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The Identity of the Central Deity on the Aztec Calendar Stone Author(s): Cecelia F. Klein Source: The Art Bulletin, Vol. 58, No. 1 (Mar., 1976), pp. 1-12 Published by: College Art Association Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3049459 Accessed: 12-01-2017 23:52 UTC JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org. Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://about.jstor.org/terms College Art Association is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Art Bulletin This content downloaded from 129.8.242.67 on Thu, 12 Jan 2017 23:52:08 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms The Identity of the Central Deity on the Aztec Calendar Stone* Cecelia F. Klein Of the extant artistic monuments created by the Aztecs of Pre-Columbian Mexico, the Aztec Calendar Stone is undoubtedly the most important (Fig. I). The thirteen-and-ahalf foot circular polychromed basalt relief has been used to illustrate Postclassic Mexican cosmological concepts and the nature of their manifestation in Postclassic visual art more identified as Xiuhcoatls, or Fire Serpents, mythological creatures who symbolize the twenty-four-hour course of the sun through the daytime sky and the earth at night. An inner ring contains all twenty day-signs of the Aztec calendar.4 In the center of the reliefs there appear the frontal, or enface, face and hands of what is certainly a deity; these are enframed by the six-lobed Postclassic graphic symbol often than any other single image of the period.1 Discovered for the word Ollin, which means "earth," "movement," or in 1790 lying face down in the Plaza Mayor of Mexico City "earthquake." The Ollin sign is accompanied by four small (formerly the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan), and seen today that convert it into the date naui ollin, 4 Ollin, or in the Museo Nacional de Antropologia in Mexico City, circles the "4 Earthquake." In each of the four angles of the Ollin sign Calendar Stone has, further, come to symbolize for the there is an image that similarly refers to a specific date in the Mexican people the beauty and complexity of their PreAztec calendar. Columbian heritage. Given its dual role as a national symIn connection with this imagery Seler and Beyer point bol and a key to scholarly understanding of Postclassic art out that the Aztecs believed that the universe had passed and cosmology, it is critically important that the iconothrough four cyclical epochs, each of which had had its graphy of the Calendar Stone be fully comprehended. own sun. Each of these epochs or "suns" had been violently The fundamental meaning of the Aztec Calendar Stone destroyed at the end of a fifty-two-year cycle, or Aztec has been understood for some time. Scholars have typically "century." The Aztecs themselves, on the eve of the Spanish accepted the interpretations offered by Eduard Seler and Hermann Beyer who are in essential agreement on the Conquest in the early sixteenth century, were living in the fifth and last epoch or "sun" and believed that it too would matter.2 According to them, the Calendar Stone functioned be destroyed, thereby obliterating both man and his unias a graphic symbol of the Postclassic concept of cyclical verse for all time. This present sun, whose name was naui time and space.3 This theory is based on the form of the ollin, 4 Ollin, was expected to be destroyed by earthquakes carving itself, which depicts a giant disk with pointed proagain at the end of an unspecified Aztec "century" of fiftyjections that in standard Postclassic iconography invariably two years.5 Since the date 4 Ollin appears on the Calendar represents the sun. The rim of the stone takes the form of Stone relief, and since the four dates located in the four two serpents meeting at tails and heads; they are typically * This article is a version of a paper presented to the Columbia device Uni- used to compute time. Curiously, neither dissents from the traditional identification of the central figure challenged in this article. versity Seminar on Primitive and Pre-Columbian Art, 15 February 1974. It is based on a portion of my doctoral dissertation. I am partic4 The Aztecs used two calendars that functioned independently but ularly grateful to the Department of Art History and Archaeology, that ended on the same day every fifty-two years. The first, the xihuitl, Columbia University for a 1968 Departmental Summer Travel Grant, was an agricultural calendar based on the 365-day rotation of the earth which permitted me to pursue my dissertation research in Mexico, and the sun. It was divided into eighteen months of twenty days around to my dissertation adviser, Professor Douglas Fraser, for his direction, each with an additional five days (nemontemi) at the end. The second, the advice, and support. tonalpohualli, was a divinatory calendar based on the meshing of an series of twenty day-signs with a series of the numerals one N.B.: A bibliography of frequently cited sources will be found atinvariable the thirteen; each combination of day-sign and numeral could end of this article. All manuscripts and codices mentioned in the textthrough can occur only once in 260 days. The 26o-day cycle was divided into twenty also be found in the bibliography. periods, or "weeks," of thirteen days each. A larger cycle of fifty-two 1 Pre-Columbian Mexican history is traditionally divided into three major temporal periods: the Preclassic (or Formative), the Classic,years, and known as the xiuhmolpilli, always ended on a day that simultan- concluded both a 365-day and a 26o-day cycle. The xiuhmolpilli the Postclassic. The latter roughly covers the years between A.D. eously 9oo was itself divided into quarters and was of the greatest cosmic and ritual and 152I, the year of the Spanish Conquest. At the time of the Consignificance. quest, most of central Mexico was under the control of the Aztecs, a 5 Owing to the nature of the Aztec calendar, the solar year, and thus the Nahuatl-speaking people who rose to power in the i 4th century during fifty-two year cycle, could never have ended on the day 4 Ollin. It is what is known as the Late Postclassic period. The Aztec Calendar Stone therefore not clear how the Aztecs related their fear of the day 4 Ollin to was carved by these people to sit atop their major ceremonial plaza where the end of their fifty-two year "century." The date 4 Ollin would have it presumably served in some way in the performance of Aztec rituals. The exact orientation and function of the monument have never been occurred at least once every solar year, however, and events of that day ascertained. may have been interpreted as prophesies or determinants of the fate of 2 E. Seler, Disertacidnes, trans. D. de Le6n, Mexico City, M.M.S.S.the delsun at the end of the current fifty-two year cycle. The association of the day Ollin with the end of a fifty-two year cycle may also derive from Museo Nacional, 1903, vr, If, and Gesammelte Abhandlungen, II, 796-99; Beyer. See also Caso, 1958, 33, for a more recent presentation of the the earlier use in many parts of Mesoamerica of an Ehecatl-Mazatlsame interpretation. Malinalli-Ollin set of yearbearers. Such a system survived until the Con- quest in parts of Oaxaca and Guerrero. If the names of the years, and 3 Recent dissenting points of view are put forth by Aviles-Solares hence and the yearbearers themselves, were derived from the last day of the R. Noriega, 221-242. While the two authors disagree in their identificayear, as Caso suggests, then the last day of the fifty-two year cycle would tion of the various astronomical cycles and symbols represented, both have always fallen on a day Ollin (see Caso, I967, 128). conclude that the Aztec Calendar Stone was an astronomical calculating This content downloaded from 129.8.242.67 on Thu, 12 Jan 2017 23:52:08 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 2 THE ART BULLETIN x Aztec Calendar Stone. Mexico City, Museo Nacional de Antropologia (p angles of the Ollin sign are the exact the apparently destruction of thedates sun was of therefore expected to take place of the four previous "suns," Seleratand conclude night,Beyer at which safely time it was believed to be dead and hidden in the of underworld the navel of the female earth that the monument is a graphic symbol the atAztec concept of the five mythological solar epochs and the end of the goddess Tlaltecuhtli who systematically "devoured" it each world.6 day at sunset. Only proper ritual and sacrifice could insure We know, however, that fear of the cataclysmic destruction of the fifth and final sun, naui ollin, led the Aztecs to hold that the sun would be "reborn" in the east in the morning to pursue its important travels across the sky. The navel of the earth, moreover, was located at the center of the universe. The Aztecs divided both space and time into segments corresponding to the five world direcparticular constellation and star at the center of the night tions and arranged them in a cyclic sequence that ran east, north, west, south, and center. The east and north were sky guaranteed that the sun would rise as usual at the elaborate vigils and rituals at the end of every fifty-two-year cycle, proceedings designed to stave off the disaster. These vigils took place around midnight when the appearance of a eastern horizon at dawn and that life would continue for at associated with sunrise and noon, and thus the sky by day; the west, south, and center were associated with sunset and least another fifty-two years. The anticipated destruction 6 The dates of destruction and hence the names of the five mythological Earthquake" or "4 Movement." For a translation of, and commentary on, the relevant passages in the Leyenda de los soles, see M. Leon-Portilla, Aztecother Thought and Culture, trans. J. E. Davies, Norman, 1963, 37f. See also Leyenda de los soles and the Historia de los mexicanos por sus pinturas; suns cited on the Aztec Calendar Stone are those mentioned in the H. on Nicholson, "Religion in Pre-Hispanic Central Mexico," Handbook of accounts give different names and/or sequences. Those seen the Middle American Indians, ed. R. Wauchope, x, 1971, 398-99. Calendar Stone are: (I) 4 Ocelotl, "4 Tiger"; (2) 4 Ehecatl, "4 Wind"; (3) 4 Quiauhtl, "4 Rain"; (4) 4 Atl, "4 Water"; and (5) 4 Ollin, "4 This content downloaded from 129.8.242.67 on Thu, 12 Jan 2017 23:52:08 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms THE AZTEC CALENDAR STONE 3 jewel-tipped nose plug, circular dangling earrings, midnight, the night sky, the earth, and death.hair, The asouth large teeth in an open mouth, and a long protruding tongue, and center in particular were associated with the precise which takes moment of midnight and the underworld; it was at this time the standard graphic form of the flint knife used bycame Aztec priests to remove the hearts of their sacriand in these regions that all Postclassic cosmic cycles ficial victims. The deity wore a red fillet decorated with two to an end.7 Accordingly, since each of the five mythological jade rings separated by an abstract jewelled ornament at its solar epochs referred to on the Aztec Calendar Stone were center. The similarly assigned to a particular direction in the traditional facial painting was divided into two horizontal the lower half of which was red, the upper half of sequence, the fifth and final sun, naui ollin, fell to zones, the center. was a lighter red or pink.8 Two contiguous red bands, It is clear, therefore, that, in referring to the which anticipated destruction of the fifth sun at the end of the entire Aztec which may have read as either a single or double band, spatio-temporal cycle, the Aztec Calendar Stone specifi-surrounded the outer edges of the eyes. The hands, which cally alludes to midnight, the earth, death, and the center ofare still clearly clawed and which clutch human hearts, take the world. the profile form of devouring monster heads. The absence In view of these additional implications, the identity of of a body suggests that the god is viewed from above, his the deity represented enface at the very center of the Calen- head upturned and hands upraised, thus hiding from view dar Stone relief becomes increasingly problematic. Scholars the body beneath them. In the Postclassic codices, the sun god Tonatiuh also have traditionally identified this deity as Tonatiuh, an Aztec wears circular dangling earrings, a jewel-tipped nose bar, sun god, an identification that on first analysis would seem appropriate within the context of the solar disk and references to the five mythological solar epochs. Tonatiuh, how- and a blond wig; his fillet is decorated with jade rings (Fig. Tonatiuh was a god of the day sky, not of the night sky and both in the form of a full-length figure and as a disembodied 3). In the literature of the period, moreover, Tonatiuh was ever, like all Aztec deities, had specific functions and con- associated with the eagle, a bird sometimes depicted in the notations, and these functions and connotations are in fact codices in conjunction with Tonatiuh in the act of grasping incompatible with the cosmological context of the stone. human hearts with its claws. The god frequently appears - the earth, and he was invariably associated with the world head - in company with the solar disk; occasionally his direction of the east in the Postclassic calendar and codices. head, unlike that of any other deity, is set directly in the Since death and destruction, like the earth and darkness,center of that disk. At times his eyes are framed on three were associated with the world directions of west, south, and sides by a single red band (Fig. 4). center in Postclassic cosmology, Tonatiuh's affiliation with Tonatiuh never, however, appears with the monsterthe east dissociates him from these concepts as well. Tofaced hands seen on the deity of the Aztec Calendar Stone, identify the central deity of the Aztec Calendar Stone asnor does he ever appear with a protruding tongue of any Tonatiuh is therefore to locate a god of the east, and thus ofkind. His fillet is typically yellow rather than red and is the beginning of cosmic cycles, of daylight, of the sky and typically decorated with at least three jade rings on each life itself, within a context of cosmic destruction and com- side and a central ornament that takes the form of the head pletion at midnight at the dark center of the earth. In short,of a bird. As a rule his eyes are not banded; when they are, to accept this identification is to cast the consistency of thea contiguous double band is never used. The god does Postclassic mind into disrepute. appear frequently in the Aubin Tonalimatl' in his role of The deity represented at the center of the Aztec Calendarfourth of the thirteen Postclassic Mexican Lords of the Stone is not, however, Tonatiuh. It is not a deity of light orDay, as a disembodied head set in the center of the solar disk and wearing not only a double (sometimes the day sky of the east, nor is it a god of life and the begin- triple) eye-band, but a pink and red bi-zoned face paintin ning of cosmic cycles as opposed to one of death and cyclic completion. Evidence for this is both linguistic and literary as well (Fig. 5). Since the Aubin Tonalitmatl image w one of the major bases for Beyer's original identification of as well as visual. According to Miguel Covarrubias's reconstruction drawing of the badly damaged and faded face and the Calendar Stone deity as Tonatiuh, however, it is in structive that the identical markings appear in the sam hands at the center of the monument (Fig. 2), the deity represented there within the solar disk originally had yellowcodex on the faces of the night sun gods Xochipilli and poral affiliations, as a result, it occasionally appears to have been more 7 For a complete discussion and defense of this position, see Klein. I closely associated with the actual beginning of a cosmic cycle than with presented a brief summary of the argument at the conference on "Death an ending. Such occurrences are rare, however; in the vast majority of and the Afterlife in Pre-Columbian America" held by the Dumbarton the center is clearly associated with the end of a cycle and Oaks Center for Pre-Columbian Studies on 27 October 1973, in ainstances, paper titled "Postclassic Mexican Death Imagery as a Sign of Cyclic hence Com- with darkness, earth, and death. So strong was this association that the central world direction often appears to have been conceptually pletion," published in the proceedings, 1975. The central world direction differed from the other four world direcfused with the south and in many instances simply to have been left out ofof a sequence in favor of it. tions in performing a transitional function. Since the Aztecs conceived space, as well as time, in terms of recurring cycles, the end of one8seCovarrubias does not give his reasons for reconstructing the coloration quence automatically predicted, and even inaugurated, the beginning of the Calendar Stone figure as he does, but his reconstruction is conof the next. The central world direction, therefore, although typically firmed by that of Robert F. Sieck who actually examined the pigments associated with the end of a sequence, could also signify the beginningremaining of on the stone (see Noriega, opp. 64). Beyer, 2o, reconstructs a new one. For this reason it was often referred to as the "up and down" the deity's face as solid red, but admits to doing so "because Tonatiuh direction, a term based on the belief that the center of the universe was painted this way in the codices of the central region" (author's extended vertically from the bottom of the earth to the top of the sky, translation). thereby permitting easy access from one region to the other. In its tem- This content downloaded from 129.8.242.67 on Thu, 12 Jan 2017 23:52:08 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 4 THE ART BULLETIN located the south or center of the world, at the navel Piltzintecuhtli (Fig. 14).9 Both double eye-bands and in a bi- the female earth monster herself where it was associated in colored face painting are in fact occasionally found elsewhere thethe calendar with the hour of midnight.13 Since the sun, on both Xochipilli and Piltzintecuhtli, while, with single like all exception of the Mixteca-Pueblan Codex Borgia, 55celestial (Fig. bodies, was believed to die and descend to the land the dead each time it disappeared at the western 4), where Tonatiuh's face is painted in two shades ofofred, horizon, it follows that a solar deity bearing the form and the day sun god's face is elsewhere either solid red or solid attributes of the female earth monster would represent the yellow. In other words, only single eye-bands, not double dead sun at night housed within her. We know, in fact, that eye-bands, or a bi-zoned face painting, are characteristic of Tonatiuh. the Aztecs believed that Tonatiuh, at the moment at which the sun disappears at the western horizon, was conTonatiuh, moreover, never appears in the rare frontal, verted into another deity, a solar god of earth, death, and or en face, two-dimensional form adopted by the Calendar darkness, who passed through the underworld each night. Stone deity. Even in the seemingly comparable Aubin Tonalimatl images the sun god is seen in profile view.This deity, who represented the dead sun at night in the body of the female earth monster, was variously known as Frontality, in fact, is always reserved in Postclassic twoXochipilli, "Prince of Flowers," Piltzintecuhtli, "Lord of dimensional imagery for those deities who are related to the Princes," Yoaltonatiuh, "Night Sun," Tlalchitonatiuh or female earth goddess Tlaltecuhtli who herself invariably Ollintonatiuh, "Earth Sun," and Yohualtecuhtli, the "Lord appears two-dimensionally in en face form and who connotes earth, darkness, agricultural fertility, death, and theof the Night." world directions of west, south, and center (Fig. 6).10 Xochipilli, the "Prince of Flowers," was a southern deity who was incorporated into the Aztec pantheon in the Tlaltecuhtli is characterized visually by her dorsal "discourse of military conquest (Fig. 9). He was the patron of played" posture in which both arms and legs are bent and music, dance, songs, and games and was affiliated with outspread in the traditional pose assumed by native Mexican sexual pleasure, lust, fertility, and the sun. In an Aztec women during childbirth.11 Her head is typically upturned, as is better seen in a three-dimensional Aztec statue which hymn addressed to him, the god refers to himself as "I, the represents her or her "sister" aspect Coatlicue (Fig. 7).maize"; Her he is linked here, as elsewhere, with the maize god Seler titles Xochipilli the "Lord of the South" monstrous face bears round, ringed, or banded eyes,Cinteotl.14 an and designates him as chief representative of that world open mouth with sharp teeth, and a protruding tongue that direction.15 Together with the moon goddess Xochiquetzel often takes the form of a sacrificial flint knife. Her joints and extremities take the profile form of monstrous faces he ruled the mythical land of Xochitlicacin, the "Land of Flowers," which was located in the south. Since the land of that frequently clutch human hearts. When she appears in two-dimensional form as Coatlicue, her frontal face, the with dead and the hour of midnight were associated with the south as well as with the center of the world, it follows that its differentiated lower portion, its exposed teeth, its flint- Xochipilli was a god of earth, darkness, and death. In the knife tongue and its circular dangling earrings bears a Aztec hymn addressed to him, Xochipilli is indeed desstriking resemblance to that of the deity of the Aztec Calcribed as one who singsyoaltica, "in the night."16 endar Stone (Fig. 8). In most literary accounts Xochipilli was the husband or Since only deities who shared Tlaltecuhtli's connotations lover of earth, death, darkness, and cyclic completion could adopt of the moon and vegetation goddess Xochiquetzal, but he is replaced in this role by one Piltzintecuhtli in the her frontal form and unique insignia, and since this form Historia and many of these insignia appear in the Calendar Stone de los mexicanos por sus pinturas and in an Aztec hymn addressed to Xochiquetzal.17 In the codices, as in the comdeity, but never on Tonatiuh, there can be little doubt that mentaries and legends, Xochipilli in turn occasionally subthe former refers, not to Tonatiuh, but to a solar deity of the stitutes for Piltzintecuhtli and frequently appears with that earth, night, fertility, death, and the western, southern, god's insignia. According to the Histoire du Mechique, Piltand/or central world directions. This assumption is supportzintecuhtli was Xochipilli's father.18 ed by the fact that throughout Postclassic Mexico, round, Xochipilli was intimately related to and even interringed, and banded eyes, long tongues, flint knives, and human hearts - all encountered on the Calendar Stone changeable with Piltzintecuhtli because Piltzintecuhtli was also image - symbolize death.12 It is further supported bya solar the deity. Piltzintecuhtli is often described as "the fact that the Aztec land of the dead, Mictlkn, was originally young sun god" and wears - like Xochipilli - a number of ringed or banded eye in Postclassic Mexico was symbolically synony- 9 Beyer, 15. 10 For a full defense of the thesis that frontality was reserved for deities associated with earth, death, darkness, and cyclic completion in two- dimensional Postclassic art, see my doctoral dissertation. 11 Seler, 1900-o01, 10o3 12 Thompson, 1960, 45, 173; E. Seler, "Explanation of the Wall Paintings of Mitla," in Central American Antiquities, Calendar Systems, and History, ed. C. P. Bowditch, Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin, xxvIII, 1904 323. The round, ringed, or banded eye was apparently roughly analogous to the closed eye, which also symbolized death. The closed eye is, however, relatively rare in Postclassic Mexican imagery and does not even appear on the major death deities Mictlantecuhtli and Micticacihuatl, whose eyes are round and/or ringed, but always open. For evidence that the mous with closed eyes in Postclassic Maya art, see Klein, 206-217. 13 Thompson, 1934, 222-25. Thompson argues here that the reported assignment of Mictlkn to the north at the time of the Conquest represented either a very late development or a mistake on the part of the chroniclers themselves. 14 Sahagdin, III, 213- 15 Seler, I902-03, 139; see also Seler, I960-61, 11, 1097. 16 Sahagfin, mII, 213. 17 Seler, I960-6I, II, I03518 Ibid., Iv, 6o. See also Thompson, 1934, 223. This content downloaded from 129.8.242.67 on Thu, 12 Jan 2017 23:52:08 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms THE AZTEC CALENDAR STONE 5 2 The central deity of the Aztec Calendar 3 Tonatiuh, detail of Codex Borgia, fol. Stone, drawing by Miguel Covarrubias Seler, 1963, rI, 23) (from Caso, 1958, 32) 4 Tonatiuh, detail of Codex Borgia, fol. 55 5 Tonatiuh, detail of Aubin Tonald (from Seler, 1963, mI, 55) fol. 9 (from Seler, 900-0o , facsim 6 Tlaltecuhtli, relief on underside of an 7 "Coatlicue del Metro." Mexico 8 "Coatlicue," relief on underside of an Aztec Aztec stone cuauhxicalli. Berlin, Museum ffir City, Museo Nacional de stone statue. Mexico City, Museo Nacional de Vblkerkunde (photo: Museum) Antropologia (photo: Museum) Antropologia (photo: Museum) This content downloaded from 129.8.242.67 on Thu, 12 Jan 2017 23:52:08 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 6 THE ART BULLETIN west, or center of the world. Its Mexican day-sign solar insignia (Fig. Io). Although he appears as south, rattlecounterpart always symbolized the south and, sigbearer of the east in Codices Borgia 5 I1, and Vaticanus B 2 Xochitl 1, and faces the flint-knife god Iztli in that section nificantly, of the Codex the hour of midnight as well. F6jervary-Mayer world direction chart (page I) which Xochipilli-Piltzintecuhtli appears twice, moreover, in corresponds to the east, Piltzintecuhtli is normally affiliated Codices Vaticanus B 96, and Borgia 53, in the full-length with the west. He appears in the F6jervary-Mayer world form of the female earth monster so closely frontal displayed direction chart in his capacity as third of the nine Lords of night sun (Figs. 12, 13). Here the god assumes related to the the Night in which he was actually regent of third thethe disguise of a deer, an act that surely refers to the MexiMexican day-sign Calli (House), which Seler describes as Piltzintecuhtli turned into a deer on the day can legend that the "dark house of the earth, the west."19 Piltzintecuhtli 7 Xochitl (7 Flower), the day of the annual festival held in was reported to have fathered the maize god Cinteotl honorin ofthe his beloved, the moon goddess Xochiquetzal. mythical land of Tamoanchan which also was located in the Maya myths frequently tell how the young sun god dons a west.20 According to an Aztec hymn addressed to the moonin order to woo the moon.26 Again, since only deer disguise goddess Xochiquetzal, Piltzintecuhtli descended into sun the- never the day sun - was on intimate terms the night underworld in pursuit of her, his beloved; here he moon, was these en face images of Xochipilli-Piltzintewith the believed to have intercourse with the moon.21 Since the cuhtli in deer disguise can only refer to the sun at night. moon was believed to be hostile to the day sun, or TonaXochipilli-Piltzintecuhtli, a god of the night sun in the tiuh, Piltzintecuhtli can only have represented theunderworld, sun at therefore shares with the central deity of the night.22 The Mayan counterpart of the third day-signAztec Calli Calendar Stone the ability to be represented in two dimensions in the frontal form characteristic of the female (House) ruled by Piltzintecuhtli was in fact Akbal, "Night," earth monster Tlaltecuhtli. He further shares with the which among the Maya was ruled by the Jaguar God who represented the sun at night. The Aztec hymn sungCalendar every Stone deity the bi-zoned face painting: in the Au eight years at the festival celebrating the completion Tonalamatl of the his face is painted in two shades of red, a Venus-solar cycle clearly identifies the young sun godelsewhere with it is often painted red on the bottom and yello night: on the top (Fig. 14). Xochipilli-Piltzintecuhtli appe See if Piltzintecuhtli resteth in the house of darkness, moreover, in Codex Borgia 14, 16, 28, and 57, as elsewhere the house of night. with double red bands surrounding the outer edges of O Piltzintli, Piltzintli, with yellow feathers are thou pasted over. On the ball court thou placest thyself, in the house of the night.23 There can be little doubt, therefore, that XochipilliPiltzintecuhtli was a solar deity who specifically represented the dead sun at night at the navel of the female earth monster. He is associated, accordingly, with the phenomenon of frontality in two-dimensional art, which signifies a relation to eyes (Fig. 9). The eye-bands reappear in Codex Borgia on the disembodied face of an earth monster with upraise arms who has attributes of Xochipilli-Piltzintecuhtli ( 15). Xochipilli often appears in the codices wearing a r rather than yellow fillet decorated with only one or t jade rings on each side. During the Aztec Xochilhuitl, "Flower Feast," held in honor of Xochipilli, that g impersonator carried an impaled human heart. Th that goddess. Both Piltzintecuhtli and his Mayan counterpart, the Jaguar God, were associated with the number rather remarkable correspondences between the young god of night and the deity of the Aztec Calendar Sto seven, and in Maya hieroglyphic writing the number seven certainly support the contention that the latter represent was actually interchangeable with a conventionalized the night sun and further suggest that it may in fact rep frontal face.24 The Jaguar God often appears two-dimen- sent, at least in part, the god Xochipilli-Piltzintecuht sionally in frontal form. Xochipilli himself ruled the twen- tieth and final Mexican day-sign Xochitl (Flower) whose himself. Human hearts, however, like long tongues and claw hands and feet, were also characteristic of the Tzitzimime Mayan counterpart was the Ahau glyph which also took the form of a frontal face (Fig. I I). J. Eric S. Thompson identi- the stellar souls of dead warriors who descended to the fies the latter as the face of the sun and concludes that it is center of the earth at midnight during certain critica "almost certainly" that of the young sun god.25 Moreover,periods in the Aztec calendar. At the end of the fifth an since the Ahau glyph is always inverted when it appears infinal "sun," when the world was to be destroyed by earth the Maya glyphs for east and sunrise, it would seem that its quakes on the day 4 Ollin at the end of a fifty-two-yea normal position refers to the sun in the underworld in thecycle, the Tzitzimime were expected to descend; at thi 19 Seler, 1901, 67. 20 Seler, I96-6I,11, , 035. moon, who is repeatedly identified as his wife or consort. See J. E.! Thompson, "The Moon Goddess in Middle America," Carnegie Institu 40. D.C., 1939, 150. tion of Washington, Contributions to American Archaeology, v, Washington 21 See J. Soustelle, La pensde cosmologique des anciens Mexicains, Paris, 1940, 23 sky Sahagfin, III, 212. 22 There are a number of myths that reveal that the sun in the day 24J. E. S. Thompson, A Catalogue of Maya Hieroglyphs, Norman, 196 was hostile to the moon; according to one, the sun's first act was to defend his mother, the earth, by cutting off the head of his sister, the 224. moon, and putting his remaining siblings, the stars, to flight. According to 25 Thompson, 1960, 88. Caso, 1958, 13, the sun was believed to reenact this victory every morn- 26 J. E. S. Thompson, Maya History and Religion, Norman, 1970, 364, ing upon rising. In contrast, many Mexican and Maya legends make it 369-70. clear that the dead sun in the underworld at night was in love with the This content downloaded from 129.8.242.67 on Thu, 12 Jan 2017 23:52:08 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms \E~?rS~ ~nr~- i law 0 00~ c CD --i. t ~rii j --~lii; iii. i 1 _~_;_:1 ii__----::iiii- --- ... ::,:, i; - : ;. -:: -- :: :-111- --'~~~ji~s~:11:1~~1- ::-: --::i- I:: i:-i - .: I-~ :: _~-:::i-i:~::i--::-::::: - :- -' : ~:::::e:::::I:_: : : .:. i-: io Piltzintecuhtli, detail of Codex i Maya Ahau glyphs, drawing (from Thompson, I960, fig. Io, Nos. Borgia, fol. 14 (from Seler, 1963, ii, 14) 9 Xochipil i, detail of Codex Borgia, fol. I6 (from Seler, 1963, ni, I6) 12 Xochipilli in deer drawing, detail of Co 3773 (B), fol. 96 (from : iiiiiiigiiiiii.'j:::: .: _::::: : : ::::i-:::.:-: ~.::Si::~:~~:-8:-:~:- :.:::: i:,::_:: :_:~j i :: :::: ': a~~:~~~~l:i~-ii iiii--iii~liillc-~i~~i-i: .-:-:~-::::: i?- ?:-, i:i:_-:- d:i:;-:-__-:?--i:_ii_~_i:ilj:i i ::::::: :::::i:::::::: :i::: :::: .-.:: ~~:ii~ii~'il-`iiiiiiiciiieii:i: .:- iii-i~as~sr~a :: .. :PbZaL:::~-I -?I :i::::::::::::- :i: : - :-:-- :: dif8~8~li- ~:~p~L~TB4a :inrlCg-i~ij~ n, fig. i16) ::::::" 13 Xochipilli in deer r"*-: : :: : of Codex Borgia, fol. 5 1963, III, 53) -:::::::::i-:::g : : ur~?~~~:;lass~se~wss~8:-:-: : ::-:_:- -?I- : 14 Xochipilli, de Tonalamatl, fol. 1900-oI, facsimi i-i ! @ --!!;:iiiiii~ll+! ,/iiii iiiiiI+ Ii~rii ,?~ ~ -ii~-: 1~:i-~,:iiii -:_:::.::::-: I::: -:-: j::?:::::: .. :-.:i i- 14 :r-::::-:,-::: ~ii~iil ..".::.. :::::::::-:_:-:-i::_::::i-:::_::,?,- ::i- ::::: ::::iv8;~,~ --':? : I:-'::::--?-~ai~:i li.i--i::iii-i-i: ~-~B-a:?-: . : : ~-iiiii:ii, _ii ? i:ii'-i---_ c~91B ~?i.t :i::_: iiiii~i::iiii:i iiii::i-il ::--i-i: -_ ':::i:j::: :::::-:-:-:- ---: - kii :::::j::::: ::-:::::~i~: VRs_ ii~ii :::::::: ::-:R::: ::?; :::::: r- 15 Earth (from Crocodile Seler, 1963, i6 with mII, 17 " "Yohualtecuhtli," de attributes of fol. 39) Borg 40 (from Seler, 1963, This content downloaded from 129.8.242.67 on Thu, 12 Jan 2017 23:52:08 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 8 THE ART BULLETIN Therewould are relatively few visual images of deities in Posttime, it was believed, the sun itself upon dying be classic art that have been identified as Yohualtecuhtli, but converted into a Tzitzimime. The commentator of Codex Telleriano-Remensis lists a certain "Yoalaotecotli" among it is significant that those that have been so identified share the ranks of these stellar demons and Thompson equates a number of features with the Aztec Calendar Stone deity. him with the god Yohualtecuhtli, "Lord of the Night," Seler identifies as "Yohualtecuhtli, the solar god of the whom Seler identifies as the night sun in the underworld.27 underworld" a large full-length figure on page 40 of Codex Sahagi6n reports that incense was not only offered four times Borgia whose body is frontal and displayed (Fig. I6).34 The god's profile head is upturned in the manner characteristic a day to the day sun Tonatiuh, but five times each night as well to the sun god iovaltecutli, or "Lord of the Night.""28 of the female earth monster and his eye is surrounded by a Sahag6in further identifies as Yohualtecuhtli the star known single red band on three sides. A giant sun disk forms the deity's torso; smaller sun disks, which take the form of anto us as Castor, which formed part of a constellation called Mamalhuaztli, the "Fire Drill Sticks." Although Sahag'in thropomorphic profile monster heads, adorn his joints and extremities. A comparable deity on page 43 of the same the midnight sky that signaled the beginning of another codex boasts the snout of a crocodile and a protruding tongue (Fig. 17). On page 35 of Codex Borgia, two fullfifty-two-year cycle, he notes that Mamalhuaztli was close to the Pleiades.29 The two constellations were in fact closely length figures, again wearing single red eye-bands and reports that it was the sight of the Pleiades at the zenith of associated with each other at the moment of the drilling of crocodile costumes, are specifically identified by Krickeberg New Fire; so close, apparently, was this relationship that as the dead sun who nightly passes through the underAlfonso Caso contends that it was the appearance of the star Yohualtecuhtli in the center of the midnight sky at the end world.35 The body of one is again frontal and displayed (Fig. I8). Seler understandably identifies the Borgia 35 figures with Cipactli, the earth crocodile of the east, but simulreprieve from the cosmic cataclysm that the Aztecs be- taneously concludes that they, like the Borgia 43 figure, lieved awaited them.30 represent lunar deities.36 Since the moon was always affilof every fifty-two-year solar cycle that signaled a temporary A god known as Yohualtecuhtli who represented the suniated with the female earth monster and the west, south, or at night and the Tzitzimime was therefore apparently center of the world - never with Cipactli or the east - the associated with the end of the fifty-two-year cycle. Sahagu'n, appearance here of crocodilian features must refer, like the moreover, further links Yohualtecuhtli directly to the date 4frontal displayed form and anthropomorphic joints, not to Ollin. In the course of his discussion of the Aztecs' worship Cipactli, but to Tlaltecuhtli and her association with dark- of the sun, Sahagu6n passes from a discussion of Tonatiuh ness, death, and the earth.37 Although Seler does not to the night sun Yohualtecuhtli and reports that: "It was directly identify the Borgia 35 and 43 deities as Yohualsaid:/'The Lord of the Night, he of the sharp nose, hathtecuhtli, he does conclude that Yohualtecuhtli may have unfolded, and we know not how his office will end.'/And represented the moon in the underworld as well as the night his feast day came upon the day of the day-count calledsun. naui ollin, every two hundred and three days."31 According to Beyer, the Ollin sign was itself a symbol of Confirmation of the identification of the Azt Stone deity as Yohualtecuhtli comes from th the constellation Mamalhuaztli, the "Fire Drill Sticks."32 Sahagiin. In speaking of the feast held on the d In Codex Borbonicus I6, the date 4 Ollin is replaced by the Sahaguin reports: "And there was the image of "earth sun" deity Tlalchitonatiuh as co-patron of the sun] at a pyramid temple called Quauxica sixteenth Aztec week. The dead sun at night at the center erected his image, his image was designed as of the earth therefore shared his name and associations mask of a man [but] with [the sun's] rays strea with the very stellar being who controlled the destiny of the His sun ornament was round, circled with f Aztec nation.33 rounded with red spoonbill [feathers].''38 dark heavens. The stars were traditionally regarded as the "souls" of the dead in the underworld at the center of the earth and all nocturnal 28 Sahaguin, Im, 202. celestial bodies were affiliated with the earth, the underworld, and the 29 Ibid., 60. western, southern, and central world directions. See Krickeberg, 130, Klein, 33-34- he does 30 Caso, 1958, 20. See also Krickeberg, 178-79. Caso,and for reasons not cite, identifies the star Yohualtecuhtli with Aldebaran than 34 Seler, 1963,rather II, 42. Castor and states that it was observed in conjunction with either the 35 W. Krickeberg, "Das mittelamerikanische Ballspiel und Seine RelPleiades or Aries. E. Seler, in "The Venus Period in the Borgian Codex igiose Symbolik," Paideuma, Group," in Central American Antiquities, Calendar Systems, and History, ed.III, 1948, 141, 16427 Thompson, 1934, 228-29; Seler, 1963, 11, 28. ?36 Seler, 1963,Washington, II, 28. C. P. Bowditch, Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin, xxviim, D.C., 1904, 356-57, also repudiates Sahagln's identification of Mamal37 Although Tlaltecuhtli was reportedly a toad, she was the female huaztli with Gemini and concludes that it may have been part of ofthe Aries. counterpart earth crocodile Cipactli and as such was closely rel- ated to andSahagin's occasionally part even confused with him. While the directional 31 Sahaguin, In, 202. This statement includes an error on and 4 temporal of the two were in direct opposition, both since, owing to the nature of the tonalpohualli, the day Ollin associations could recur deities represented the earth. In two-dimensional Postclassic imagery, only once every 260 days. Tlaltecuhtli's frontal face often appears to be formed of two profile heads 32 Beyer, 34- 33 That a star in the center of the midnight sky should share the name and connotations of the dead sun simultaneously located at the center of the earth is understandable in view of the Postclassic belief that the underworld and its inhabitants nightly pass into, or are reflected in, the of Cipactli conjoined at the back or front. Tlaltecuhtli thus typically shares with Cipactli a missing lower jaw, sharp pointed teeth, a curled nose and curled eyebrow, and a flint knife projecting from the nose. 38 Sahagain, I1, 203- This content downloaded from 129.8.242.67 on Thu, 12 Jan 2017 23:52:08 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms THE AZTEC CALENDAR STONE 9 :-.i-ai::_:::: :: -:-r:~~:~i:::: ~iiiiiii:_ii ~i_~:-:~ ~liiiiiii;:'::-L:- ::: ~k:--:e::::::: :_:::~ :.. _:::-:-: ::--:~~-::- -iiji~~::iii:_iii~iiiiijii:i~iiis:ii~~i ~:----~: Y~:" : : .-. ::~:i:i:~:-_::~,,:: ::-:-:i::-:i::~:i :i:::-:~::: .-- j:::::::i~ii_:~i:i?~i:i:--i.i~8i__?iii_;:::::::::':: :::i-:- : :::::: :::: --:-li:::-----:-_-:;iii:ii-~:-~::-:::i~l I~ - ..:: :c-:~: ::: :i::: :::_::: . - I: ::: :-:ii ::- :-:?::: : - ::::-- i i~ii ~?~II ~:a : :i: a:. ii-:ii8-iiiiiiiiii ii: i i i: f ~ : : ii : : -_ ii : . ~ ::_- .-. :-ii:ii b i d_-- i-:--:-- i:_ --i--i: --ii- .: ^d ~~~~ ~-~ ~er~ cl~~ ;~!I:I-~~ illlll - : E:~IZi~zs . --': ra:i - ;II - I -_ i~:%:IA i :r:::: :I-:--:::::: iA~~i: f ::::~: ::::1~-:: ,::(-::iil:::::-::_ Y*,tlk 8-lih TD ai-- ~~ L~H~ i- xp rr ~ ~-~ii i: -i-iiii~:9~i~9~?~;i~~ii li-~i i_: i~iii: -~:; ii~'i :::::-: :- s_: s r 1Bs~srs~P~s~iar~'~%s~i~ll~[LBr`~;lB~g~~ i~:_~;~~ --i~ I~ 915-~- _i :::~: -:* ~-111111~:-~:il!-11:-.II k?:::: : i r p:~ 1 9 The Night Sun, drawing by native Aztec informants of (from Seler, 18 The Night Sun(?), detail of Codex Borgia, fol. 35 Sahag6in (from Sahag in, III, pl. 6o) 1963, III, 35) In the matching illustration provided by Sahagi6n's native artists, the deity is depicted as a frontal face set in the ea -'~IMIYR\ I~~Z~ - center of a large circular sun disk (Fig. 19). Although the Aztec Calendar Stone lacks the red spoonbill feathers men- iiiiiii~l~ tioned by Sahaguin, Sahag6in's illustration for obvious reasons has been frequently compared with that monument. Scholars have further assumed that Sahag6in was specifically referring here to the day sun god Tonatiuh and have thus cited the accompanying illustration as proof that the 3 "4PL~ Calendar Stone figure also represents that deity. Analysis of Sahagi6n's text reveals, however, that the passage referring to the frontal image of a solar deity immediately follows that 5/ discussing the Lord of the Night Yohualtecuhtli and his feast day naui ollin. The description of the solar image and the matching illustration therefore clearly refer to the sun in its nocturnal aspect. 20o The date "4 Ollin" with single round eye, drawing (from Beyer, fig. 69) 21 X6lotl, Huastec stone relief from Tepetzintla, Veracruz. Mexico City, Museo Nacional de Antropologia (photo: Museum) In a number of Postclassic images, moreover, the Ollin sign, often in the context of the date 4 Ollin, is depicted with a single round half-closed eye at its center (Fig. 20). According to Seler, this eye symbolized the Tzitzimime, the setting sun, and the night.39 The unique substitution in the Aztec Calendar Stone of a frontal face for the traditional eye within the Ollin symbol strongly suggests that the deity represented on the stone also represented the Tzitzimime, the setting sun, and the night. Throughout Mesoamerica the frontal face was and is conceptually equated with the eye; the Zinacantan Tzotzil word for "face" (sat), for example, is the same as that for "eyes," while the Zapotec lao, loo means "face," "eyes," and "frontside."40 39 Seler, I96o-6I, II, 723-24; Seler, I900-OI, Io8. 40 The Yucatec Maya word for "face" (ich) similarly means both "eye" and "front." Sahaguin's catalogue of his Aztec informants' descriptions of the parts of the human body includes the following: "Face; that is to say, eye..." (Sahaguin, II, 112). This content downloaded from 129.8.242.67 on Thu, 12 Jan 2017 23:52:08 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms IO THE ART BULLETIN ckii 22 The "Morning Star" deity and Af iiiiiiiii- i s i i ii i~iiii~:~ accompanying glyphs from Mausoleum III, Chichen Itzi, drawing (from Seler, I 960-61, v, figs. 241-43) Two solar deities inclu their names - one is Y second is his close rela of the Night." The ap attributes of Tonatiuh combined with attributes of the female earth monster and the nocturnal sun gods Xochipilli iii~i~iiii~iai~ii irii~?? iiiiii~?l r~.......~i : ::-i:_ -iiiiiiiii~ii~i!iii~i-i i.iiii :iii~iii :-ii~i::i-.: ::-:i:: ?;-::::?~-: - :_:::"/:::iii iiif i:ilii fii iii:.%M::: :::: ::~:-::-:-: - :;-::: ::.~~~~~~~~ ~ ~ ~ ~ '"::': i::::::\?:i: i-liiiiiiiiii!!li-it~i~i and Piltzintecuhtli in a solar context commonly reserved for the symbol for "night" therefore leaves little doubt that the deity represented there was a solar god of the night. Yohualtecuhtli, however, represented not only the dead night sun in the underworld, but the "dead" planet Venus as well. Among the Mexicans, as among the Maya, the 584-day Venus cycle was divided into four phases, each of which corresponded to a specific world direction. The first I" ............. A -L-: iri ....... . M,:- phase was that of the Morning Star which appears at dawn in the east, the second was that of superior conjunction which was associated with the north, the third was that of the Evening Star which appears at dusk in the west, and the fourth was that of its disappearance in inferior conjunction in the south (or center) of the world. As was the case with all stars and planets, including the sun, Venus was believed to be "born" in the east as the Morning Star and, as the god X61otl, the Evening Star, to "die" upon its descent to and disappearance at the western horizon. Upon entering the body of the female earth monster Tlaltecuhtli, Venus, like the sun, assumed that goddess's associations and insignia. Accordingly, the Evening Star of the west and the planet in inferior conjunction in the south or center of the world appear occasionally in Postclassic two-dimensional imagery in the frontal form of Tlaltecuhtli, with displayed mx.......... i............................ limbs, upturned head, clawed hands and feet, round, ringed, or banded eyes, large teeth, and a protruding tongue (Fig. 21). Moreover, since the Venus cycle, like the 23 Tlailoc with attributes solar of cycles, Xochipilli, began at dawn in the eastdetail and concludedof at or C fol. 28 (from Seler, 1963, III, 28) around midnight in the south or center of the world, these en face images of the western and deities, southern phases of the Of the various Postclassic solar on must similarly refer to the conclusion of a cycle. The tecuhtli is listed as a cycle Tzitzimime. Furtherm frontal so-called eye "Morning Star" seen oncente Mausoleum concludes that the round atreliefs the III at Chichen Itzi, which actually represent Evening symbol functioned as a sign for the the Nahu in inferior conjunction in the souththe or centersubs of the "night," youalli, it isStar probable that world, are in fact accompanied by the date of the completiona face on the Aztec Calendar Stone served of a "Great Venus Cycle" consisting case, of 260 revolutions of linguistic function. If this is the then that planet (Fig. 22).41 appeared in th "night" may well even have conjunction in the south or center of the world at the end of a Venus 41 See Seler, I960-6i, I, 693-94, for an analysis of the Chich'n ItzA cycle, see Klein, 89-91. reliefs. For a defense of the thesis that these reliefs, like all enface Postclassic two-dimensional images of Venus, refer to the planet in inferior This content downloaded from 129.8.242.67 on Thu, 12 Jan 2017 23:52:08 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms THE AZTEC CALENDAR STONE II Evening Star in inferior conjunction in the south or center The Great Venus Cycle, however, simultaneously ended of the world. It would seem likely that the Aztecs, wh on the same day as a cycle of eight fifty-two-year solar envisioned cataclysmic destruction of on the universe at t "centuries." The 584-day Venus cycle a also terminated end of aevery fifty-two-year solar cycle, expected the same day as a 365-day solar cycle eight years and that destructio to occur atof the every simultaneous completion of a Venus cycle as further coincided with the completion other fiftywell. rituals carried out at the two-year cycle; in other words, the number of related not Postclassic images end of every other fifty-two-year A cycle marked only the confirm the possibility that the frontal facecompleat the center of the Azt completion of the major Aztec solar cycle but the Calendar Stone refers to the god Yohualtecuhtli at the en tion of a Io4-year Venus cycle as well. At this time, as at a Venus simultaneously as well as a solar cycle. Incomthe center of page any time in which the sun and of Venus pleted a cycle, the two celestial were to in the guise of of bodies Codex Borgia, the rainbelieved god T1iloc appears Xochipilli-Piltzintecuhtli, the night as representati engage in mortal nocturnal combat and ultimately to sun, fuse the fifth and last of the Venus-solar periods (Fig. 23). He in the dark bowels of the female of earth monster. The hymn wears the redfestival and yellow zoned face at painting and the doubl sung during the Aztec Atamalqualiztli held the red eye-bands characteristic that god and conclusion of the eight-year Venus-solar cycle tells of of such a similar to t of the Calendar According to Sele nocturnal contest between the insignia young sun godStone of deity. night, Piltzintecuhtli, and X6lotl, the Tl1loc god asof the here planet Venus as of the world Xochipilli represents the center and the fusion of Venus with the sun.46 an The Maya equiv the Evening Star. This hymn opens, significantly, with address to "the lord of the night."42 of the Mayaname names lent ofOne Xochipilli's calendrical I Xochitl (I Flower hun ahpu, the name of the Maya god of t for Venus was ah piz a'kab, "Lordwas ofI Ahau, the or Night." dead planet Venus in the underworld. In pursuing his own interpretation of the Aztec Calendar All of the Codex Borgia figures with frontal bodies and red ey Stone as a device for astronomical calculations, Jose displayed Avilesbands are, moreover, located within that section of th Solares proposes that the date 4 Ollin, when it is pierced codex that deals withit theon travels of Venus by an arrow-like device such as penetrates the Cal- through th underworld. This eight-year includes the largeVenus, figure on page 40 of th endar Stone, refers to the conclusion of the manuscript specifically as Yohua solar cycle.43 Seler demonstrates that which the Seler Ollin sign identifies was tecuhtli period (Fig. 16). This figure actually wears associated with the fifth and final (as opposed to the conch of thefifth Venus god Quetzalc6atl phase) of the planet Venus as wellshell as earrings with the and final and the pap leg points bows frequently worn the Evening in Star deity X6lotl sun; in Codex Borgia 25, as Seler out, itby appears In Codex Borbonicus 16, X6lotl appears As opposite the eart this context as a symbol of the central world direction.44 deity day-signs, Tlalchitonatiuh, as co-patron of the sixteent the seventeenth of the twenty sun Aztec moreover, week of the Aztec Star, calendar, who with double-banded eyes, Ollin was ruled by X6lotl, the Evening was flint-knifemind tongue, and clawed hands feet. actually associated in the Postclassic with theand dead sun as it sank beneath the western horizon. The commenThe deity depicted at the center of the Aztec Calenda Stone tator of Codex Vaticanus B states that the date 4 Ollin was can, therefore, no longer be identified as the sun god Tonatiuh who represented the day sky and the east. Neithe merely another name for X6lotl and the commentator of the of literary nor the graphic evidence supports this view Codex Vaticanus A designates the day 4 Ollin as the day Even Durain's report that the human sacrifice performed in the disappearance into the Red Sea of Quetzalc6atl, a historical personage later associated with Venus who was honor of the sun on the day 4 Ollin was theoretically carri believed to have died and to have been later reborn in the out at midday when the sun was at the center of the day sky rather eastern sky as the Morning Star.45 In Codices Borgia and than at midnight, does not negate the thesis.47 Sinc both Vaticanus B, the date 4 Ollin co-ruled the sixteenth week of the zenith and the nadir were regarded as part of the unifying central world direction, the two were often concep the calendar with X6lotl. Both the end of the fifty-two-year tually synonymous and, at times, even interchangeable.4 solar cycle and the critical date 4 Ollin were therefore associated with the planet Venus in its final phase In as the the version of the destruction of the second cosmogonic 42 Sahaguin, 1II, 212-13. Seler, I960-6I 11, 10, I59, translates thisbegin as "he, with heliacal rising on the day 13 Kan, rather than on the day I Ahau, and on an erroneous assignment of the Acatl years to the north the Lord of Midnight" (English translation mine). The passage equates rather than to the east. this night lord with the word xochitl ("Flower") in two instances, thus The five Venus periods were five consecutive Venus cycles of 594 days providing further evidence that the god Xochipilli (Flower Prince), which equalled exactly eight solar years. When the five Venus ruler of the day-sign Xochitl (Flower), was at least an aspect or each element of the deity known as the Lord of the Night: periods had recurred thirteen times, the final day coincided with both the The flower of my heart lieth burst open, end of the tonalpohualli and the fifty-two year cycle. This could happen the lord of the night. only once every I04 solar years. She hath come, she hath come, our 45 See Caso, 1967, 197, for a list of the various associations of the date 4 mother, the goddess Tlazolteotl. Ollin mentioned in the codices and chronicles. Cinteotl is born at Tamoanchan, 46 Seler, 1963, I, 265the flowery place, on the day Ce xochitl. 47 D. Durin, The Aztecs: The History of the Indies of New Spain, trans. Heyden and F. Horcasitas, Norman, 1964, 122. 43 Aviles-Solares, 36-37; 41-49. 44 Seler, I963, I, 264. Seler also proposes here that the date 4 Ollin48 inThis probably explains why Seler, 1963,1, I66, associates Xochipilli, th of the South," with high noon, and may account, at least in Codex Borgia 28 represents the date of the disappearance of Venus"Lord as part, for the apparent confusion at the time of the Conquest of nort Morning Star into superior conjunction in the north. His arguments rest, and south in regard to the location of the land of the dead (see note 13). however, on the faulty assumption that the Dresden Codex Venus tables This content downloaded from 129.8.242.67 on Thu, 12 Jan 2017 23:52:08 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 12 THE ART BULLETIN sun, 4-Ocelotl, "4 Tiger," presented in the Anales de of Frequently Cited Cuauhtitlan, the moment of deathBibliography and darkness is actually Sources reported to have occurred at noon rather than at midnight: Then it happened that the sky was crushed, the sun did not follow its course. When the sun arrived at midday, immediately it was night and when it became dark, Aviles-Solares, J., I957, Descifraci6n de la piedra del calendario, Mexico City. Beyer, H., 1921, El llamada "calendario azteca": Descripcidn e interpretacidn del cuauhxicalli de la "Casa de la Aguilas," Mexico City. Caso, A., 1958, The Aztecs: People of the Sun, trans. L. Dunham, Norman (first published 1954)- - , 1967, Los calendariosprehispdnicos, Mexico City. Duc de Loubat, ed., I900, Codice Vaticano 3738 (A) (Rios), Rome. tigers ate the people ... 49 Hamy, E. T., ed., 1899, Codex Borbonico: Manuscrit mexicain de la BibliothIque du Palais Bourbon, Paris. Clearly, the spatial contiguity of zenith and nadir implied a temporal contiguity between noon and midnight as well. , ed., I899, Codex Telleriano-Remensis: Manuscrit mexicain, BibliothIque Nationale, Paris. We know, in fact, that all beings temporarily located at the de Jonghe, M. E. ed., 1905, "Histoire du Mechique: Manuscrit francais center of the sky were believed capable of descending directly to earth and to the crossroads at its center; among these were the stellar Tzitzimime alluded to on the Aztec in6dit du XVIe siecle," Journal de la Socited Amiricanistes, n.s. 2, 1-41. Klein, C. F., 1972, "Frontality in Two-Dimensional Postclassic Mexican Art," Ph.D. diss., Columbia University, New York; to be published as The Face of the Earth: Frontality in Two-Dimensional Mesoamerican Art, New of York, Garland Publishing (in press). Calendar Stone. That the same belief applied to the hour Krickeberg, W., 1964, Las antiguas culturas mexicanas, 2nd ed., Mexico noon and the sky by day is attested to by a contemporary City. Aztec story recorded by Madsen that tells of a manNoriega, whoR., 1959, "Sabiduria matemitica, astron6mica y cronol6gica," hitched a ride with the sun at dawn; at noon the sunEsplendor said de Mexico antiquo, ed., C. C. de Leonard, Mexico City. Phillips, T., trans., 1883, "Historia de los mexicanos por sus pinturas," to the man, "Here is where I leave you," and the man fell Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, xxi, 616-65 I. down into his own home below.50 de Sahagfin, B., 1950-1971, Florentine Codex: General History of the Things The Aztec Calendar Stone image must therefore be re- of New Spain, trans. A. J. O. Anderson and C. E. Dibble, 13 vols., Santa Fe. garded as a representation of the darkened sun and planet Seler, E., 900o-oi, The Tonaldmatl of the Aubin Collection: Venus at the center of the earth at the moment of cyclicPicture Manuscript in the Paris National Library, Berlin. destruction and completion in which they fused to create the An Old Mexic - , 1901, Codex Fejervary Mayer: An Old Mexican Picture Manuscript in the Liverpool Free Public Museum, Paris. hybrid deity Yohualtecuhtli, the great Aztec "Lord of the , I902-03, Codex Vaticanus 3773 (B), 2 vols., London. Night." Since Yohualtecuhtli was a god of the earth, dark, 1960-61, Gesammelte Abhandlungen zur Amerikanischen ness, death, and the south and center of the world, his Alterhumskund, 5 vols., Graz, (repr. of 1902-03 ed., Berlin). Sprach und - , 1963, Comentarios al Codice Borgia, 3 vols., Mexico City (Ist e appearance here in a context of the end of the world at the 1904). center of the earth in the middle of the night is far moreThompson, J. E. S., 1934, "Sky Bearers, Colors and Directions in Maya logical than would be that of Tonatiuh. More under- and Mexican Religion," Carnegie Institution of Washington, Publication 436, Washington, D.C. standable, too, are the appearance of traits of the female earth monster and the rare utilization of the frontal form that always indicates cyclic completion in Postclassic Mexico. Recognition of the Aztec Calendar Stone deity as Yohualtecuhtli thus avoids the logical and cosmological discrepancies involved in its identification as Tonatiuh 2nd ed., Norman. 1Wi960, Maya Hieroglyphic Writing: An Introduction, Velasquez, P. F., ed., I945, "Leyenda de los Soles," in Codice Chimalpopoco (Anales de Cuauhtitldny Leyenda de los Soles), Mexico City. reveals a new level of beauty and profundity in the famous carving. Oakland University 49 M. Leon-Portilla, Pre-Columbian Literatures of Mexico, trans. G. Lobanov and M. Leon-Portilla, Norman, 1969, 36. 50 W. Madsen, The Virgin's Children: Life in an Aztec Village Today, Austin, i960, 128. This content downloaded from 129.8.242.67 on Thu, 12 Jan 2017 23:52:08 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 8 Knowledge and Belief in Artistic Production by Classic Maya Elites Takeshi Inomata University of Arizona ABSTRACT Many of the beautiful pieces of Classic Maya art were produced by elite craftspeople. The study of this production system requires attention to the knowledge and beliefs underlying such activities. The production of art objects necessitated esoteric knowledge of the calendar, history, and religion, which was closely tied to the power and prestige of the elite. Elite artists, however, did not engage in production activities only for political gain. Their involvement in demanding physical work under potentially unpleasant conditions implies a commitment to—or at least conformity with—the cultural values associated with artistic production. Keywords: Maya, craft production, art, power, knowledge I n this chapter, I examine the roles of knowledge and belief in craft production conducted by elites in Classic Maya society. Production activities are inherently intertwined with the social relations of producers and people who surround them. Social contexts of production, in addition to its material settings, condition what objects are created and how they are produced and exchanged. Production activities, in turn, shape the identities of their producers and owners and form and transform relations among them (Costin and Wright 1998; Hendon 1996; Inomata 2001). To examine the social aspect of production, researchers need to pay attention not only to techniques and materials but also to the abstract dimensions of knowledge and belief associated with these activities. The issues of knowledge and belief figure prominently in the socially embedded practice of production, particularly when we examine the role of elites. In many societies in the Near East and Europe, craft specialists were generally recruited from outside the ruling elite. This understanding has influenced various theories of craft specialization since Childe (Brumfiel and Earle 1987; Childe 1958; see Wailes 1996). Elites have been typically viewed as sponsors and beneficiaries of craft production rather than as producers. In Classic Maya society, however, many art objects of the highest quality were created by elites themselves. A relevant problem is our notion of elite. Social scientists prefer a specific definition of elite focused on the issue of power. The elite can be defined as a minority made up of powerful people who, through their control of social institutions, bring about effects of broad significance for society at large (Chase and Chase 1992; Giddens 1974; Inomata and Triadan 2003b; Marcus 1983:10–13; Mills 1956:3–15). Yet, many of us still retain a popular notion of elite that they are those who have freed themselves from the burden of hard or unpleasant physical labor by taking advantage of the work of others. In particular, this view provided a starting point for Marxist theory, which has been closely associated with the anthropological study of elite. To reevaluate this stereotypical view of elites, we need to examine their agency. Are they all economic and political players who try to maximize gain with minimal effort? Obviously the problem is far more complex. We have to avoid a simplistic view of agency ARCHEOLOGICAL PAPERS OF THE AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION, Vol. 17, Issue 1, pp. 129–141, ISSN 1551-823X, C 2007 by the American Anthropological Association. All rights reserved. Please direct all requests for permission online ISSN 1551-8248.  to photocopy or reproduce article content through the University of California Press’s Rights and Permissions website, http://www. ucpressjournals.com/reprintInfo.asp. DOI: 10.1525/ap3a.2007.17.1.129. 130 Takeshi Inomata that overemphasizes its intentionality on the basis of rational reasoning. Agents are socially embedded, and their actions cannot always be explained in terms of economic practicality (Dobres and Robb 2000:4). Moreover, our notion of rationality, which is often considered culturally neutral, may be in fact rooted in the cultural logic of certain Western contexts (Cowgill 2000:55; also see Clark, Chapter 2; Hruby, Chapter 5). I do not mean to deny that comparable notions of rationality operate in diverse cultural contexts. Nor do I wish to be satisfied with resorting to a closed system of meaning for each society or group as the only basis of explanation. We need to pay attention to both cross-cultural similarities and historical particularities. The study of these issues compels us to confront complex interplays among economic and political strategies, beliefs in cultural values, and a certain level of idiosyncrasy in human actions (Inomata 2001; Inomata and Houston 2001). Elite Artists in Classic Maya Society Epigraphic and iconographic evidence suggests that in Classic Maya society (A.D. 250–900) many highly artistic objects were produced by elite craftspeople. Some painted ceramics and carved stone monuments bear signatures of artists who were at once skilled artisans and learned scribes (Coe 1977). Some of these craft producers appear to have enjoyed high status and worked as high officials responsible for administrative and diplomatic duties of the royal court (Coe and Kerr 1997; Reents-Budet 1994). My excavations at the rapidly abandoned center of Aguateca, Guatemala, have provided unique archaeological data on the work of elite artists. Aguateca is located in the southwestern part of the Maya Lowlands. Excavations as part of the Petexbatun Regional Archaeological Project from 1990 to 1993 and subsequent investigations by the Aguateca Archaeological Project from 1996 to 1999 have documented an extensive system of defensive walls and clear evidence of an enemy attack. The central part of Aguateca was set on fire, probably by the attackers, around A.D. 810, leaving numerous artifacts in their places of use or storage in burned buildings (Demarest et al. 1997; Inomata 1997, 2003; Inomata and Stiver 1998; Inomata et al. 2002). All the excavated elite residences, Structures M7-35, M8-4, M8-8, and M8-10, contained evidence of scribal and artistic work. The high status of the residents of these buildings is well documented by the abundance of such precious objects as jade ornaments and shell necklaces. The occupants of Structures M8-4 and M8-10 were allowed to use the emblem glyph of the Aguateca dynasty, which was gen- erally reserved for members of the royal lineage. Tools related to scribal and artistic production include eight stone mortars and two pestles for pigment preparation found in Structure M8-4 and three halved shell ink pots, six stone mortars, and two pestles unearthed in Structure M8-10 (Inomata 2001:Figure 6). Also found in Structure M8-10 were numerous carved shells and bones, as well as stone tools possibly used for shell and bone work. A significant portion of these scribal implements was uncovered in the central rooms of the two buildings. I have argued that the central rooms were used mainly for receiving visitors and holding political gatherings by the household heads, who were probably males (Inomata and Stiver 1998; Inomata et al. 2002). These household heads also appear to have conducted scribal and artistic work in the central rooms. In Structure M8-8 excavators unearthed 16 polished axes in two concentrations (Inomata 2001:Figure 5). Usewear analysis by Aoyama (2000) has shown that they were used for carving stone. It is probable that a resident of this building was a carver of stone monuments. The distribution of axes probably reflects their locations of storage rather than use, and carving probably took place in the Main Plaza. Studies of unfinished monuments, such as Altar M of Aguateca (Inomata et al. 2004), Hieroglyphic Stairway 2 of Dos Pilas (Houston 1993:83), and Altar L of Copan (Fash 2001:177), suggest that carving was done in most cases after blank monuments were set in intended locations. Structure M7-34 contained a mortar and a pestle pair, three polished stone axes, and other types of stone tools, although the nature of craft work that took place in this building remains unclear. These excavation results corroborate the notion that a significant portion of the Maya elite engaged in artistic activities. The amount of debitage of shell and bone work found in a midden associated with Structure M8-10 was small, indicating that the production output of these craftspeople was relatively limited. As suggested by epigraphic and iconographic data, elite scribes and artists were probably court officials occupied simultaneously with polity administration, diplomacy, and rituals. Their effort and time were not devoted solely to artistic production. Whereas many of the artists who painted codices and carved stelae were males, the primary art products made by elite females were textiles (Hendon 1997; Joyce 1993). All of the aforementioned elite residences at Aguateca contained tools for textile production, that is, spindle whorls or bone needles. Interestingly, there were relatively clear spatial divisions between the distributions of textile production tools and those of painting and carving implements (Inomata and Stiver 1998; Inomata et al. 2002). This patterning points to a division of labor in artistic production between males and females and to a certain level of distinction between male and Artistic Production by Classic Maya Elites female spaces. Spindle whorls and bone needles were often found in rooms with numerous storage vessels and grinding stones, which accords with the hypothesis that food production, along with textile production, was primarily female work. Archaeological data from Aguateca, along with epigraphic and iconographic evidence from other sites, show that Classic Maya elite artists produced a wide range of objects. Items made by scribe-artists, who were generally males, include stone monuments commemorating dynastic history, headdresses and ornaments used in royal ceremonies, and ceramics and other objects that were exchanged as tributes and gifts. Textiles woven by elite females also played important roles in political economy. Products of elite artists, however, may not have been limited to such political currencies, and certain objects, including ceramic vessels, carved bones, and shell ornaments, may have been kept by them for personal use. Knowledge, Production, and Power Artistic production by Classic Maya elites is not totally unique. Historical accounts tell us that Aztec and Mixtec elites were responsible for the production of certain art objects (Brumfiel 1998). Elite engagements in art production appear to have been common throughout pre-Hispanic Mesoamerica. Outside of Mesoamerica, Ames (1995) has shown that in Northwest Coast societies certain types of artisans were recruited from elite groups. The direct participation of high-status individuals in craft production is also found in Hawaii and other Polynesian islands (Lass 1998). Even in historic China and Japan with highly centralized governments and urban centers, comparable practices existed. Like the Classic Maya, East Asians viewed calligraphy as a central element of dynastic art. At the height of courtly culture during the Heian period (A.D. 794–1192) of Japan, many of the renowned calligraphers were high court officials who actively engaged in administrative duties and power struggles. Accomplishments in calligraphy, along with poetry and music, commanded high esteem at the imperial court, and tablets and shields with the writing of noble calligraphers decorated palaces and temples. Even some emperors were known for such artistic achievements (Otsu 2001). It is misleading to view artistic production by elites in various societies simply as a pastime of the privileged. Such activities were deeply political acts, which cannot be separated from the issue of power. Helms (1993) has argued that political leaders are in a sense skilled craftspeople who make cities, temples, and roads, and in many traditional societies 131 connections between administrative and artistic acts are often more than figurative. Bourdieu (1984) has shown that even in modern societies the ability to encode and decode art serves as cultural capital, which is closely tied to political power, prestige, and social status. Artistic creation thus can help to enhance the prestige of the producers over their political rivals and to distinguish the elite from the rest of the society. In this regard, the organization of artistic production by Classic Maya elites exhibits certain parallels with social relations surrounding craft production in other societies. It is probable that high-status artisans in various societies tend to produce ideologically charged objects that legitimize elites’ claim to power. Elite craft specialists on the Northwest Coast, for example, worked on a range of prestige goods, including wood sculptures that were closely associated with spiritual power (Ames 1995:175). In Hawaii, high-ranking women made feather garments that were worn only by the chiefly class and were believed to provide sacred protection in battle (Lass 1998:20–21). In consideration of these data, Costin (2001:335) has suggested that the elite monopoly of the knowledge and skills necessary to produce objects expressing elite power makes logical sense. Although this explanation applies to various societies to a certain degree, I suggest that this view privileging material objects in the process of political legitimation and the cross-cultural notion of political utility is somewhat restrictive. Cultural capital in Bourdieu’s sense, which may bolster the power and prestige of craft producers, refers to the knowledge controlled by the producers and its recognition by others, not to their material products. We need to focus not only on the political utility of material objects but also on the political implications of knowledge behind their production. We should explore the complex relation of knowledge, production, and power shaped in specific historical contexts and material settings. Cross-culturally, admiration of the esoteric knowledge craft producers gain through special training appears to underlie the inherent connection of skilled crafting with elite power (Helms 1993). Yet, more specific configurations of associations between political power and the knowledge necessary for craft production often defy the notion of crossculturally applicable logic. In historic Japan, for example, highly politically charged objects, such as swords, metal ornaments, and textiles, were produced by non-elite artisans (Fukunaga 1973). Production of these objects required specialized knowledge gained only through long apprenticeship. Conversely, calligraphic art pieces made by Heian court officials were not always intended for specific political use. As Bourdieu (1984) has argued about tastes for art in modern societies, the political or economic utility of certain prized knowledge—be it the ability to appreciate abstract 132 paintings or a talent in composing Japanese poems—is not immediately clear. Its connection to elite power is subtle and complex. We should also note that the knowledge necessary for craft production is not limited to the familiarity with materials and techniques but may include a mastery of history and religion that needs to be reflected in products and the command of ritual protocols followed during production. This all-encompassing nature of knowledge associated with craft production is well illustrated in ethnographies of metalwork in Africa. In many African societies, the creation of beautiful arts or sacred objects from ores by blacksmiths is viewed as a magical act that involves esoteric knowledge and the manipulating of supernatural forces (Balandier 1968:110; Herbert 1984:32–42, 1993). The learning necessary for this transformation is not confined to the domain of material but pertains also to politics and religion. Among the Mande of West Africa, for example, blacksmiths who hold unique knowledge often act as healers, sorcerers, rainmakers, and political mediators. The knowledge of blacksmiths, therefore, can be both beneficial and dangerous to others, and its relation to power is riddled with ambiguity and ambivalence, which resist clear-cut logical explanations (McNaughton 1993:11). In Classic Maya society, the work of Maya elite artists required not only the technical mastery of artistic skills but also the esoteric knowledge of myth, history, writing, the calendar, and astronomy (Inomata 2001; Reents-Budet 1998). Such knowledge represented a core value of Maya elite culture. The respect that elite artists commanded was underscored by the common recognition that artists went through a long period of training to gain such knowledge. The connection between knowledge and production is well expressed in many Maya paintings on codices and ceramics that depict deities painting codices, carving masks, and weaving textiles (Figure 8.1). Artistic production was in a sense an act of gods. It is probable that skilled artists were viewed as embodiments of the wisdom and creative power of gods (Freidel et al. 1993:142, 217, 433; Reents-Budet 1998; see Kris and Kurz 1979 for cross-cultural discussion). It should be noted that a certain portion of the mythical and religious knowledge of elite artists was most likely shared with the rest of society (Hruby 2001, this volume). Elite mastery of art would not have awed those who did not share the same aesthetic standard or those who did not understand the cultural and historical significance of the art objects. Elite power was based not on the completely distinct knowledge systems between the elite and non-elite but on the shared system in which elites claimed disproportionate credit for its advancement and maintenance. We therefore cannot understand the political power of Maya elite artists without addressing their esoteric knowledge, its recognition Takeshi Inomata Figure 8.1. A deity carving a mask (Madrid Codex: 99d). by others, and its precarious balance with the knowledge of non-elites. In the Pursuit of Cultural and Aesthetic Ideals The foregoing argument by no means indicates that accomplished artists always gained the highest political power. The relation between artistic production and political power is never so straightforward. Nor does it mean that artists cunningly used their artistic skills only for political purposes. According to Lass (1998), all Hawaiian craft specialists were motivated by the belief that their occupations were divinely ascribed. It is probable that many artisans across the world, including Maya elite artists, held similar beliefs. To understand the complex relations of production and power, we need to examine the beliefs associated with craft production. The beliefs that we should address include the notions of value or duty held by craft producers about their work and occupation, which may be perceived as a supernaturally mandated vocation, a career chosen by their own will, or the fruit of long and hard training. We should also examine producers’ beliefs concerning the cultural and aesthetic values of their products, which may give the producers senses of pride and satisfaction. Such beliefs possessed by craftspeople may overlap, crosscut, or contradict the perceptions of their work and products held by other members of society. This concern takes the discussion of value in a slightly different direction from that considered in Clark’s chapter in this volume. Artistic Production by Classic Maya Elites The archaeological analysis of beliefs associated with production is even more difficult than that of knowledge. Whereas certain aspects of artisans’ knowledge may be materialized in their products in forms tangible to archaeologists, their beliefs concerning cultural values are not directly approachable. What we seek to understand, then, is not subjective beliefs or thoughts of individual craft producers. Some artists may have been devoted to the aesthetic and moral values of their work, while others may have superficially complied with social norms. Such details elude our understanding. It is, however, possible to examine when the beliefs internally held by certain members of a society have external effects with political and economic consequences (see Wuthnow 1987). It is the analysis of this social process on which we should focus our effort. In this regard, it is suggestive to examine not only the types of objects produced but also the bodily practice of craft producers. In any society, certain types of work are associated with specific social status and prestige. This relationship is shaped by the system of cultural and economic values and the material conditions in each society, but there is a certain degree of universality. As seen in the modern Western distinction between white-collar and blue-collar, prestigious occupations are often associated with the notions of intellectual work in clean offices, whereas work of lower classes may involve hard physical labor in less-than-pleasant settings. One of the most elaborate hierarchies associated with types of labor is found in the Indian caste system, in which professions are ranked along the axis of purity and impurity from Brahmans responsible for religious duties to “untouchables” who conduct skin-tanning, sweeping, and other “dirty” work (Dumont 1970). In Heian period Japan, artistic production by aristocrats, mainly in the form of calligraphy, was conducted in comfortable settings of imperial palaces and noble residences. The hardships of metal, ceramic, and other workshops were left for lower-status artisans. It is probably not only in modern or Western societies that we find the notions of intellect, purity, sacredness, cleanness, and pleasantness associated with prestigious occupations and those of tough physical labor, impurity, and dirtiness connected with lower-ranked professions. Still, elites in various societies conduct demanding physical activities. When elites engage in “dirty” or “tough” work, significant cultural meaning appears to underlie it. Their engagement in activities involving dust, heat, and hard labor in potentially unpleasant settings may point to factors beyond political rationales, namely, a culturally configured system of aesthetic and moral values associated with artistic production. I acknowledge that these observations are not completely objective. Notions of sacredness, of purity, and even of comfort are culturally shaped, and an inquiry 133 into these concepts cannot be detached from our own cultural perceptions as to what constitutes desirable work and what motivates people’s activities. Researchers need to refine their interpretations across cultural boundaries by confronting their own culturally derived assumptions. An intriguing example is elite engagement in sports and hunting in historic Europe, the ancient Near East, and other societies. Fun and excitement associated with these activities partially explain elite participation. In this sense, such games and competitions are often luxuries afforded only to the privileged. Moreover, sports and hunting are expressions of the physical prowess of the ruling class, closely tied to their military roles. The ball game that the Classic Maya elites played enthusiastically was a reenactment of their achievements in battles and the deeds of mythical cultural heroes (Coe 1989; Inomata and Triadan 2003a; Schele and Miller 1986). Cross-culturally, elite engagement in the strenuous physical labor of craft production is less common but not unknown. In the kingdom of the Kongo, the first king is said to have been the blacksmith king who provided his people with arms and tools, and chroniclers documented that the art of the blacksmith was practiced by the nobility (Balandier 1968:35–41). Direct involvement by chiefs in carving and metalwork is also known from other central African societies (Alpers 1975:21). Such association of African elites with the production of metal objects is clearly related to their belief in the magical power of smelting. Let us examine the work of elite artists in Classic Maya society more closely in this regard. Was the work of elite Maya artists limited to writing, painting, and carving, or did they also mold clay, fire ceramics, and grind stone ornaments? The production processes of ceramic vessels and hard-stone ornaments may be indicative. Glyphic texts show that some of the highest-quality polychrome vessels were painted by elite artists (Reents-Budet 1994; Stuart 1989). Our understanding of Maya potters, who shaped and fired those vessels, however, is severely limited mainly because of the scarcity of archaeological information on pottery production loci. Reents-Budet (1994:218–222) addresses the question of painter-pottery relationships mainly through the analysis of painted vessels and concludes that in many cases potters and painters were not the same individuals. She argues that multiple individuals were involved in the production of Codex style vases, with highly narrative scenes rendered on white backgrounds, because many of the vessels were poorly formed in contrast to their exquisite paintings. In addition, the glyphic texts on ceramic vessels refer primarily to writing and painting rather than to the entire process of vessel production, although MacLeod (in Reents-Budet 1994:133) argues that some texts contain glyphs meaning “his/her craft.” The emphasis on writing and painting in 134 glyphic texts may imply a division of labor between potters and painters, with higher prestige held by the latter. We should, however, remember that many of the master ceramic artists of historic and modern East Asia have been directly involved in the entire process of pottery production from the acquisition of clay to the firing of pots. In particular, some of them have considered the firing process, on which all the effects of painting depend, too important to delegate to unskilled apprentices (Uchijima 1958). Although the relatively standardized production of Codex style vessels in a large number may have benefited from a division of labor, we still need to consider the possibility that master elite artists in Maya society participated at various stages in the production of some pictorial pots of more individualized styles. Even when multiple individuals were responsible for different stages of ceramic production, Maya ceramic painters must have maintained close interests in the entire manufacturing process. Reents-Budet (1994:218–222) suggests that potters and painters worked side-by-side in the same workshops because the production of high-quality vessels required close coordination and supervision. She goes on to argue that master painters began their careers as apprentices learning clay preparation, vessel forming, and firing. An important data set from a locus of painted pottery production comes from Buenavista, Belize. The excavation of the palace group at this site by Ball (1993; Reents-Budet et al. 2000) has unearthed numerous whole and broken vessels, which appear to have been discarded near the location of production. In addition, recent excavations at Motul de San José by Foias (1999) have revealed a concentration of large fragments of high-quality polychrome vessels. Patterns of damage on these pieces suggest to Foias that they were wasters or rejects from pottery firing. Because they were found in construction fills, they do not point directly to a firing location. Yet, it seems unlikely that they were transported over a long distance, and ceramic firing that produced noxious fumes may have indeed taken place within or near the elite core of this center. Although these archaeological data do not tell us whether elite artists formed and fired polychrome vessels, it is at least clear that elites closely oversaw various stages of ceramic production. The production of ground hard-stone ornaments is physically demanding. Maya artisans cut jade and other stone through a labor-intensive process with the aids of abrasives and relatively simple tools. Certain stages of their production were most likely carried out by non-elite artisans. At Cancuen, Guatemala, Kovacevich et al. (2001) have identified jade and pyrite workshops, consisting of simple buildings and containing relatively poor burials. Those who worked there appear to have been non-elites. The pyrite workshops contained unworked nodules, polished pieces, Takeshi Inomata and mirror bases. Artisans were probably manufacturing mosaic mirrors by cutting and polishing pyrite nodules. In the jade workshops excavators found a large jade nodule, blanks, and debitage, along with various types of tools. Kovacevich and her colleagues point out that artisans were probably manufacturing polished jade beads and blanks for ornaments, and the final production process for ornaments with elaborate motifs took place elsewhere. Excavations at Aguateca have provided evidence of hard-stone grinding in an elite residential area. The work of the elite artist who lived in Structure M8-4, discussed earlier, was not limited to the painting of codices. In and around the south room, excavators unearthed more than three hundred pieces of worked pyrite (Zamora 2002) (Figure 8.2). Many of these were mosaic pieces of mirrors with sharp beveled edges and polished surfaces. Some of them were still attached to mirror backs made of sandstone. The artist, who may have been helped by assistants, appears to have been recycling these irregular polygonal objects to create rectangular ornaments (Figure 8.3). The manufacturers first made incisions along the long edges of the rectangle and then snapped it along the incisions. After the rough edges were ground, the same procedure was applied to the short edges of the rectangle. Finally, the manufacturers polished along all the edges and produced rectangular pieces with rounded edges and corners in a consistent size. When original mosaic pieces were not large enough, they used two adjacent pieces to make one rectangle. These rectangular ornaments were probably to be embedded in a larger composite object. The distribution of recycled pyrite pieces does not necessarily correspond with the pyrite grinding area. Excavators did not find any debitage of pyrite-working in the south room of Structure M8-4. In addition, soil chemical analysis by Terry (Terry et al. 2004) showed relatively low iron levels in this area. A higher soil iron level was found in an unexcavated open patio area southeast of the structure, which may have been the location where workers cut pyrite and deposited its dust and debitage. Pyrite pieces in process of working appear to have been brought back to the south room of Structure M8-4 after the day’s work. The work of the artist of Structure M8-4 also involved other types of material. Excavators found 15 reused ceramic sherds measuring 12 to 23 centimeters in diameter on the southern side of this building, an area possibly covered by an eave, and in the northern annex (Figure 8.4). Burned clay was caked on the exterior surface of some of these artifacts. A chunk of clay was found on the southern side, also pointing to ceramic work in this area. Found in the south room next to the recycled pyrite pieces was an alabaster ornament representing the Jester God, which was a symbol of rulership (Figure 8.5). This Artistic Production by Classic Maya Elites 135 Figure 8.2. The distribution of pyrite pieces and the Jester God headband in the south room of Structure M8-4. object, along with square alabaster plaques, was probably attached to a cloth or leather strip and used as a royal diadem. Aguateca Stela 6 depicts an almost identical Jester God ornament worn by the last ruler, Tahn Te’ K’inich. The artist who lived in Structure M8-4 may have been making or refurbishing a headdress and accompanying ceremonial gear for this ruler, using rectangular pyrite pieces and other ornaments. A critical matter that differentiated the work of the elite artist of Structure M8-4 at Aguateca from that of the nonelite artisans of the pyrite workshops at Cancuen was a specific kind of knowledge—esoteric knowledge of royal ritual protocols, religious symbolism, and dynastic history, necessary for the elaboration of royal ceremonial gear. Other aspects of their work shared similarities. They both worked on the same material, and their products were meant to be used by the elite. Their work and products were most likely endowed with specific cultural values and beliefs. Epigraphic and iconographic data show that for the Classic Maya, pyrite mirrors, like those produced in the Cancuen workshops, were objects charged with mythical power. The production of pyrite mirrors by Cancuen workers required knowledge of the material they worked and a mastery of manufacturing skills to no lesser degree than the recycling of finished pieces done by the Aguateca elite artist. The artist of Structure M8-4 at Aguateca, and possibly his assistants, saved a substantial amount of work by recycling mirror pieces rather than using natural nodules of pyrite—a luxury only possible for elite operations. Still, cutting and polishing pyrite, with a hardness of 6 to 6.5 on Mohs’ scale, was not easy work. As in the case of ceramic production, archaeological data do not give us clear evidence as to whether elite artists endured the physical labor and stone dust of pyrite grinding or whether they delegated this work to apprentices and assistants. Nonetheless, the lack of spatial segregation between the storage of recycled pyrite pieces 136 Figure 8.3. Pyrite pieces in various stages of recycling found in Structure M8-4: (a) mirror mosaic pieces before recycling; (b) pieces after being cut and snapped along the long edges of a rectangle; (c) pieces after snapped edges were ground; (d) pieces after one or two short edges of a rectangle were snapped and ground; (e) final products in the form of a rectangular ornament with rounded edges and corners (note that the lower example consists of two pieces) (photograph by Takeshi Inomata). and the symbolically charged ornament of a Jester God image forces us to consider the former possibility seriously. In sum, there appears to have been a general tendency in Classic Maya societies that elites focused on writing, painting, and carving related mainly to aspects of their esoteric knowledge, while non-elite artisans conducted more Takeshi Inomata physically demanding work, such as hard-stone grinding. Still, elite artists maintained close interest in production processes other than writing and painting and directly supervised the work of their assistants and apprentices. Elites, artists and non-artists alike, also tolerated ceramic firing and stone grinding being conducted in the proximity of their residences. Many elite artists were probably trained in the forming and firing of ceramic vessels and the grinding of hard-stone ornaments as apprentices in the early stages of their careers. Some of them may have continued to conduct such seemingly “tough, dirty” work even after they achieved the statuses of master artists and of high court officials. This observation defies a popular image of elites as privileged individuals who were freed from hard physical labor. Although tying artistic creation to elite power was an important political rationale, it does not fully explain the motivation and reasoning of elite artists who engaged in a wide range of craft work. Beliefs in the cultural and aesthetic values attached to such work and products are critical elements. Depictions of deities producing art objects were not only means of political legitimization of elite power but also expressions of their beliefs and cultural values. Some elite artists may have actively subscribed to such beliefs, devoting themselves to the pursuit of cultural and aesthetic ideals beyond political calculations. Others may have been passively bound by commonly held beliefs, unable to deviate from social expectations. Figure 8.4. Reworked ceramic sherds found in and around Structure M8-4. They probably served for craft work involving the use of clay (photograph by Takeshi Inomata). Artistic Production by Classic Maya Elites 137 Figure 8.5. The Jester God diadem found in the south room of Structure M8-4 (photograph by Takeshi Inomata). Conclusions Craft production by Classic Maya elites was at once a highly political act closely tied to power and an expression of elites ascribing to cultural and aesthetic values. The esoteric knowledge of writing, calendrics, astronomy, history, and myths necessary for the production of high art helped to enhance the prestige of elite artists and to distinguish the elite group as a whole from the rest of the society. Their artistic creations, however, did not derive simply from shrewd political calculations. Elites, as well as non-elites, were bound by their aesthetic and moral values. It becomes clear through these observations that craft production was not simply economic activity regulated by the principles of rationalization and profit-maximization, concepts that are critiqued further in Hruby’s contribution in this volume (Chapter 5). The work of craftspeople was embedded in the matrix of social relations and in cultural meanings shaped in specific historical contexts. Craft production by elites was often an ideologically loaded political act, closely related to their power and prestige. This, however, does not mean that elites always pursued maximum power and wealth with the least effort. They were also caught in a social system and by cultural beliefs, which they lived and constructed. Production activities by elites may have been expressions of their commitment to this system—or at least of their conformity to it. To understand why people produce specific things in specific manners, researchers need to address the issues of knowledge and belief underlying craft work. The study of these abstract elements through archaeology is not an easy task because such inquiries are not separate from the researchers’ own cultural background. Our own cultural logic, including the notion of rationality rooted in the Western tradition of thought, remains inherent to our interpretive process. It is necessary to look back critically on the set of assumptions directing our reasoning and interpretation. We still have a long way to go in the study of past knowledge and belief, but it should be p...
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Latino Artistic Expression – Outline
Thesis Statement: Understanding the artistic artwork existing created during the Pre-Columbian
Mexico facilitate the understanding of the Postclassic Mexican cosmological concepts as well as
the manifestation in Postclassic visual art.
1. Classic Maya Elites
A. The prestige and power of the elites
B. Political reasons
C. The issues of belief and knowledge
D. Reductionism and particularism
2. Aztec Calendar Stone
A. Pre-Columbian heritage
B. Huitzilopochtli is the central identity
3. Olmec Art Style
A. Incised motifs
B. Olmec style exemplified the culture of the Olmec people
4. References


1
Classic Maya Elites
As widely reported, elite craftspeople produced the majority of the Classic Maya art’s
beautiful pieces. Understanding the production system necessitates a good focus on the beliefs
and knowledge underlying these activities.1 Additionally, the production of art objects demanded
esoteric knowledge of the religion, myths, writing, history, astronomy, and calendar, which was
thoroughly tied to the prestige and power of the elites, which differentiated them from other
members of the society. With regards to the production activities, the elite artists involved
themselves largely for ideologically political reasons.2 Additionally, their participation in the
arduous physical work under possible unfavorable conditions shows a commitment or
compliance with the aesthetic and cultural values related to artistic production.
The artistic creations from the Classic Maya Elites may not have emanated from just
astute political calculations they were connected by their moral and aesthetic values. Hence, it
c...


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