Design, Composition, and Perspective.

Fig. 30. Types of Human Heads on the Lintels of Yaxchilan.

It is difficult to compare directly the graphic and plastic arts of different nations where the subject matter is diverse unless we compare them in accordance with absolute principles of design, composition, and perspective drawing. The Mayas produced one of the few really great and coherent expressions of beauty so far given to the world and their influence in America was historically as important as was that of the Greeks in Europe. Set as we are in the matrix of our own religious and artistic conventions,we find it difficult to approach sympathetically beauty that is overcast with an incomprehensible religion. When we can bring ourselves to feel the serpent symbolism of the Mayan artists as we feel, for instance, the conventional halo that crowns the ideal head of Christ, then we shall be able to recognize the truly emotional qualities of Mayan sculptures.

Fig. 31. Sculpture on Upper Part of Stela 11, Seibal. The man wears an inlaid mask, an elaborate headdress, and a collar of shell and jade.

Stela 13, Piedras Negras. This shattered monument is one of the finest examples of Mayan sculpture, showing a fine sense of composition and a considerable knowledge of perspective. Dated March 27, 511 A. D.

It is generally recognized that design to be successful must contain order of various sorts (in measurements, shapes, directions, tones, colors, etc.). In the simpler forms of decorative art the restrictions of technical process, as in basketry, may impose order, but in freehand sculpture it must come from an educated sense of beauty involving selection and the reproduction of the finest qualities. Design at its highest is embodied in the Mayan hieroglyphs. Given spaces had to be filled with given symbols and the results attained were uniformly excellent. Although the influence of the serpent led to the great use of tapering flame-like masses in nearly all Mayan designs, still dominant vertical and horizontal lines of interest were maintained.

The panel and lintel sculptures show composition achieved by simple and subtle methods. The sweeping plumes of headdresses were skilfully used to fill in corners, while blocks of glyphs were placed in open spaces that might otherwise distract the attention. Many compositions appear overcrowded to us, but this fault decreases with knowledge of the subject matter. Also, the Mayas appear to have painted their sculptures so that the details were emphasized by color contrast.

In perspective as applied to the human figure the Mayas were far ahead of the Egyptians and Assyrians, since they could draw the body in front view and pure profile without the distortions seen in the Old World. They were even able to make graceful approximations of a three-quarters view, as may be seen inPlate XIX, where the raising of the nearer shoulder has a distinct perspective value.

Fig. 32. The Ceremonial Bar. A Two-Headed Serpent held in the Arms of Human Beings on Stelæ:a, Stela P, Copan;b, Stela N, Copan.

We have seen that during the earliest culture of Mexico and Central America there were no figurines of individualized gods, simply straightforward representations of human beings and animals. With the Mayan culture, however, we enter upon an epoch of rich religious symbolism. The serpent, highly conventionalized as we have just seen, and variously combined with elements taken from the quetzal, the jaguar, and even from man himself, appears as a general indication of divinity. The Ceremonial Bar, essentially a two-headed serpent carrying in its mouths the heads of an important god, is one of the earliest religious objects. The heads that appear in the mouths are usually those of a Roman-nosed or of a Long-nosed god. Other representations of divinities are combined with the Two-headed Dragon that also has reptilian characters; still others appear as headdresses and masks on human figures. Strange to say, the gods are supplementary to the human figures on all the early sculptures. In the codices,however, they are represented apart from man, as engaged in various activities and contests. Mayan religion was clearly organized on a dualistic basis. The powers for good are in a constant struggle with the powers for evil and most of the benevolent divinities have malevolent duplicates. In actual form the gods are partly human, but ordinarily the determining features are grotesque variations from the human face and figure. While beast associations are sometimes discernible, they are rarely controlling. Sometimes, however, beast gods are represented in unmistakable fashion, good examples being the jaguar, the bat, and the moan bird. All of these have human bodies and animal heads.

Fig. 33. The Manikin Scepter, a Grotesque Figure with one Leg modified into a Serpent.

The head position in the Mayan pantheon may with some assurance be given to a god who has been called the Roman-nosed god and who is probably to be identified with Itzamna. According to Spanish writers Itzamna was regarded by the Mayas as the creator and father of all, the inventor of writing, the founder of the Mayan civilization, and the god of light and life. This Zeus of the Mayas is represented in the form of an old man with a high forehead, a strongly aquiline nose, and a distended mouth, toothless, or with a single enlarged tooth in front. On the ancient monuments he is frequently seen in the mouths of the Ceremonial Bar and also in association with the sun, moon, and the planet Venus. In the codices he is shown as a protector of the Maize God and in other acts beneficial toman. There is, however, a malevolent aspect of this god or possibly another being who imitates his features but not his qualities. This being may be an old woman goddess who wears a serpent headdress and who is associated with destructive floods, the very opposite of life-giving sunshine.

Of almost equal importance to the Roman-nosed god is a god whose face is a more or less humanized serpent. His proper name is Ah Bolon Dzacab.

Fig. 34. The Two-Headed Dragon, a Monster that passes through many Forms in Mayan Sculpture. It apparently symbolizes calamities at inferior conjunction of Venus and the Sun. Copan.

On the early monuments this god is shown in connection with the Ceremonial Bar. He also appears at a somewhat later date as the Manikin Scepter, an object in the form of a manikin that is held out by a leg modified into a serpent’s body. Since a celt is usually worn in the forehead of the manikin it has been suggested that this curious object represents a ceremonial battle-ax. The face of the Long-nosed god is frequently worn by high priests and rulers either as a headdress or, more rarely, as a mask. It is possible that this divinity was regarded as primarily a war god but in the codices he is evidently a universal deity of varied powers. Especially he is shown in connection with water and maize and it seems likely that his principal functionwas to cause life-giving rain. A malevolent variant of the Long-nosed god has a bare bone for the lower jaw, a sun symbol on his forehead, and a headdress consisting of three other symbols. This head is associated with the Two-headed Dragon, a monster which brings calamity at times of the inferior conjunction of Venus and the Sun.

Fig. 35. Gods in the Dresden Codex: God B, the Long-Nosed God of Rain; God A, the Death God; God G, the Sun God.

Ah Puch, the Lord of Death, was the principal malevolent god. His body as figured in the codices is a strange compound of skeletal and full-fleshed parts. His head is a skull except for the normal ears. His spinal column is usually bare and sometimes the ribs as well, but the arms and legs are often covered with flesh. As added symbols black spots and dotted lines are sometimes drawn upon his body and a curious device like a percentage sign upon his cheek. The Death God in complete form is rarely shown in the earlier sculptures, although grinning skulls and interlacing bones occur as temple decorations. As has already been pointed out, Mayan religion was strongly dualistic and the evil powers are usually to be identified by death symbols such as a bare bone for the lower jaw, or the percentage symbol noted above on the cheek. Death heads of several kinds are frequent in the hieroglyphic inscriptions.

(a) Top of Stela 1 at Yaxchilan, dealing with the Heavens. The Sky God is seen in the center with the moon at the left and the sun at the right. Below these is the Two-Headed Dragon bearing planet signs and additional heads of the Sky God.

(b) Analogous Detail of Stela 4, Yaxchilan. The moon is at the right and the sun at the left. The figure in the sun is male and that in the moon, female. The faces of the Sky God hang from the lower part of the Two-Headed Dragon, being attached to it by symbols of the planet Venus.

The Maize God, figured so frequently on the ancient monuments and in the Mayan codices may be the same that in the time of the Conquest was called Yum Kaax, Lord of the Harvest. He is represented as a youth with a leafy headdress that is possibly meant to represent an opening ear of maize. Thekansign, a grain of maize, is constantly associated with him. He appears to be at the mercy of the evil deities when not protected by the good ones.

Space considerations forbid a further study of Mayan gods. Suffice it to say that several other divinities are shown in the sculptures and codices including a somewhat youthful appearing war god, as well as a more mature and grotesque war god called Ek Ahau, the Black Captain. There is an old god with a shell attached to his body, a god with the face of a monkey who is associated with the North Star, a god in the form of a frog and another in the form of a bat. In the Spanish accounts we can also glean scanty information concerning Ixchel, Goddess of the Rainbow and mate of Itzamna; Ixtubtun, patroness of jade carvers; Ixchebelyax, patroness of the art of weaving and decorating cloth, etc.

The arrangement of Mayan remains on a time scale is now an accomplished fact thanks to a correlation whichpermits us to read the dates on ancient monuments in terms of the Gregorian calendar and the Christian era. Early attempts to achieve this result met with widely varying results. Most of these attempts were made by developing a single line of evidence and some were based on assumptions that can now be disproved. But no single line of evidence should be deemed sufficient to decide this all important question.

The general course of Mayan history is indicated unmistakably by four principal lines of evidence capable of being correlated with each other. These are:—

1. Stratigraphic sequences in pottery, stylistic sequences in sculpture, structural sequences in architecture, etc.

2. Traditional history preserved in the Books of Chilam Balam and representing a knowledge of past events at the time of the Spanish Conquest.

3. Dates inscribed on a great number of monuments in terms of the ancient Mayan time counts.

4. Astronomical checks on these inscribed dates.

The artistic position of a monument may be used to validate the contemporaneous character of an inscribed date, otherwise interpretable as referring to the past or future, or it may serve to fix a repeating date in a single historical setting. The events in the traditional history of the Books of Chilam Balam, meager enough when taken alone, have the valuable quality of reaching back into the time of the First Empire when the use of dates on temples and monuments was much in vogue. They permit a richly documented past to be tied in, as it were, to a poorly documented terminal period.

Fig. 36. The Front Head of the Two-Headed Dragon on Stelæ at Piedras Negras showing the Increase in Flamboyant Treatment. The interval between (a) and (b) is 125 years, that between (b) and (c) is 45 years.

Before the matter of the ancient inscribed dates can be understood, however, the somewhat complicated mechanism of the Mayan calendar must be explained, as well as the system of hieroglyphs and the notation of numbers. Then there is the problem of correlation which necessitates delicate adjudications of evidence. Finally we must take up the proofs which demonstrate the astronomical achievements of the Mayas which, in reverse, provide checks upon the correctness of the day for day correlation itself. We must proceed slowly and carefully, without much following of by-ways, however attractive they may appear. We will begin with stratigraphy and stylistic sequence.

The study of Mayan ceramics reveals developments as regard shapes, fabrics, and designs. Specimens recovered from sealed cysts under stelæ at Copan establish true associations with the higher forms of art and can be used far and wide in comparison with pottery finds in Salvador, Guatemala, etc. Vaillant has found stratigraphic sequences in a collection of funerary vessels obtained at Holmul, where graves occurred under the floors and within the filled-in chambers of a buried temple.

As regards sculpture we find at Copan a remarkably homogeneous series of stelæ on which a royal or priestly personage stands erect and in front view. A Ceremonial Bar is held symmetrically in the two arms and the body is partly covered with rich and elaborate ornament. The amount of relief, the proportions of the body, the forms of the Ceremonial Bar, etc., all pass through a harmonious development. The earliest monuments show a crude block-like carving of the face, with protruding eyes, while the latest monuments have fully rounded contours. At Tikal the stelæ show, for the most part, human figures in profile, but unmistakable development can be seen in general quality of carving as well as in specific details.

Stela 9 (9.10.10.0.0, 383 A. D.).

Stela 5 (9.13.15.0.0, 447 A. D.).

Stela N (9.16.10.0.0, 502 A. D.).

Stela H (9.17.12.0.0, 523 A. D.).

Details of architecture showing analogous development.

Fig. 37. Grotesque Face on the Back of Stela B, Copan.

In making comparisons in art it is always necessary to consider similar things. At many other Mayan cities than the two named above it is possible to obtain satisfactory evidence of sequence in art forms by cutting out similar details from different masses. Thus at Naranjo, when we examine all the Ceremonial Bars, we find a remarkable development of flamboyant detail on the later monuments. At Quirigua the faces on the tops of the altars may be compared with the same result. At Piedras Negras the heads of the Two-headed Dragon that occur in exactly similar positions on four monuments likewise show a steady modification towards flamboyancy as may be seen fromFig. 36, where the front heads are put side by side.

Fig. 38. Jaguar in Dresden Codex with a Water Lily attached to Forehead.

Still other lines of evidence on historical sequence are to be gained from a study of architecture. Not only isit possible to determine the general developments that hold true of the entire Mayan Area but also in a given city it is sometimes possible to arrange the buildings in their order of erection according to dependable criteria, both decorative and structural.

Fig. 39. Late Sculpture from Chichen Itza. The headdress resembles that worn by the rulers on the highlands of Mexico.

The earliest temples have narrow vaulted rooms, heavy walls, and a single doorway. The rooms increase in width, the walls decrease in thickness, the doorways multiply till the spaces between them become piers and finally columns. The support for the heavy roof comb taxed the structural ingenuity of the Mayan architects. The solving of this problem is marked by successive advances and since mechanical science goes forward rather than backward the relative order of structures is fairly certain. Moreover, many buildings are closely associated with dated monuments, tablets, lintels, or stelæ. Still another evidence of architectural sequence is seen in structures that have been enlarged by the addition of wings or by the enclosing of the old parts under new masonry.

We now turn to a very different kind of history, the digests of ancient chronicles in the Mayan language but in Spanishscript which managed to survive in the so-called Books of Chilam Balam along with other texts, ceremonial and medical. There are five chronicles, the two longest covering 68 katuns before the coming of the Spaniards in 1517. We now know that these katuns were time units consisting of 7200 days, or nearly 20 years, and that they were designated by their final day which was always a day called Ahau associated with a number, 1 and 13, in a peculiar sequence. A katun with the same designation returns in 13 × 7200 days or about 256 years. Such a completion, counted especially from a Katun 8 Ahau, was called the “doubling back of the katuns” or, as we would say, the completion of a cycle. The count of the katuns used in the chronicles was really part and parcel of a fuller count just as a year ’22 implies a position in one of the centuries of our Christian era.

The chronicles unfortunately give few names of chieftains and cities and few outstanding events. Chichen Itza is the city most fully concerned and an early occupation is recorded, then an abandonment for some two and a half centuries. After its re-establishment the Toltecs enter Yucatan and capture this capital. The first part of the chronicles has the atmosphere of myth rather than history, but a calendarial adjustment of some kind is mentioned in one place. This was an event which took place in 503 A. D. as we shall see in another place.

The first rough correlation between the time count on the ancient monuments and the time count in the chronicles was made on the theory that a dated lintel at Chichen Itza had to be placed in the first occupation of the city: when this was done the beginning of the chronicles was found to proceed froman important round number in the old day count while the abandonment of Chichen Itza coincided with the abandonment of all the cities of the Mayan First Empire. We must now turn attention to the famous calendar.

The passage of time, seen in finer and finer degree in the course of human life, the succession of summer and winter, the waxing and waning moons, the alternation of day and night, the upward and downward sloping of the sun, and the swinging dial of the stars, are phenomena that no human group has failed to notice. Longer periods than those included within the memory of the oldest men (presenting an imperfect reflection of the memory of men still older) are found only in those favored centers where a serviceable system of counting has been developed. Mythology has a content of history but hardly of chronology. Tradition, when organized by the priesthood, may be reasonably dependable for perhaps two hundred years.

The year and the month are the basis of all primitive time systems, the former depending on the recurring seasons, the latter on recurring moons. Both of these are expressed in days. Unfortunately, the day is not contained evenly in either the month or the year, nor do these larger time measures show any simple relation to each other as regards length. The history of the calendar is one of compromise and correction.

The Mayan calendars were made possible by: first, the knowledge of astronomical time periods; second, the possession of a suitable notation system; third, the discovery of a permutation system of names and numbers.

There is reason to believe that the Mayas had first a lunar-solar calendar of twelve months of thirty days each, making a year of 360 days, and that they reduced the number of days in the formal month to 20 and raised the number of months in the year from 12 to 18. These changes permitted a close adjustment of the units of time with their vigesimal system of counting. With a truer knowledge of the length of the year an extra five day month was added to make a year of 365 days. Beyond this the “leap year” error was calculated but not interpolated. As proof that the lunar month of thirty days preceded the formal month of twenty days, it need only be pointed out that the name for this period,uinal, seems to be connected with the name for moon,u, and that the hieroglyph for moon has the value, twenty, in the inscriptions and ancient books.

Fig. 40. The Twenty Day Signs. The first example in each case is taken from the inscriptions and the second from the codices.

Before entering into a fuller discussion of the astronomical and notational facts let us turn fora moment to the third fact, the permutation system. The origin of the cycle[1]known by the Mayan nametzolkinand the Aztecan nametonalamatl, book of the days, has never been satisfactorily explained. It is a permutation system with two factors, 13 and 20. The former is a series of numbers (1-13) and the latter a series of twenty names as follows:—

These two series revolve upon each other like two wheels, one with thirteen and the other with twenty cogs. The smaller wheel of numbers makes twenty revolutions while the larger wheel of days is making thirteen revolutions, and after this the number cog and name cog with which the experiment began are again in combination. Thus, a day with the same number and the same name recurs every 13 × 20 or 260 days.

This 260 day cycle corresponds to no natural time period and is an invention pure and simple. It is the most fundamental feature of the Mayan time count and of the time counts of other nations in Mexico and Central America. We may perhaps assume that the twenty names were originally those of the twenty days in the modified lunar months. But the thirteen numbers have no recognized prototype. The formal book of days generally was considered to begin with 1 Imix for the Mayas and with a corresponding day for the other Mexican and Central American nations. But it can be made to begin anywhere and proceed to an equivalent station that is always 260 days removed.

It has been stated that the Mayas arrived at a conventional 365 day year made up of eighteen months of twenty days each plus a short period of five days that fell after the eighteen regular months had been counted. The Mayan month names are as follows:—

Fig. 41. The Nineteen Month Signs of the Mayan Year. The first example in each case is taken from the inscriptions and the second from the codices. The last details are signs for zero.

Since there are twenty days or positions in the month and likewise twenty distinct day names in thetzolkin, falling in regular order, it follows that each day would always occupy the same month position were it not for the offset at the end of each year caused by the short Uayeb period. As it is, any day name occupies the same month position during the course of an entire year and a position five days in advance during the course of the following year. Since five is contained four times in twenty there can be only four shifts, the fifth year showing the same arrangement as the first. The following table gives the month positions of each day name during the changes of four consecutive years as these are recorded in the ancient inscriptions.

Scheme of the Mayan Calendar as presented in the Codex Tro-Cortesianus. In the center is Itzamna, the God of the Sky, and his spouse, under what has been called the celestial tree. The band of hieroglyphs that frames in this picture contains the twenty day signs of the Mayan month. The figures on the outside are arranged in four groups, according to the four directions of the compass. At the top or east we again see Itzamna and his mate. In the north, or right hand quarter, human sacrifice is shown and the Death God sits opposite the God of War. In the east and in the south are also shown pairs of divinities. A series of dots running from one day sign to another covers thetzolkinor 260 day cycle of names and numbers.

Thus Ik occupies 0 position the first year, 5, the second year, 10 the third, 15 the fourth, and 0 the fifth. While Manik that belongs to the same set has position 5 the first year, 10 the second, etc. It will be noted that Imix, the first day of the formal permutation of thetzolkinis never the first day of a month.

But this assignment of particular day names to particular places in the month does not close the problem. Each day name is associated in thetzolkin, or permutation, with a day number. While it is true that each day can occupy only four month positions in as many years, it must be remembered that the day numbers associated with these names can run the whole gamut of 13 changes. Thus, although Ik must always occupy the fifth position in the months during a certain year, nevertheless it will have numbers which fall in the sequence 1, 8, 2, 9, 3, 10, 4, 11, 5, 12, 6, 13, 1, etc. The complete cycle of variations must run through the least common multiple of 260 (the permutation) and 365 (the conventional year) or 18,980 days. This cycle is commonly known as the Calendar Round. A Mayan day fixed in a month, or let us say a calendar round date, has four parts to its name, thus, 11 Ahau 18 Mac. We describe aday as Tuesday, July 4, meaning “Tuesday the third day of the seven day week occupies the fourth position in the month of July.” Similarly the Mayan date 11 Ahau 18 Mac may be read “the day named Ahau as eleventh day in a thirteen day week occupies the eighteenth position in the month Mac.” Owing to leap year corrections the European date given above does not recur at regular intervals, but a Mayan day recurs infallibly in 52 calendar years, never sooner, never later.

So far we have considered two kinds of Mayan dates, first thetzolkindate, recurring every 260 days, secondly the calendar round date recurring every 18,980 days. Before we can understand a third and much more important kind of date, namely a date which states, in addition to the calendar round designation, the total number of days since a beginning day called 4 Ahau 8 Cumhu, located far in the past, we must direct our attention to the matter of numbers and notation.

The three most common numerical systems in use in the world are all derived from man’s anatomy. The quinary system is based on counting the fingers of one hand, the decimal system on counting those of both hands and the vigesimal system, which prevailed in Central America, is based on counting all the fingers and all the toes. The vigesimal system is seen in imperfect form in our count of scores, where seventy years are three score and ten.

The Mayan name for one washun: they had simple names to 9 and composite ones from 10 to 19, much as in English, and twenty washun kal, one score. The ascending values in the vigesimal scale were as follows:—

They invented signs for zero and discovered the principle of “local value” in the writing down of numbers centuries before these ideas (which are fundamental to higher mathematics) were known in the Old World. The notation of numbers had its simpler and more complicated phase. In the simpler phase 1 was represented by a dot, 2 by two dots, 5 by a bar, 6 by a bar and dot, 15 by three bars, etc. The commonest sign for zero was a shell while a picture of the moon stood for twenty. In the more elaborate notation a series of twenty faces of gods represented the numerals from 0 to 19.

Fig. 42. Bar and Dot Numerals of the Mayas.

The straight vigesimal system was doubtless used by the Mayas in ordinary counting, but in counting time a very important change was introduced in the third position. Also the names were modified:hunwas calledkinwhich means sun or day. In the second positionkalwas calleduinalwhich means month and 18 of these were taken to form atun, stone, which was the third unit. Thetunthen had a value of 18 × 20 = 360 days, making a conventional year about five and a quarter days less than a trueyear. Twentytunsmade akaltunorkatunand above this period the numeral system proceeded as before and in the ascending values the names already given were merely combined withtun, if Gates is right in his clever suggestion. For years it has been customary to speak of the fifth period as cycle for want of a native term: this will now be calledbaktun. Onehablatun, the highest period with a name, has the astonishing value of 460,800,000,000 days. However, the highest numbers fall considerably short of this potential limit.

In our decimal system the number 347,981, for instance, is really:—

When written out in a horizontal line each “position” has a value ten times that of the “position” to the right of it. It is understood that a digit which stands in a “position” is to be multiplied by 1, 10, 100, 1000, etc., as the case may be. The Mayas, using the principle of position, ordinarily write their bar and dot numerals in columns. But we can partially transcribe a Mayan number in imitation of our own system by putting dots or dashes between the positions or periods. The number in five positions given below is transcribed as 9.12.16.7.8.

Mayan numerals

We read this date: 9 baktuns, 12 katuns, 16 tuns, 7 uinals, and 8 kins. It is convenient to remember that a tun is a little less than a year, a katun a little less than 20 years and a baktun a little less than 400 years. But the count is really of days, not years.

Fig. 43. Face Numerals found in Mayan Inscriptions. In most cases these are the faces of gods. Reading from left to right: the values are 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9, 10.

Fig. 44. The Normal Forms of the Period Glyphs. Reading from left to right: baktun, katun, tun, uinal, kin.

Although the numerical values are expressed by position alone in some cases, in other cases use is made of Period Glyphs to make assurance doubly sure. These Period Glyphs represent the basic value of the positions which are to be multiplied by the accompanying numerals. For examples, see Figs.44and45.

Fig. 45. Face Forms of Period Glyphs. From left to right: introducing glyph, baktun, katun, tun, uinal, kin.

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