Ⅰ. Culture
Religion
Polytheists
Gods for all types of situations
Even had gods for going to the bathroom
Beginning of the Mayan Religion
All about interpreting natural occurrences
Things that played a role of importance
Time
Commerce
Warfare
Farming
Architecture
Science
Gods
Based off stars and time
People who obeyed and praised the Gods were rewarded with survival
Related to Earth, rain, and sowing
Supernatural energies were sacred to the Mayans and they were came through the different Gods
Created the cosmos because they wanted their existence to be kept up by men
Gods were nice unless not praised but when mad they brought
War
Plague
Death
Drought
Creation
The world was created 3 times
First: Man of clay, did not last long
Second: Man of wood who did not know how to praise the gods
Third: Man of corn
The “first father” got killed
Sons buried him under ball game
Sons: Hunahpu and Xbalanque
Sons rescued him
The first father “resuscitated from the crack of a turtle’s shell and created our world”
First day
Heaven was lying on top of Earth and there was no light
First father entered heaven
Raised it up and then light
He organized the upper universe
Everything the first father did was written in the stars so men on Earth could not read it
Created the “directions of the cosmos”
Also gave different colors to each direction/point on the compass
Complicated
The Mayan religion became so complicated that only priests and chiefs that were highly trained could decipher the religion
Feasts
Governed by the Calendar
Priests in charge
Priests suffered a lot because they often:
Fasted to death
Mutilated themselves
Festivities all year round
Immolations
Exorcisms
Abstinence
Fasting
Sacrifices
3 types
Thrown off a sacred cliff or cenote
Shot with an arrow
Cutting out of the heart
Universe
Divided into 3 horizontal “planes”
Heavens: divided into 13 levels
Earth: surface floating on water, portrayed as a crocodile
Infaworld: divided into 9 levels, god of death, Ah Puch ruled
B. Education/Writing and Math
Beginnings
Hard to decipher
Limited sites found
First thought that they were decorations/drawings
Early 50s
Russian historian figured out that the signs stood for words and syllables
Numbers
Invented the number 0 as a place holder
Earlier
Represented by different types of heads or animal heads
Values didn’t change if heads moved positions
Later
Dots were ones and bars were fives
Zero was represented by a shell looking type symbol
Once over five, the dots were put over the bar
Writing
Sacred
Books, literature, and writing
Only priests knew how to read and write
Made up of hieroglyphics
Every glyph had “secondary elements” like prefixes or suffixes attached
Inscribed
In stone
Stuccoes
Bones
Clay
Shells
Fabric
Other materials
Last known date recorded
Recorded by a scribe
January 18, 909
The Spaniards
16th century
Burned tons of old documents and manuscripts
Surviving writing on
Stones
Ruins
Artifacts
Few other documents
C. Houses/Architecture
Average Mayan housing
One room
Door always faced East
Rounded corners
On raised platform
Materials
Floors
Sascab
Walls
Wooden
Covered in adobe
Roof
Wood
Thatch with palm fronds
Regional design
Palenque has architecture native to Palenque
Decorated with
Figures
Garett roofs
Sculpted crestings
Location
Located near fields for easy access
Furniture
Wooden stools
Wooden beds
Wooden frames to hang objects and clothes
D. Government/Laws
Prison
Did not exist
Penalty for doing something wrong
Death
Slavery
Slavery was legal
How disputes were settled
Who was present
Judges
Contracts
Litigants put in place
Punishment
Crimes based on vengeance
(adultery, rape, murder)
Penalty= death
Petty crimes
Give it back (if something was stolen)
Pay for it
Pay for it in slavery
Shave one’s head
Halach Uinic
Means “true man’
Highest authority in the Mayas
Highest of the highest
Responsible for political decisions
Help of counselor priests and chiefs
Based on visions priests received from the Gods
E. Social classes
Warriors
Highest ranking called the Nacom
The Nacom was selected because of he had a hot temper and knew war strategies
Batab
Military chief who made sure people paid up
Ah Kulet
Town clerk, left hand man to Batab
Tupiles
Sheriffs who did the dirty work
Ah Holpop
In charge of the house of business
In charge of sacred dances
Merchants/Traders
Considered part of nobility
“Ah Polom”
Priests
The Ahau was a spiritual guide
Made calendar
Interpreted calendar
Wrote sacred books
POWs/slaves
Reserved for offerings to the gods
Absolute lowest level of social pyramid
Slavery legal
Farmers
“Ah Chembal”
Did the dirty work/chores
Because of this higher ups able to work on art/science
Basis of Mayan civilization
Lower of the two main classes
Artists
Architects
Farmers
Peasants
Artisans
Everybody who was not nobility
Higher of the two main classes
Highest priest
His administrators
Merchants
Traders
Merchants and traders known as “Ah Polom”
Warriors
Chiefs
F. Occupations
Agriculture
Base of Mayan life
Mayan Marketplace
Huge
Sold everything
From meat, feathers, and weapons
Cacao beans were very sacred
Used as currency as well
Merchants and traders
Whole network of roads that connected the Mayan civilization
Merchants used to trade their goods
Hunters
Very organized
Whoever killed the meat
Allowed to take as much as he wanted
Rest was split up between others
If hunters came back with good hunt
Covered idols in the blood of the meat
If bad, then whipped idols
G. Food
Breakfast
Drink with corn dissolved in hot water
Lunch
Farmers drank corn pozole while tending to crops
Dinner
Only full meal of day
Bean and squash puree with corn tortilla
Honey
Often used
Put in fermented liquor used in rituals
“Balche”
Corn
Important staple of the culture
Complimented and often ate with
Fish
Turkey
Turtle dove
Pidgeon
Duck
Pheasant
Rabbit
Wild boar
Armadillo
Deer
H. Clothes
Loincloths
If nobility decorated with
Jaguar fur
Feathers
Cotton balls
Worn with decorated sandals
If fancy loincloth then shows wealth
Called “Ex”
Women wore a “hipil”
Poncho like
If poor
I. Women
Women wore long dresses/skirts
To cover top half folded a blanket from under their arms
Or just nothing at all
Nobel Women
Wore small capes
Small jade beads
Feathered fringes
Not allowed to be warriors
Fairly well treated compared to other ancient civilizations
J. The Mayan Ball Game
Human sacrifices
Of POWs or slaves
Accompanied the game
Sacred ritual
Heavily linked to celebrating the celestial gods
K. Burying the Dead
Funerary masks
Special gems and stones
Symbolize immortality of the soul
The Mayans were very afraid of dying
Believed in life after death
Mayans buried under a house
After too many people buried under a house
Became an ancestral shrine
House became uninhabited
Sometimes people buried with their dogs
Companions in the after life
Grave goods
Both poor and wealthy had grave goods
If wealthy= more grave goods
Men buried with their trade goods
Fishermen with fishing nets and harpoons
Hunters with bow and arrow and spears etc.
L. Pakal
The best king of Palenque
You can tell because of his elaborate tomb
Reigned for 68 years
Records show he took the throne when he was 12
Special jade funeral mask
Lived for a remarkably long time for his time period
He achieved peace with neighboring cities
Through marriage and alliances
Ⅱ. Excavation
Discovery
King Charles Ⅲ
Interested and heard about the “Lost City of Palenque”
Sent Jose Antonio Calderon
Calderon
First person to see Palenque in over one thousand years
Spent three days in late November of 1784 in the ruins of Palenque
Discoveries intrigued the President of the Royal Audiencia of Guatemala
Josef Estacharia
Cleared vegetation around the palace
Estacharia
Sent another expedition after Calderon
Sent royal Architect of Guatemala
Antonio Bernasconi
B. Bernasconi
Went in 1785
Made first legible drawings of some buildings in Palenque
Still misleading because he stuck to the rules of geometry
Provided first useful record of the Mayan hieroglyphic system
First report dated 1785
His drawings impressed Estacharia who approached Jose de Galvez to convince King Charles Ⅲ to send an expedition
Charles Ⅲ sent Antonio del Rio this time
C. Del Rio
Arrived in Palenque 1787 on May 5
With an artist
Ignacio Armendariz
With guides from village nearby
Started first labor on 17 of May with help of Calderon
When he first got there very dense and thick fog
Began work with “seven iron crowbars and three pickaxes… and a dint of perseverance”
Sent some objects to Spain
Orders of a Spanish Court Historian Juan Bautista Munoz
D. What they sent to Spain
Stucco adorns
7 exterior piers
Interior stucco relief
Tablets from the sanctuary of the Group of the Cross
A double headed jaguar throne
2 hieroglyphic panels from beneath the palace
The right leg of a throne
Ceramics
E. Later expeditions
In 1804 Charles Ⅳ wanted exact drawings and diagrams of all the buildings and palaces of Palenque
Between 1805-09 there were 3 separate trips to look for ruins
The last one was to Palenque
1808
Napoleon invades Spain
Charles Ⅳ no longer king
Mexico independent
With Mexico, Chiapas
With Chiapas, Palenque
Mexico becomes independent
Some drawings become switched up
1839
August 1839
New image capturing technology
Image on thin copper plates
Coated in silver
“Developed” with iodine gas
French artist Louis Jacques Mande Daguerre and Joseph Nicephore Niepce
Called “Daguerreotype”
1858
Desire Charnay
First real pictures of Palenque
1890-91
Alfred Maudslay
Took more extensive photos
Plaster molds of objects
Cleared more of the vegetation around the ruins and on them
1923
Frans Blome
First reliable maps of Palenque
1942
Most of Palenque was barely visible because of the massive amounts of vegetation
Alberto Ruz Lhuillier
First person to gaze upon the tomb of Pakal in over a thousand years
Supervised excavations
For Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History
1973
Merle Green Robertson
Continued to excavate Palenque
2010
Penn State
Christopher Duffy and Kirk French
F. New Technologies
Photography
Photography was a huge invention that helped the documentation and excavation of Palenque
Ⅲ. Impact
Mayan Writing
June 24, 1787
Del Rio made remarks about Mayan hieroglyphics
Very first mention of the writing of the Mayas
“Pioneering” the research and knowledge on Mayans and their writing
One of the first Mayan ruins found after the decline of the Mayans
B. Architecture
One of the first narratives