A Mayan Stone Warrior
It all began well over 3,000 years ago in the jungles of Central America. The natives in the region decided to build villages and grow corn and other crops and over the next couple thousand years, they developed societies based on elaborate religious ceremonies and spectacular architecture. By around AD 300, many of these people were living in large cities that go by the well known names Tikal, Copan and Palenque in the current countries of Guatemala, Honduras, Belize and southern Mexico. These city states grew and continued into what is called the Classic Period, that is until around AD 900 when the societies came crashing down. But during this time of 600 or so years, these people developed an advanced knowledge of astronomy and a sophisticated writing system. They came to understand the accurate positional value of mathematical signs and even grasped the concept of zero. They studied the solar system and developed a solar calendar cycle that, by today’s more accurate yearly measurement, was only 17 seconds in error on an annual basis. And all this was over a thousand years ago when Europe was immersed in the Dark Ages. Then only a few centuries later the early Europeans invaded the Western Hemisphere and called them savages. They did indeed have a different religious/ceremonial belief that we do not understand because of their extreme human sacrifice rituals, but they were also mathematical, astronomical and linguistic geniuses. These savages were the Mayans.
During the Classic Period, as the Mayans learned to write and develop an accurate calendrical system and study the heavens and began to understand mathematics, they also performed more mundane tasks. They built homes and cities which included massive limestone pyramids and they cleared the jungle for the growing of crops. They made many ceramic vessels, most of which were simple eating bowls, but many more were elaborately modeled and painted with their language signs and portraits of their gods. These ceramic creations included stylistic effigies of their kings and zoomorphic images of their various deities and members of the animal world. They also carved large upright engraved stone slabs called stele and smaller stone head and body portraits, usually of their leaders and their gods. But as time marched on through this Classic Period, war and internal strife took its toll on the people and their societies. By AD 900, the natives had all but abandoned their jungle homes and dispersed in various directions and many traveled north and east into the region that today is called the Yucatan Peninsula.
The Yucatan Peninsula is a large area of Mexico that encompasses the modern states of Campeche, Yucatan and Quintana Roo. In the southern portion, the geography includes mountainous volcanoes while the northern and eastern portion is a huge limestone shelf with very thin and poor topsoil for the growing of crops. Why the Mayan people would choose such unforgiving territory to settle is a mystery but they did and they chose to live mainly in the northern and eastern plateau. There, with the abundance of limestone, they built new cities with large buildings and temple pyramids that today go by names such as Chichan Itza, Uxmal, Mayapan, Jaina and Merida. The societies that collapsed in the old region were, for some reason, renewed almost exactly in the Yucatan area. There the common people, called “ah chembal” were controlled by the priests or “ahau can”, the war chiefs or “nacoms” and most of all by the kings and noblemen who were called “almechenoob”. These kings claimed their titles from divine decree to govern as well as by using political control, religious power and force of arms. And once again the common men built the buildings, grew the crops and made the religious/ceremonial ceramic and stone objects and images (as common men have done for millennia around the world). This continued with little change until the Spanish invaded Mexico in the sixteenth century. The Mayans apparently were masters at keeping records by using their writing on ceramic and stone carvings and also by the use of bark paper books called codices. Unfortunately, many thousands of these historiographic codices were destroyed by the Spanish friars in misplaced evangelical zeal. Once again, as was throughout history, the conquerors made the rules and the rules were to subjugate and destroy. Were these books available today for study, we would know considerably more about these mysterious Mayans.
Sometime during the AD 900 to 1524 time, a Mayan Yucatan artisan made the stone effigy shown here. It is a 12 3/8 inches tall statue of a standing man and is made of highly polished black jadeite. Jade was the favorite artistic medium of the Mayans even surpassing the use of and desire for gold and silver. The right hand is held across the stomach and the left arm and hand are against the man’s left side and both hands have five carved fingers. The head features a large Mayan type nose, open mouth and almond shaped eyes. The top of the head is covered with a feathered head gear and across the forehead appears to be some type of band, probably to symbolically hold the headdress in place. The ears feature large ear spools which are common in Mayan art. The figurine is somewhat bent or hunched over and on the back is carved a clearly discernable backbone. The legs are placed together and the feet each have five toes. He is certainly not stylized in any manner – just an ordinary man. But he could not have been an ordinary man because they did not have statuary portraits. He is not nearly elaborate enough or large enough to have been a ruler. His headgear and lack of clothing are incorrect for a priest. But his profile and physical stature would most assuredly be that of a warrior or war leader. Mayan art is replete with images of warriors since it was definitely a society built on battles and war. A great and fearless Mayan warrior would certainly have had a statue made of him the same as was done by Julius Caesar, Napoleon Bonaparte and George Washington. Probably just an ego thing! But when made and why made and exactly where made is of no great importance to this writer today – only the fact that it was made – this beautiful and unique Mayan Stone Warrior.
REFERENCES:
Coe, Michael D.
BREAKING THE MAYA CODE
1992
Coe, Michael D & Rex Koontz
MEXICO FROM THE OLMECS TO THE AZTECS
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Coggins, Clemency C. & Orrin C. Shane III
CENOTE OF SACRIFICE
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Gallenkamp, Charles
MAYA: THE RIDDLE AND REDISCOVERY OF A LOST CIVILIZATION
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Landa, Friar Diego de
YUCATAN BEFORE & AFTER THE CONQUEST,
translated with notes by William Gates, 1937
1566
Schmidt, Peter, Mercedes de la Garza & Enrique Nalda
MAYA
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Stuart, George E. & Gene S. Stuart
THE MYSTERIOUS MAYA
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