela C, carved in 775 AD. On the east side of Stela C appears the “zero date of the Long Count, 3114 BC” or 13.0.0.0.0. What’s important about this, according to Restall and Solari, is that “the glyphs that inscribe this date exemplify the combined impact of Maya art and calendrics; the conjunction of creativity and knowledge, beauty and intellect” (20). Thus, we are not to read this stela as an ominous portent of the end of time, but as a work of art reflecting the cyclical beauty in the passage of time. Or, as Restall and Solari claim, Stela C exhibits “the end of the cycle as simultaneously the start of the next one” (33). This last idea is key to understanding the Maya and their sense of time. Unlike the linear concept of time embraced by the West, Maya time is one of cycles. Planting season comes and planting season goes, only to return again next year in an ongoing cycle that spirals back into the distant mists of the past and forward into the distant haze of the future. It is ongoing and, importantly, it does not portend an end of the world. Rather, it suggests that the Maya of the 3^rd century BC (about the time when the Long Count calendar was conceived) were imagining “that the world they lived in had been created a few thousand years earlier and dated that creation in order to give the current year a satisfying trio of zeros in a five-place Long Count date. They then structured that count around the number 13, pinning the end of the cycle a couple of thousand years in the future and placing themselves more or less in the middle” (31). This placement in the center of time is relevant, too, because The Center is a paramount concept in Maya social construction of reality. They believed they were at the center of the world. Thus, placing themselves at the center of time is completely consistent with their concepts of who they were in the world in which they lived.

The third location that’s important to the discussion of Maya calendrics is the now-destroyed site of El Tortuguero, Mexico. Indeed it was the razing of the site by the Mexican government in the 1960s which allowed for the discovery of the glyph which refers to the end of the Long Count known as 13.0.0.0.0 or December 21, 2012. El Tortuguero’s Monument 6 was likely carved in the 7^th century AD and contains a dedication for the completion of a new building. It also cites a future date to mark the end of the calendrical cycle. In short, this is the glyph that has raised all the commotion! However, according to Restall and Solari, there is “nothing in the dedicatory texts to suggest the prediction of disaster” (28). It was intended by the Maya as “dedicatory, not prophetic” and “its spirit is arguably the opposite from apocalyptic, invoking longevity and permanence rather than ephemerality and predetermined destruction” (28). So how is it that a dedication monument can fuel End of the World rhetoric as can be found so prolifically on the internet today?

For the answer to that question, we must now turn to the second strand in Restall and Solari’s book, which summarizes medieval European ideas about the Apocalypse and the ways in which those ideas traveled to the New World in the 16th century. To do so, our authors have named the chapter outlining European Judeo-Christian apocalyptic ideas as “God is Angry.” Claiming that “Western civilization is the millenarian mother lode,” Restall and Solari make the case that Judeo-Christian concepts of the end of the world were born in Mesopotamia, fostered in medieval Europe and then transported to the Americas with the help of the Franciscan friars and the Spanish Conquistadors in the 16^th century. What follows is an explanation of the interactions and the impositions between the indigenous Maya and their Aztec neighbors with the Europeans they encountered, including a few pages of detailing the impact of Diego de Landa, the priest who notoriously burned most of the Maya texts. Importantly, Restall and Solari suggest that “the Franciscans [were] keen to maintain their vision of the New World as an opportunity to create on earth a version of the ‘New Jerusalem’ described in the Book of Revelation. As a result, the history of the Conquest of Mexico was revised and reimagined, and the [indigenous] culture infused with the Franciscans’ millenarian spirit” (89). Thus the Judeo-Christian tendency to see crisis as evidence for the end of the world was transported and then imposed upon the Maya and others in the New World. What’s more, that tendency has embedded itself into the consciousness of New World society so perniciously, that “the many threads of eschatology and millenarianism run so deeply and colorfully through Western civilization that the Apocalypse acts today as a common and casual reference point” (117). In other words, millenarianism has become part of contemporary Western psyche.

This understanding, then, helps the reader pivot toward the last point Restall and Solari make which has to do with Western contemporary (and often incorrect) interpretations of Maya writings and thought, and Christian eschatalogical projections based on pseudo-Maya mathematical and scientific conceptions of the world. Accordingly, it doesn’t take a Jungian scholar to realize that the modern impulse to exoticize all things Maya is based on deeply embedded ideas in the Western tradition. According to Restall and Solari, “belief offers an explanation without need for evidence. It offers a simple solution to life’s complexities, a source of meaning and hope in a world of cruel whimsy and chaos” (115) and “not believing can be lonely” (116). Although our authors are a bit more diplomatic than this, in short they are suggesting that believing in the end of the world – whether it’s about destruction or transformation – is fantasy for the intellectually lazy and the emotionally insecure. There is no basis in Maya calendrics for believing in the end of the world. Neither is there evidence in what little bits of Maya writing escaped Landa’s flames. Rather, “the 2012 phenomenon is not ultimately about the year 2012, or about the Maya. It is about the apocalyptic impulse that lies deep within our civilization” (131).

Thus, what makes 2012 and the End of the World: The Western Roots of the Maya Apocalypse valuable is the way in which Restall and Solari explore this particular piece of popular culture. Although fast-paced, this slim volume challenges the reader to a greater understanding of the beauty of the Maya, but also to the intellectually shallow, albeit titillating, notions of the end of the world. Although not believing might be lonely, it is more intellectually honest.

Coba Stela 1 photo by Maureen Moore 9 July 2011

In Belize with Jaime Awe

Dr. Jaime Awe, field lecture at Xunantunich, Belize on 25 June 2011

While in Belize, we spent some time with Dr. Jaime Awe (his name is best pronounced Hi-me Ah-way) who serves as the Director of the Institute of Archaeology for the Belizean government. Although he is a native of Belize, he studied in Canada, the U.S. and England before returning to Belize to head up the Belize Valley Archaeological Reconaissance Project (BVARP).










This project focuses on the western region of Belize along the Guatemala border, where Maya cities were most highly concentrated during the Classic era (250 - 900 AD). A printable version of this map can be found by clicking here.

During our time with Jaime Awe we made site visits to Xunantunich (pronounced Shoe-none-to-nich), Cahal Pech, and Lamanai. All of these sites are considered important Classic Maya cities, both for the architecture built at each location as well as for the influence they had on the region.

Dr. Jaime Awe on site at Xunantunich, Belize

Prior to each site visit we were to read texts about the location. One of those texts was a field report, entitled "Architectural Manifestations of Power and Prestige: Examples from Classic Period Monumental Architecture at Cahal Pech, Xunantunich and Caracol, Belize" authored by Jaime Awe. Caracol, another important Classic Maya city that we visited, is also in Belize. Although Jaime Awe was not with us for that excursion, he had performed recent restoration work at Caracol.

The central idea about the three sites (Xunantunich, Cahal Pech and Caracol), as identified in the field report, was that "spatially distinct units represent socially distinct segments of society" (170). In other words, in this region of the Maya world, buildings were placed and constructed to represent the power of the individuals inhabiting the structures. In Classic Maya society different social classes have been identified. They include commoners (those who worked in the fields), artisans (those who possessed specialized skills and worked for the elites) and the elites. This latter category appeared to be stratified as well, into high elites who were royalty or directly related to the royal family and low elites who worked for the king but may not have been blood relatives. Furthermore, this hierarchy was very important to the elites as it reinforced their power and authority. In short, they needed physical symbols to project their position when commoners, artisans and outsiders came to visit the city. Thus, access to some buildings was restricted as one kind of manifestation of power, and that "architecture was purposely and effectively used by the ancient Maya to distinguish between private elite space and public space" (169). This restriction to access was exhibited in three important ways:

north side of the Castillo at Xunantunich

1) access was restricted by elevating a building above others. For the Maya, "elevation was a much more important criterion than cardinal direction for distinguishing status in Classic period . . . cities" (170) and "elite living in the more elevated . . . plazas may have enjoyed a higher status than elite living in less elevated . . . courtyards" (170). Thus, it would appear that in Maya society, the most important people inhabited the tallest buildings or the buildings at the highest elevation;

2) access was restricted by creating Audiencias, which is an architectural form associated with doorways. An Audiencia is created on a structure by limiting the number of doorways through which individuals below can access the ruler above. Many Maya buildings have multiple levels or stories. As the staircase ascends the various levels, access can be restricted by reducing the number of doorways that open out from a staircase. A good example of the use of Audiencia can be found at the Castillo at Xunantunich. Take note of the central staircase that ascends to an intermediary level about halfway up the structure. Although it's difficult to see in this photo, there are thirteen doorways facing the plaza. Yet only one doorway -- the central or seventh doorway -- provides access higher up the structure. This is an Audiencia. According to Awe, it "marks a point of transition between private space (the upper sections of the Castillo) and public space (the plaza courtyard)" (166). Thus a person could ascend the staircase up to the midway point but only one of the doorways at the midway point would allow further access to the higher portions of the temple.

It might also be important to point out that the number thirteen is symbolic to the Maya as it represents the levels of the Upper World. Thirteen is also an important number in the Maya calendar so it's probably not a coincidence that their architects would design temples that incorporate it.

A view of the Audiencia from above;
note access is restricted to only one opening by counting seven from the left

Furthermore, it is believed that the ruler would stand in doorway seven (the center of the thirteen doorways, which represents the center of the world) and look out over the public sphere below. This served to reinforce his power and reassure the people in the plaza below. "The Xunantunich rulers could have used this building to view public events in [the] Plaza from a discrete vantage point. That [the] Plaza was used for events that allowed public participation is suggested by the fact that the site's two major causeways [known as sacbes] terminate at the [Plaza] courtyard, just below this Audiencia at the eastern and western base of the Castillo" (166);

Side view of the Audiencia;
note the restricted access between the portals on the right and the rooms on the left
(photo courtesy of Jaime Awe)

Artist's recreation of Xunantunich, courtesy of Jaime Awe

3) access was restricted by entry points into plazas. Sacbes (roads within and between Maya cities) would channel the public into open plazas. Typically the open plazas would be accessible from three or more directions. Other smaller, more restricted plazas could only be accessed by one or two directions and, in some cases, only by going through a restricted access building. These are what Awe calls "restricted and semi-restricted access plazas" (166). These restricted access plazas "are indicative of private space reserved for the upper echelon of the society. Conversely, some semi-restricted access plazas probably served as residence for elite of lower status" (170).

In this artist's recreation of the core of Xunantunich, the sacbes are the roads entering the site at the bottom of the image. Adjacent to the two sacbes are three numbered plazas. Plazas 2 and 3 are more easily accessible by the sacbe on the right. Thus Plaza 2 is not restricted and Plaza 3 is semi-restricted, thus both are, to varying degrees, accessible to the public. Plaza 1, however, is a restricted access plaza located halfway up the Castillo. The only way to access Plaza 1 is by way of the Audiencia. It should be pointed out, though, that because the sacbe on the left runs right below Plaza 1, scholars believe that "the Castillo represents a large, multi-function, acropoline, complex that included the dwellings, private shrines and administrative hub for the elite rulers of Xunantunich" (166). The elites who used Plaza 1 would watch the comings and goings of the commoners on the sacbe below.

The take away message from this is that the Classic Maya of western Belize used architecture to depict and project power, and to identify public from private spaces.

View from the top of the Castillo, looking north, Xunantunich, Belize

It's Over!

After five weeks (four in Mexico and one in Belize) traipsing around in rainforests, I flew back to the States. Happily I was greeted at the airport by two of the most beautiful people on the planet who came bearing a bagful of Thai food takeout along with their smiles of greeting.

The trip was a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship Institute which was focused on studying the Maya. This means that 24 university and college faculty from across the country were drawn together for an intensive study. We were given a bibliography of texts prior to departure, some of which I read on the road and some that I am still plowing through now that I am back home. We had site visits at important Maya archaeological sites (Palenque, Chichen Itza, Uxmal, Bonampak), and we visited some fairly obscure locations as well (Hochob, Cahal Pech, Sayil). During the Institute, we were introduced to archaeologists, art historians, epigraphers and other scholars in the field of Maya Studies who presented seminar and field study lectures.

As it was originally planned, we were to have visited Guatemala (in particular Tikal), but recent violence in the Flores region of Guatemala caused the U.S. State Department to issue a travel restriction for the region. And, since we were operating as "consultants" for the U.S. State Department, we were required to heed that travel restriction. Thus, a few days in Belize was substituted for the time we should have spent in Guatemala. If I was disappointed by this change in itinerary, I was also relieved.

All in all, the Institute was an awesome experience. The people of southern Mexico and Belize are hard working, friendly, cheerful in the face of poverty, and dignified in the face of global pressures they cannot control. I am humbled by the ways in which they conduct their lives, and I hope that I was a respectful ambassador between their world and ours.

The Vendors of Chichen Itza

Today we spent a full day site visit at Chichen Itza. Located adjacent to the pueblo of Piste, Chichen Itza sees over 3 million tourists each year. The people who service the tourists are primarily the Maya who live in Piste.

Each morning the vendors load all of their goods onto a bike (if they have one), or a truck (if they can afford to pay for one), or their back (if that's the only option) in order to make the trek to Chichen. Once they arrive it takes about an hour for them to unpack all of their sale goods. They often work in family teams so it's not unusual to see young boys and girls helping their parents or older siblings unwrap the day's wares.

Setting up in the morning

During the peak of the day (note the young man in the green shirt in both photos)

A family group setting up (note the boy in the yellow shirt; he is about 10 years old)

Once set up, they wait for the tourists. Sometimes they work the crowd, calling out to passersby: "Barrato" which means cheap or "only one dollar" which usually ends up being more like ten dollars. Toward the end of the day, I heard one young man say in English "Cheaper than at Target." When I laughed and turned around to see his face, he said "Cheaper than Wal-Mart." He was laughing too. Clearly that's a young man who has been to the States at least once. Politicians often call him "illegal." I would call him "in search of an opportunity." Either way, he's working hard to make a living.

Waiting and watching

Although many of the items the Pistenos are selling are made somewhere else (which means the Maya are once again being commodified in a giant capitalistic game they can never win), some of the families actually produce their own goods for sale.

Take the case of Hiram. He makes wood carvings and tie-dye   t-shirts in the evenings after coming to Chichen and working his booth during the day. He also speaks, to varying degrees, eight languages which he has taught himself out of neccessity. When I spoke with him, he was friendly and open. He talked about how his t-shirts were still wet from last night's dying. He also shared the carving and staining techniques used on his wood carvings. The sculpture he is holding took him two days to carve and paint. I bought it off of him for $16 US. Hiram had a prosthetic leg, which can't make his life easier. I hope he made a killing off the tourists today.

Some of the men spend their time at the booth carving. Others nap or rest in the shade.

A woman napping

Hiram

Juan

Reality

One of our seminar leaders brought his son with him on the site visit today. The boy's name is Rafael. The juxtaposition of Rafael playing with his cell phone (age 7) seated next to the two little Maya girls (who look about age 7) resting in the shade during a hard day selling handkerchiefs was too poignant to resist. The location of one's birth determines so much about their lives. This is the story of the contemporary Maya. If these little girls desire to change the pre-determined course that's been set for their lives, they have a lonely and uphill battle against global forces. It's more likely that their lives will be similar to that of the woman's who is napping in the photo above.

Around 5:00pm, most of the crowds were gone and wardens for the park came running through on motorcycles, blowing a whistle and waving people to leave. It was time to pack up and head home. Another day at Chichen was over for the Maya of Piste.

Big man closing up shop

Tulum: Disneyland Style

This morning our site visit was to Tulum, which is one of the last Maya sites to be inhabited. Evidence suggests that Tulum was abandoned in the late 16th century, after the Spanish had invaded the region. Indeed, one Spanish chronicler claimed, when he saw it in 1518, that it was as big as the city of Seville.
 
What makes Tulum of interest, besides its late inhabitation, is the location. Perched on top of a hill overlooking the Caribbean Sea, it is a rare and well preserved coastal city.

Sadly, Tulum and the modern Maya of this region have been introduced to global forces that have placed extraordinary pressures on them and their sacred sites. Since the 1970s, the Mexican government has been working hard to develop the eastern Yucatan into one of the top tourist destinations in the country. Tulum, because it is a short bus ride from Cancun, has become one of the most frequented sacred sites in all of Mexico. Of course the financial benefits for this development have not flowed directly to the Maya. Rather, the Maya are exploited and marginalized even as their heritage is commodified and commercialized.

Thus our academic site visit to Tulum was overwhelmed by crass free market capitalism. First the tourists are herded through a corridor of cheap trinkets and psuedo-Maya made-in-China tapestries before reaching the site. Lots of the images are not even related to the Maya. At one point, a hawker tried to sell me a table cloth by proudly pointing out that the design on it was an Aztec calendar. Aztec, as in central Mexico.

It's very sad really. But that's not all. The grounds of Tulum are manicured like a golf course in California and workers were weed whacking as though their lives depended on it. In short it was a far cry from the sacred site that the Maya intended when they built and inhabited it.

Importantly, research at Tulum is beginning to crystallize around the awareness that the leadership structure here was significantly different than leadership structure in the rest of the Mundo Maya. At all the other Maya sites, whether in Guatemala at Tikal or at Palenque in Chiapas, Mexico or Carocal in Belize the leadership structure was focused on one ahau (ruler) who claimed power in the fashion of the divine right kings of Europe. Think Louis XIV of  France in the 17th century and the absolute power he held by claiming himself Apollo the Sun God. That's the same kind of political rulership the ahaus of the Maya world established. It was an inherited position, and contesting it required warfare and bloodshed. Interestingly, not only does the ahau glyph represent a king, but it also represents a date in one of the Maya calendar systems. Thus kingship is equated with time and is justified through religious power in the ancient Maya mind.  

An ahau glyph variation

Therefore as research at Tulum has progressed, scholars have been surprised to realize that power was not quite as centralized in this kingdom as it was in most of the rest of the Maya world. Rather, power at Tulum seems to have been shared among brothers (possibly) or some kind of council. Some academics have suggested it was a multepal form of government whereby power was held by an oligarchy. Although this theory to explain political power at Tulum is not entirely established, it is the most current explanation for the political structure.

If Tulum was ruled by a multepal, then the architecture would be correspondingly different, too, in order to accomodate more than one ruler simultaneously. There is evidence for this in the archaeological work that has been done at the site but much more needs to be done.

What's unlikely is that the masses of tourists who trundle through Tulum for a brief afternoon respite from the beaches of Cancun realize the unique political constructions which were embodied in the architecture and art at the site.

Cenote at Coba

After seminar this morning, a small group of us went to a cenote across the lake from our hotel. The cenote (pronounced see no tay) is an underground cave with water in it, which the Yucatec Maya called dzonot or ts'onot meaning "well". In ancient times, and even today, the Maya used cenotes for water storage but also for sacred purposes. Sometimes sacred rituals would be performed in or around the cenote, during which the Maya would make offerings of exotic items such as precious jades, obsidian flints and, occasionally, human sacrifices.

It's likely that the rituals associated with cenotes evolved because of Maya beliefs about the Underworld. Essentially the Maya believe that caves serve as entrances to this other realm, which symbolizes the cycle of life, death and rebirth. Thus the cenote opening is a natural icon in Maya sculpture, architecture and painting.

But there is a practical side as well, for cenotes are important to the Maya for water storage because there aren't any rivers and very few lakes in this region. Most of the soil is porous limestone, so water collection is a precious activity for survival. As a result, many of the Maya temple sites in the Yucatan are located adjacent to these cenotes. Coba, where we are, is no exception.

The cenote we went to was massive and deep, requiring us to take wooden steps from the surface into the cave. Our journey into the Underworld began at this modest thatched roof well-like structure. The man who took our 45 pesos per person ($4.50 US) said that there were 88 steps down to the platform at the bottom. 

 There was also this sign, cautioning us to download the steps. Since I did not have my computer with me at the time, I found these instructions somewhat challenging to heed.

 Once we downloaded the steps, we arrived at a large wooden platform fashioned like a boat dock jutting out over the water. There was one small hole at the top of the cave ceiling, and lots of stalactites hanging down in various lengths. Someone was burning copal, which is ancient incense for Maya rituals.

After cautiously apprising the situation, I decided I didn't want to miss this opportunity so I got in. The water was very clear and very deep. It was also somewhat cool, but refreshing to the skin. I floated on my back for a long time, just staring at the contours of the limestone ceiling above. There were shapes and designs in the rock, and water seeped through and showered down occasionally on the upturned face. The limestone rock acts as a natural filter for the water which is why it is so clean.

After floating and swimming for about an hour, we all got out of the water. Walking back up the 88 wooden steps, I realized how peaceful and relaxed I felt. It was a spiritual experience going into the Underworld, and once again I am amazed at the beauty and wisdom of the Maya.

My photos inside don't really do justice to the place but here they are.

The platform and entrance to the 88 steps

A blurry shot of the cenote wall

A stalactite on the ceiling

Water and Sky on the Way to Lamanai

This morning we got up early and took a fast boat up the so-called New River to Lamanai. The river is a myriad system of waterways which reminded me very much of the Amazon region in Brasil. Sometimes the river was very wide and sometimes the river was very narrow. Often lily pads lined the banks, and birds would walk along them watching for bites to eat in the water below. At least once we caught the bubbles of a crocodile as he (or she?) slid below the surface so as to escape our eager gazes.

Eventually we made it to Lamanai, and upon disembarking the mosquitos began to devour us. These mosquitos were huge! I have seen lots of mosquis before, but never this big. Needless to say, I was glad to have started taking my malaria meds last week, because the lightweight citronella hoighty-toighty organic nonsense I had in my backpack was no match for these monsters.

The Maya site at Lamanai includes 718 mapped structures, an ancient harbor and a well defined sacbe, which is a Maya road leading in and out of the city. All of this suggests that Lamanai was an extensive and important site for the Maya in the region. Furthermore, although some of the structures show evidence of being constructed earlier, Lamanai is important for its Middle Classic traits which combine elements of both Early Classic and Late Classic artistry.  

Early Classic is the period which generally runs from about 250 - 600 CE, and is considered the beginning of the high point in Maya political development, art and architecture. Most of the motifs in Maya art and culture have been clearly established by the Early Classic, including social hierarchy, ball court construction, glyphs, the calendar and the pantheon of gods. Interestingly enough, it is also during the Early Classic that we begin to see the first influence from Teotihuacan, which is the great city in Central Mexico and a pre-cursor to the Aztec.

The Middle Classic is really just an overlapping era which runs from about 500 - 700 CE. What's important to keep in mind is that the Middle Classic differs from region to region. Here in the Belizean lowlands the Middle Classic appears a bit later than it does further south in the highlands of Guatemala.

The Late Classic runs from about 600 - 800 CE. This era marks the beginning of the end of Maya greatness, although that decline also differs from region to region.

One of the more significant finds includes a structure that was excavated in the ceremonial section at Lamanai. The building was given the ignominous name N10-27 by archaeologists. The drawing below suggests its appearance when the Maya constructed it, and it's pretty likely that it was named something different by the Maya too. I photographed this from an article so the flower at the top of the picture is the artwork on the hotel room bed covering.

This is what the structure looks like today.

Lamanai was originally settled around 900 BCE. The spot where this structure is located began to take on important sacred meaning for the Maya by about 200 BCE and, as a result, they just kept constructing new temples over the older ones so that there are layers of buildings underneath this one.

By the time we get to about 600 CE this structure has been modified into it's last iteration as an administrative and religious complex which includes the enclosure with three doorways that can best be seen in the drawing above. A stela was placed in the middle doorway of this enclosure. Underneath the stela was an offering pit, which contained the remains of five children ranging in age from infants to about eight years of age. There were also shell beads, chert and obsidian placed in the offering pit. David Pendergast, one of the archaeologists who worked at this site in the 1980s claims "the five children were sacrificial victims ... [because the] remains bear no signs of violent death." Pendergast asserts that the final stage of construction, along with the placement of the stela and the offering of children, was part of a ritual. It's full meaning and importance is poorly understood.

What we do know is that the stela depicts a king of Lamanai known as Lord Smoking Shell. He is dressed in clothing which suggests his accession to the throne, and the writing on the stela tells us this auspicious event took place in 608 CE. The stela itself was placed in the doorway of the structure in 625 CE.

The text from the stela reads,

Wucub ahau ox pop tzoki te tun waa...
Uuac kib kan zec
Wucublajun tunob kan kinob xikah kaan
chicchan pal ahau...
Ukabale butz anki sol kaan tu ton ain
macuch lakin LAMA'AN'AIN

In case you don't read Maya it reads,

It was on 7 ahau 3 pop that the tree stone of time ended
[a 52-year era ended in 625 A.D.]
He had become ruler 17 yrs 4 days before [A.D. 608] on 6 Kib 4 Zec
He was the youngest son of the heir to the king
His name was Lord Smoking Shell

His celestial Progenitor was the Spirit Crocodile
Lord of the east, of the province of LAMA'AN'AIN

From rubbings, photos and interpretations of the glyphs it is believed that the head portion of the stela looked like this in situ:

Today it looks like this:

In terms of interpreting some of the iconography of the image, Dorie Reents-Budet of Duke University Museum of Art has done a nice job in her essay entitled "The Iconography of Lamanai Stela 9."

In her essay, Reents-Budet explains that Lord Smoking Shell's torso is depicted frontally but his head is in profile. Furthermore, Lord Smoking Shell wears a headdress which is similar to other Early Classic images in the Guatemala highlands. Interestingly, Lord Smoking Shell's head "emerges from an open-mouthed serpent headdress." This can best be seen in the drawing above as the serpent is colored blue and surrounds the king's head. In this case, the serpent represents origins so depicting the ruler's head as coming out of the mouth of the serpent is the Maya way of saying the king is great because he is associated with the origin of the world. His head emerges from the center of the beginning.

The king also holds a "double-headed ceremonial bar diagonally across his body." The ceremonial bar is something akin to the king's sceptor and represents his power and authority. This particular ceremonial bar also contains imagery in it that associates Lord Smoking Shell with the two Hero Twins of the Popol Vuh. Furthermore, Lord Smoking Shell's left hand holds a zoomorphic image of Venus, which is a celestial monster. Reents-Budet explains that because of the placement of the ceremonial bar and the symbols embedded in it, the artist of this stela is presenting the viewer with a "Classic Period model of the cosmos, with the front head of the celestial monster (Venus) in [the king's] left hand and, cradled in in his right arm, the ceremonial bar from which emerges" one of the Hero Twins who represents the underworld sun. All of this, according to Reents-Budet, "demonstrates Lamanai's innovative manipulation of the royal symbols that were being reconfigured during the Middle Classic."

Orange Walk Town

This morning we left San Ignacio by bus and headed north. We are now in Orange Walk Town, which is a gritty little city of about 20,000 people situated in a predominately agricultural region -- sugar cane, mostly. The town sits on the banks of the New River, which was aptly named by the English because it was new to them. It was not, however, new for the Maya who have lived in these parts since at least about 1000 BCE. They called the river the Dzuluinicob, which means "foreign men." Perhaps they named it this because the river is a deep water channel and a means by which foreigners can navigate up it.

This part of Belize has an interesting history which can be compressed into distinct periods of time. There is evidence of human habitation going back at least as far as 7000 BCE. Then between about 7000-1200 BCE there is evidence of a kind of formative pre-ceramic people. Neither of these two groups are considered to be Maya.

Some time around 1200-900 BCE we find evidence of a ceramic society. These are people thought to be the earliest Maya in the region. They are constructing waddle and daub structures which is essentially plaster stuck between and on top of small wooden poles. What's really cool about this is that very tiny fragments of cotton with textile weave have been found pressed into the plaster.

So picture this: some man is building his house around 1000 BCE. It's hot so he takes a little break to wipe his brow and catch his breath. He leans back against the wet plaster that he just laid and it creates an imprint that dries in the form of the weave of his clothes.

Three thousand years later, we are finding that imprint. And what it tells us, along with the the type of construction of the house, is that weaving and textile making were in place by 1000 BCE. It also suggests that cotton production is already in place by this time because surely whoever this man is, he's not the only one around wearing cotton textiles. Furthermore, agricultural production suggests a sedentary, rather than a nomadic, form of society.  We have all the ingredients for a settlement.

This era from 1200-900 BCE is known as the Cunil Phase. Beyond the agriculture, textiles and housing construction other items have been found that are associated with these people. Those items include small ceramic figurines, carved jade objects, obsidian blades and some slate carvings. Since some of these materials are not from the Upper Belize River Valley, scholars suggest that by 1000 BCE extensive trade networks had been established between Honduras in the south, Guatemala in the west and the coastal plains of Tabasco and Veracruz in the north. It is what Jaime Awe calls a "pan-Mesoamerican" network. Furthermore, early motifs associated with both the Olmec and the Maya are beginning to appear in the artifacts. These are also considered "pan-Mesoamerican motifs" and include a slate crocodilian effigy. This last item is important because it relates to one of the oldest temple sites in the region known as Lamanai.

Lamanai was recorded by the Spanish when they arrived in the early 16th century as Lamanay or Lamayna. This is a twist on the Maya word Lama'anayin, which means "submerged crocodile." Apparently the crocodile was symbolically important to the people of the region as far back as 1000 BCE, and it continued to be important to them when they began constructing a portion of the temple complex known as the Mask Temple in 200 BCE.

Perhaps most important for our discussion here is the fact that the Mask Temple at Lamanai not only is "clearly related to characteristics of Olmec iconography" -- which supports that pan-Mesoamerican motif theory, but that the masks on the temple appear with an "up-turned upper lip and broad nose. The masks are each adorned with a headdress representing a crocodile. This symbol validated the ancient site name recorded by the Spaniards as Lamanay, 'place of the crocodile.'" All of the quotes come from Jaime Awe's book entitled Maya Cities and Sacred Caves: A Guide to the Maya Sites of Belize.

Happily, I report that tomorrow we will take a boat up the river with Jaime Awe to visit Lamanai.

San Ignacio, Belize

This morning we got up early and took the bus south to the Belizean border. After going through customs we had to switch buses and drivers, and then we headed southwest into Belize. Almost immediately the terrain changes, the buildings are different, and the language is understandable. Palm trees intersperse with pine, and some areas are quite marshy. The buildings are usually constructed by wood or brick and often painted bright colors. The exterior of the place where we are staying is painted bright lime green.

English is spoken in the market but I have heard people speaking Spanish too. When I approach they switch to English. As for currency, Belize is 2 to 1 on the U.S. dollar. So earlier today I picked up two bananas in the market and it cost me B25 cents, which is about 12 cents U.S. Pretty cheap! Here's a picture of the market that I walked through this afternoon.

This evening we had a seminar with William Saturno, who had just flown in from Boston. He will be the archaeologist leading the seminars with us for the next few days.

Tonight's talk was about the recent (2001) discovery of paintings inside a temple at San Bartolo, Guatemala. The images are early -- dating to about the 1st century BCE -- and advance our understanding of language and text development in pre-Classic Maya. In particular, "This early Maya writing implies that a developed Maya writing system was in use centuries earlier than previously thought, approximating a time when we see the earliest scripts elsewhere in Mesoamerica." According to Saturno, the instruments Maya scribes used to make paper have been dated back to about 1800 BCE. This suggests that if people were making paper they were also writing on that paper, so writing in the Americas may be much older than previously believed. Unfortunately paper is a very perishable material and there are no known books on paper that date back this far.

And, while the glyphs are fascinating, so are the images that accompany them. The scenes that are known include a series of four separate events. Each scene can stand alone, but really they are intended to be viewed in sequence. In the first scene, a figure known as Principle Bird Deity sits in a tree. He is large and imposing, and he represents the chaos of the uncivilized world. To the left of the Principle Bird Deity is the figure of a man, who Saturno believes is a representation of Hunahpu. This figure is from the story of Popol Vuh, and he is known as one of the Hero Twins. Hunahpu, along with his brother Xbalanque, are considered the beginning of the human race.

As the viewer's eye moves through the four scenes, Hunahpu embarks on a quest of sacrifice. He pierces his penis and slaughters a different animal in each scene. By the time the viewer gets to the last scene, Hunahpu is victorious over the Principle Bird Deity, which is now depicted as dead. As Saturno explained it tonight, it is necessary to conquer the Principle Bird Deity in order to create an organized, civilized world. Hunahpu slays the chaos and in doing so, creates civilization.

Thus part of what makes the discovery of these paintings so important is the dating of the glyphs, but also the correlation of the imagery to the known story of the Popol Vuh. This is the oldest known painting of events from the Popol Vuh.

Unfortunately, because of the political situation in Guatemala right now, we will not be able to go to the site at San Bartolo.

Maya World Here I Come!

Several months ago I applied for a fellowship to study the Maya of Mexico, Guatemala and Belize. The objectives of the project include visiting Maya temples and archaeological sites, as well as attending seminars hosted by scholars in the field. Happily, I was accepted and have been making plans for departure, which will be next week.

Unhappily, since I received the acceptance letter, drug cartels from Mexico spilled into the Peten region of Guatemala and beheaded 27 people. As a result of this violence, the U.S. State Department issued a travel advisory to avoid Guatemala. And, thankfully, the people who are organizing the fellowship decided to change some of the itinerary so we will avoid Peten.

Nevertheless, if you are thinking that I am being somewhat vague in my descriptions of people, places and dates you are correct. For security reasons, I have decided to minimize the specifics in my blog entries. Only after I have left certain regions will I be more detailed. I hope you understand! I really want to return to California with my head firmly attached to my shoulders.

Despite these security challenges, we will be studying topics as wide ranging as tourism and its impact on modern Maya today, the Zapatistas and their impact on the Chiapas region of southern Mexico, ancient Maya architecture, the Mayan calendar, and the liminal space between the indigenous of Belize and people of African ancestry who arrived on the east coast of the Yucatan peninsula, originally, as slaves.

All in all, it should be an awesome project and I look forward to sharing it with you. I hope you enjoy the ride!