AYaxchilan-style Lintel Possibly from the Area of Retalteco, Petén, Guatemala.pdf

RESEARCH REPORTS ON ANCIENT MAYA WRITING

A Yaxchilan-style Lintel Possibly from the Area of

Retalteco, Petén, Guatemala

Stephen Houston

Brown University

Charles Golden

Brandeis University

A. René Muñoz

University of Arizona

Andrew K. Scherer

Wagner College

Introduction: The Recovery of a Looted Yaxchilan-style Panel

n July 2004, the Defensores de la Naturaleza, headquartered in Santa Elena,

Petén, Guatemala, acted with the Guatemalan National Police to seize two

sculpted stones from looters. The sculptures came from the area of the Sierra

del Lacandón National Park, a relatively new ecological and archaeological

reserve in the northwestern Petén co-administered by the Defensores and the

Consejo Nacional de Áreas Protegidas of Guatemala (CONAP). Informed of the

recovery of these monument fragments, Golden and Muñoz traveled to Santa

Elena, where they photographed and measured the stones.

This report focuses on one of these monuments, a fragment of a ﬁnely

carved door lintel in the Yaxchilan style. The other sculpture is a crudely

sketched human face carved on a circular piece of limestone (Figure 1). The stone

2006 A Yaxchilan-style Lintel Possibly from Retalteco, Petén, Guatemala. Research Reports on Ancient

Maya Writing , Number 61. http://www.utmesoamerica.org/pdf_meso/RRAMW61.pdf

itself may have been used to seal a chultun or cistern. During reconnaissance of

the Park similar disks were found associated with cisterns, but none of these

objects were carved in the same way. As a cistern cap, then, the piece is probably

Prehispanic. A gross, initial inspection of the incision work seems to indicate that

it, too, had a Prehispanic date. Still, without comparative materials or inspection

with precision instruments there remains the possibility that the incised face is

more recent. Looters may simply have wished to enhance the value of a plain

piece with some inexpert carving.

FIGURE 1: CISTERN OR CHULTUN COVERING, WITH INCISED HUMAN

FACE

Physical Features of the Lintel

The Yaxchilan-style lintel is of limestone (Figures 2 and 3). It measures 90

cm at its base, 96.5 at its broken, top edge, 41 cm on its left edge, 34 on its right.

Thickness varies from 8.8 cm on the left edge to 12 cm on the bottom. The

2006 A Yaxchilan-style Lintel Possibly from Retalteco, Petén, Guatemala. Research Reports on Ancient

Maya Writing , Number 61. http://www.utmesoamerica.org/pdf_meso/RRAMW61.pdf

original height of the carving must have been in the neighborhood of 85 cm –

note the sample of measurements from roughly coeval lintels at Yaxchilan itself,

which show a tendency of images to be slightly wider than they are high (Table

1). The lintel has been shaved from its original size, perhaps for ease of transport

by looters (Figure 4). The back was thinned by two-thirds. It had a probable,

original thickness of about 35 to 40 cm; the bottom edge was cleanly sawn to

facilitate transport – by comparison with lintels from Yaxchilan, the bottom and

disappeared top were the elongated parts of the carving that mortised into the

building.

FIGURE 2. DRAWING OF THE LINTEL FRAGMENT (by Stephen Houston)

FIGURE 3. DIGITAL IMAGE OF THE SCULPTED FACE OF THE LINTEL

FRAGMENT

FIGURE 4. SAWN BACK OF THE LINTEL FRAGMENT

2006 A Yaxchilan-style Lintel Possibly from Retalteco, Petén, Guatemala. Research Reports on Ancient

Maya Writing , Number 61. http://www.utmesoamerica.org/pdf_meso/RRAMW61.pdf

FIGURE 4: SAWN BACK OF THE LINTEL FRAGMENT

As with its peers at Yaxchilan, the sculpture has inset, low-relief carving.

There are indications that the bottom, uncarved area represents the remains of a

natural bedding plane in the limestone – note especially the evidence of

exfoliation to the lower right. Even the glyphs, such as pM1, bear vestiges of

this original, planar surface (Figure 5). The edges of carving are forcefully

chiseled, with a slight batter and only faintly polished or rounded edges. The

background, shown as stippling in the drawing, has also been chiseled from

upper right to lower left. This chiseling was later smoothed in a ﬁnal act of

polishing. We cannot know how the chisel was held, but the thrust of carving

2006 A Yaxchilan-style Lintel Possibly from Retalteco, Petén, Guatemala. Research Reports on Ancient

Maya Writing , Number 61. http://www.utmesoamerica.org/pdf_meso/RRAMW61.pdf

Almost certainly, the principal ﬁgure faced to right, towards the entrance

of the doorway spanned by the lintel. Condition is excellent, aside from the left

third of the carving. Details of the glyphs and huipil wraps are slightly eroded,

presumably because the area was closer to the surface of the rubble in which the

lintel was found. If so, the building had collapsed forward. At this time the lintel

may have split in two.

suggests a right-handed sculptor, chisel in left hand, mallet in right. There is a

hint that the left side of the carving -- that with two women -- had a different

ﬁnish. The carving here is more ﬁnely rounded and may show the work of a

second sculptor. An imperfection in the stone, or perhaps the remnants of a

rectiﬁed error in carving, slashes laterally across the thigh of the ﬁgure to the

right (Figure 6).

FIGURE 5: CLOSE-UP VIEW OF GLYPHS

Text and imagery

The lintel shows four people, two men and two women. The surviving

text, however, refers to three. These are: Bird Jaguar IV, a secondary lord or sajal

2006 A Yaxchilan-style Lintel Possibly from Retalteco, Petén, Guatemala. Research Reports on Ancient

Maya Writing , Number 61. http://www.utmesoamerica.org/pdf_meso/RRAMW61.pdf

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