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108-539: Tayasal is on a small island surrounded by water, and unless the natives go by canoe, they cannot enter by land; and they whitewash the houses and temples so they may be seen from more than two leagues distant Bernal Díaz del Castillo described Nojpetén in Chapter CLXXVIII of his Historia verdadera de la conquista de la Nueva España Nojpetén was closely packed with buildings that included temples, palaces and thatched houses. In 1698 Spanish accounts describe

216-459: A distant, mythical past, the enthronement of some of the patron deities of the kingdom. What is often called Maya 'astronomy' is really astrology : that is, a priestly science resting on the assumption of an influence exerted on earthly events by the movements of heavenly bodies and constellations. The observation of sky and horizon by present-day Mayas relates chiefly to celestial signs of seasonal change relevant to agriculture; stars connected to

324-523: A fortified camp and an attack boat. On 10 March Kan Ek' sent a canoe with a white flag raised bearing emissaries, including the Itza high priest, who offered peaceful surrender. Ursúa received the embassy in peace and invited Kan Ek' to visit his encampment three days later. On the appointed day Kan Ek' failed to arrive; instead Maya warriors amassed both along the shore and in canoes upon the lake. Ursúa decided that any further attempts at peaceful incorporation of

432-472: A friendly manner; however the Maya priesthood were hostile and jealous of the missionaries' influence upon the king. They persuaded Kan Ek's wife to convince him to expel the unwelcome visitors. The missionaries' lodgings were surrounded by armed warriors and the friars and their accompanying servants were escorted to a waiting canoe and instructed to leave and never come back. Juan de Orbita attempted to resist and

540-437: A large extent, Maya religion is indeed a complex of ritual practices; and it is, therefore, fitting that the indigenous Yucatec village priest is simply called jmen ("practitioner"). Among the main concepts relating to Maya ritual are the following ones. The Maya landscape is a ritual topography, with landmarks such as mountains, wells and caves being assigned to specific ancestors and deities (see also Maya cave sites ). Thus,

648-479: A maize field, the circular earth as a turtle floating on the waters. Each direction has its own tree, bird, deity, color, and aspect, in the highlands also its own mountain. Vertically, the sky is divided into thirteen layers, and Classic period deities are sometimes linked to one of the thirteen skies. By analogy with the 'Nine-God' mentioned together with the 'Thirteen-God' in the Chilam Balam book of Chumayel,

756-627: A parallel (dyadic) couplet structure which has also been recognized in Classic period texts. The earliest prayers recorded in European script are in Quiché, and are embedded in the creation myths of the Popol Vuh . The traditional Maya have their own religious functionaries, often hierarchically organized, and charged with the duties of praying and sacrificing on behalf of lineages, local groups, or

864-517: A priest. Feasts would include dramatic performances and the impersonation of deities, especially by the king. In recent times, feasts are usually organized by religious brotherhoods, with the greatest expenses being for the higher charges. Similarly, in the pre-Hispanic kingdom of Maní, some religious feasts seem to have been sponsored by wealthy and preeminent men, perhaps reflecting a general practice in Postclassic and earlier kingdoms. Through

972-497: A purificatory function. More generally, purification is needed before entering areas inhabited by deities. In present-day Yucatán, for example, it is customary to drink standing water from a rock depression at the first opportunity upon entering the forest. The water is then spat on the ground, and thus renders the individual 'virginal', free to carry out the business of humankind in the sacred forest. Maya prayer almost invariably accompanies acts of offering and sacrifice. It often takes

1080-464: A royal ritual by itself. It appears to implicate the king as the divine lord of his own day. Inversely, at San Bartolo, the divine hero of the day 'King', Hunahpu, substitutes for the real king. Setting up a stela may additionally have involved the notion of the king as a protective 'tree of life'. Moreover, in the Classic period, the king is commonly depicted holding a cosmic serpent from whose jaws deities (often those of rain, lightning and fire) emerge;

1188-572: A shrine erected on a large palanquin (as on a wooden lintel from Tikal 's Temple IV). The specific rituals engaged in by the king are only rudimentarily known. The Postclassic Kʻicheʻ king together with his dignitaries regularly visited the temples to burn offerings and pray for the prosperity of his people, while fasting and guarding sexual abstinence. As to the Classic Period king, he appears at times (often period-ending dates) to be scattering blood, incense or, perhaps, maize. At other times,

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1296-466: A star glyph with rain symbols seems to signal a decisive war (" star war "). Some of the Books of Chilam Balam testify to the great interest the colonial Maya had for the astrology of their conquerors. Horizontally, the earth is conceived in various ways: as a square with its four directional or, perhaps, solstice points, or as a circle without such fixed points. The square earth is sometimes imagined as

1404-458: A temple was built over it (Landa). In the Verapaz, a statue of the dead king was placed on his burial mound, which then became a place of worship. Apart from writing, the fundamental priestly sciences were arithmetics and calendrics. Within the social group of the priests at court, it had by Classical times become customary to deify the numbers as well as the basic day-unit, and – particularly in

1512-421: A throne; they may also substitute for the principal rain deity ( Chaac ). Hieroglyphic expressions of the concept of impersonation involve many other deities as well. In some cases, impersonation may relate to the individual's identity with, or transformation into, a phenomenon of nature. The only extensive treatment of Maya ritual by a near-contemporary concerns Yucatán, particularly the kingdom of Mani , and

1620-526: A unified concept of the afterlife. Among the Pokoman Maya of the Verapaz, Xbalanque was to accompany the dead king, which suggests a descent into the underworld (called xibalba 'place of fright') like that described in the Popol Vuh Twin myth. The Yucatec Maya had a double concept of the afterlife: Evildoers descended into an underworld ( metnal ) to be tormented there (a view still held by

1728-446: A year are assigned to four mountains. In early colonial Yucatán, the thirteen Katun periods and their deities, mapped onto a landscape conceived as a 'wheel', are said to be successively 'established' in specific towns. Through pilgrimages, which create networks connecting places regionally as well as over larger distances, Maya religion transcends the limits of the local community. Nowadays, pilgrimages often involve reciprocal visits of

1836-543: Is led by the 'godfathers of the wet season' ( padrinos del invierno ) among the Ch'orti's – in a particularly rich and complex system – and by the village priests ( jmenob ) in Yucatán. In the private realm, nearly everywhere diviners ('seers', 'daykeepers') are active, together with curers. The performance of many of the indigenous priests, but especially of the curers, shows features also associated with shamanism . Knowledge of

1944-584: Is mainly found in the Early Post-Classic Dresden Codex , and concerns lunar and solar eclipses and the varying aspects of Venus in the course of its cycles; animals and deities symbolize the social groups negatively affected by Venus during its heliacal rising as the Morning Star. The Paris Codex contains what some consider to be a zodiac . In the Classic period, references to specific stars are not rare; in dynastic texts,

2052-416: Is part of the wider frame of Mesoamerican religion . As is the case with many other contemporary Mesoamerican religions, it results from centuries of symbiosis with Roman Catholicism . When its pre-Hispanic antecedents are taken into account, however, traditional Maya religion has already existed for more than two and a half millennia as a recognizably distinct phenomenon. Before the advent of Christianity, it

2160-495: The Maya jaguar gods were prominent, particularly the jaguar deity associated with fire (and patron of the number Seven), whose face commonly adorns the king's war shield. The Palenque Temple of the Sun , dedicated to war, shows in its sanctuary the emblem of such a shield, held up by two crossed spears. The early Spanish writers have little to say about the king's (or, as the case might be, queen's) ritual duties. Nonetheless, one finds

2268-415: The 20th-century Lacandons ), while others, such as those led by the goddess Ixtab , went to a sort of paradise. The ancestors of Maya kings (Palenque tomb of Pakal , Berlin pot) are shown sprouting from the earth like fruit trees which, together, constitute a blissful orchard. The so-called ' Flower Mountain ' has more specifically been interpreted as a reference to an aquatic and solar paradise. To judge by

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2376-468: The Chilam Balam books) and their own priests. The 18 months had festivals, dedicated to specific deities, which were largely celebrated by occupational groups (in particular hunters and fishermen, bee-keepers, cacao planters, curers, and warriors). It is not known if and to what extent this festival cycle of the kingdom of Maní was shared by the other Yucatec kingdoms, and if it was also valid for

2484-590: The Cocom region. In 1194 Hunac Ceel Cauich declared war on Chac Chac Xib, one of four rulers of Chichén Itzá. The other three brothers were Sac Xib Chac, Chac Ek Yuuan and Hun Yuuan Chac (also called uooh Puc). Itzáes finally migrated to Tayasal , an island on Lake Peten Itza , in 1194. In 1525, after the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire , Hernán Cortés led an expedition to Honduras over land, cutting across

2592-618: The Conquest of New Spain ) is a first-person narrative written in 1568 by military adventurer, conquistador , and colonist settler Bernal Díaz del Castillo (1492–1584), who served in three Mexican expeditions: those of Francisco Hernández de Córdoba (1517) to the Yucatán peninsula ; the expedition of Juan de Grijalva (1518); and the expedition of Hernán Cortés (1519) in the Valley of Mexico . The history relates his participation in

2700-458: The Guatemalan capital they took Kan Ek', his son and two of his cousins with them. The cousins died en route but the last Kan Ek' and his son spent the remainder of their lives under house arrest in the colonial capital. Historia verdadera de la conquista de la Nueva Espa%C3%B1a Historia verdadera de la conquista de la Nueva España ( transl.   The True History of

2808-621: The Itza had made a statue of the deified horse. Juan de Orbita was outraged when he saw the idol and he immediately smashed it into pieces. Fuensalida was able to save the lives of the visitors from the infuriated natives by means of a particularly eloquent sermon that resulted in them being forgiven. Attempts to convert the Itza failed and the friars left Nojpetén on friendly terms with Kan Ek'. The friars returned in 1619, arriving in October and staying for eighteen days. Again Kan Ek' welcomed them in

2916-534: The Itza into the Spanish Empire were pointless and a waterbourne assault was launched upon Kan Ek's capital on 13 March. The city fell after a brief but bloody battle in which many Itza warriors died; the Spanish suffered only minor casualties. The surviving Itza abandoned their capital and swam across to the mainland with many dying in the water. Martín de Ursúa planted his standard upon the highest point of

3024-478: The Itza kingdom en route. His aim was to subdue the rebellious Cristóbal de Olid , whom he had sent to conquer Honduras, but Cristóbal de Olid had set himself up independently on his arrival in that territory. Cortés arrived at the north shore of Lake Petén Itzá on 13 March 1525; he was met there by the Aj Kan Ek'. The Roman Catholic priests accompanying the expedition celebrated mass in the presence of Kan Ek', who

3132-632: The Itza would convert and swear fealty to the King of Spain. Kan Ek' learnt of a plot by a rival Itza group to ambush and kill the Franciscans and the Itza king advised them to return to Mérida via Tipu. The Spanish friars became lost and suffered great hardships but eventually arrived back in Mérida after a month travelling. Kan Ek' sent emissaries to Mérida in December 1695 to inform Martín de Ursúa that

3240-524: The Itza would peacefully submit to Spanish rule. A Spanish party led by Captain Pedro de Zubiaur arrived at Lake Petén Itza with 60 soldiers, friar San Buenaventura and allied Yucatec Maya warriors. Although they expected a peaceful welcome they were immediately attacked by approximately 2000 Maya warriors. San Buenaventura and one of his Franciscan companions, a Spanish soldier and a number of Yucatec Maya warriors were taken prisoner. Spanish reinforcements arrived

3348-608: The Late-Classic period, pictures of such birds were used as logograms for the larger time periods. The mantic calendar has proven to be particularly resistant to the onslaughts of time. Nowadays, a 'daykeeper', or divinatory priest, may stand in front of a fire, and pray in Maya to entities such as the 260 days; the cardinal directions; the ancestors of those present; important Mayan towns and archaeological sites; lakes, caves, or volcanoes; and deities taken from published editions of

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3456-554: The Mayas) were the "bloodletting" sessions held by high officials and members of the royal families, during which the earlobes, tongues, and foreskins were cut with razor-sharp small knives and stingray spines; the blood fell on paper strips that were possibly burnt afterwards. In the ancient Maya cities, all sorts of offertory items including sacrificial implements were also stored and buried in deposits (caches) below architectural features such as floors, stelae, and altars; in these cases,

3564-464: The Popol Vuh. People also come to these daykeepers to know about baby names, wedding dates and other special occasions. In the pre-Hispanic past, important divinatory dates relating to the prospects of the entire kingdom were sometimes given a mythological pedigree. At Palenque, for example, the auspicious day 9 Ik', chosen for the enthronement of one of its kings, is also stated to have witnessed, in

3672-487: The Postclassic kingdom of Maní included a commemorative festival for an ancestral hero viewed as the founder of Yucatec kingship, Kukulcan (a name corresponding to Quichean Gucumatz and Aztec Quetzalcoatl ). Around 1500, the incinerated remains of the (male) members of notable Yucatec families were enclosed in wooden images which, together with the 'idols', were placed on the house altar, and ritually fed on all festive occasions; alternatively, they were placed in an urn, and

3780-523: The Tzotzil town of Zinacantan is surrounded by seven 'bathing places' of mountain-dwelling ancestors, with one of these sacred waterholes serving as the residence of the ancestors' 'nursemaids and laundresses'. As in the Pre-Hispanic past, an important part of ritual behavior takes place in or near such landmarks, in Yucatán also around karstic sinkholes ( cenotes ). Ritual was governed not only by

3888-590: The Yucatec king ( halach uinic ) referred to as 'bishop', so that, in virtue of his office, the king appears to have had a leading role in major public rituals. In the Classic period, the rituals of kingship were the most important rituals of the Maya court. The term ' theatre state ' ( Geertz ), originally coined for the Hindu kingdoms of Bali, could also be used for describing the Classic Maya kingdoms; it suggests

3996-400: The aged Bacabs , with women sometimes being cast in erotic roles. Often, impersonation meant ritual representation on a state level, particularly as depicted on stelae and ball game panels. On the royal stelae – that is, at five- tun or k'atun celebrations – the king wears the heads of important deities and forces of nature for a headdress or a mask, while carrying a sceptre in the form of

4104-477: The ancestral remains themselves, sacred bundles left by the ancestors were also an object of veneration. Reliefs from the Classic-period kingdom of Yaxchilan also show that royal ancestors were sometimes approached during bloodletting rituals and then appeared to their descendants, emerging from the mouth of a terrestrial serpent (which has been nicknamed ' Vision Serpent '). The monthly feast cycle of

4212-490: The animal soon died. Following Cortés' visit, no Spanish attempted to visit the warlike Itza inhabitants of Nojpetén for almost a hundred years. In 1618 two Franciscan friars set out from Mérida in Yucatán on a mission to attempt the peaceful conversion of the still pagan Itza in central Petén. Bartolomé de Fuensalida and Juan de Orbita were accompanied by the alcalde of Bacalar (a Spanish colonial official) and some Christianised Maya. After an arduous six-month journey

4320-462: The army to make his own way to Nojpetén with eighty Christianised Maya from Tipu in Belize . When the party arrived at Nojpetén, they were all seized and sacrificed to the Maya gods . Soon afterwards, the Itza caught Mirones and his soldiers off guard and unarmed in the church at Sacalum; they were slaughtered to a man. These events ended all Spanish attempts to contact the Itza until 1695. In 1695

4428-430: The caves of Naj Tunich and had their visits recorded on the sanctuary's walls. Offerings serve to establish and renew relations ('contracts', 'pacts', or 'covenants') with the other world, and the choice, number, preparation, and arrangement of the offered items (such as special maize breads, maize and cacao drinks and honey liquor, flowers, incense nodules, rubber figures, and also, cigars ) obey to stringent rules. In

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4536-534: The central 'cross', or world tree of the center, best exemplified by the arboreal crosses in the temple shrines of the Cross Group in Palenque. The king was the prime embodiment of the central cross or world tree. In Maya narrative, warfare includes the warriors' transformation into animals ( wayob ) and the use of black magic by sorcerers. In the pre-Hispanic period, war rituals focused on the war leaders and

4644-471: The central world tree in the Borgia Codex ; a curving bicephalic serpent hovers around it, which some believe to embody the ecliptic . The king was probably identified with the tree of the centre and is usually shown to carry the bicephalic serpent as a ceremonial bar. Besides worshipping a central maize tree, the king commonly sits or stands on a mountain containing the maize, perhaps as a guardian of

4752-417: The ceremony. The child is offered implements appropriate to its gender, tools for boys and cloth or thread for girls. If the children grasp them, this is considered a foretelling. All children are offered pencils and paper. Contemporary healing rituals focus on the retrieval and reincorporation of the lost souls or soul particles imprisoned somewhere by specific deities or ancestors. The procedures can include

4860-529: The city as having had twenty-one temples, the largest of these (which the Spanish called a castillo (castle or palace) had a square base measuring 16.5 metres (54 ft) on each side. It had nine stepped levels and faced northward; it appeared very similar in design to the principal pyramids at Chichen Itza and Mayapan in Yucatán . This was about half the size of the Mayapan castillo ; its nine levels may each have been less than 1 metre (3.3 ft) high;

4968-448: The city in early 1696, nine of the temples had recently been burnt during a Kowoj Maya attack and subsequently rebuilt; during the attack many houses had also been destroyed. Ritual ceramics, identified by the Spanish as idols, were arranged in pairs upon small benches throughout the city. The Spanish set about destroying the pagan idols after conquering the city. In 1175, the league began to disintegrate. A Cocom man named Ceel Cauich Ah

5076-422: The cohesion of the state to be dependent on elaborate royal rituals through which status differences between aristocratic families could find expression. On monuments, the king sometimes assumes a dancing posture suggestive of his participation in the rituals that were staged on the large plazas where the royal stelae stood. On important occasions, the royal impersonator would be shown to the crowd while being within

5184-550: The collapse of the sky and the establishment of the five trees, but focuses instead on a succession of previous mankinds, the last of which was destroyed by a flood. For the Classic Mayas, the base date of the Long Count (4 Ahau 8 Cumku), following upon the completion of thirteen previous baktun eras, is thought to have been the focus of specific acts of creation. Through the figures of two so-called ' Paddler Gods ',

5292-540: The conquest of the Aztec Empire . Late in life, when Díaz del Castillo was in his 60s, he finished his first-person account of the Spanish conquest of the West Indies and the Aztec Empire. He wrote The True History of the Conquest of New Spain to defend the story of the common-soldier conquistador within the histories about the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire. He presents his narrative as an alternative to

5400-411: The conquistadors proved a poor return for their investment of months of soldiering and fighting across Mexico and Central America, and Díaz del Castillo expresses his discontentment and bittterness about his and the other soldiers’ treatment by the Spanish government. Though Díaz del Castillo justifies his and the other Spaniards’ actions through the lens of a just war , he does express some regret over

5508-437: The court down to the priests in the towns, and the priestly books were distributed along these lines. The role model for the high priest is likely to have been the upper god Itzamna , first priest and inventor of the art of writing. The most general word for priest, including the Yucatec high priest, appears to have been ah k'in 'calendrical priest'. Some priests were ordinary diviners, while others had specialized knowledge of

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5616-446: The critical writings of Bartolomé de Las Casas , whose descriptions of Spanish treatment of native peoples emphasized the cruelty of the conquest. He also criticized the histories of the hagiographic biographers of Hernán Cortés, specifically that of Francisco López de Gómara , who Díaz del Castillo believed minimized the role of the 700 enlisted soldiers instrumental to conquering the Aztec Empire. In his eyewitness account, narrated in

5724-489: The curer in his struggle with disease-causing agents. Many of the features of shamanic curing found in the 'Ritual of the Bacabs' still characterize contemporary curing ritual. Not represented amongst these early ritual texts is black sorcery. Influencing the weather is the main purpose of the rain-making rituals – sometimes of a secretive character – that are found all over the Maya area and also of such rituals as 'Imprisoning

5832-511: The destruction of Tenochtitlán, writing, "When I beheld the scenes around me, I thought within myself, this was the garden of the world. All of the wonders I beheld that day, nothing now remains. All is overthrown and lost." Maya religion The traditional Maya or Mayan religion of the extant Maya peoples of Guatemala , Belize , western Honduras , and the Tabasco , Chiapas , Quintana Roo , Campeche and Yucatán states of Mexico

5940-484: The earlier Maya priesthood is almost entirely based on what their Spanish missionary colleagues have to say about them (Landa for Yucatán, Las Casas and others for the Guatemalan Highlands). The upper echelon of the priesthood was a repository of learning, also in the field of history and genealogical knowledge. Around 1500, the Yucatec priesthood was hierarchically organized, from the high priest living at

6048-450: The earlier Mayan kingdoms, both in Yucatán and elsewhere. Life cycle rituals (or rites of passage) demarcate the various stages of life. Landa details one of these rituals, destined for making young boys and girls marriageable ( caput sihil 'second birth'). The Yucatec Maya continue the ritual ( Hetz mek ) which marks a child's movement from cradling or carrying to the mother's hip. It is performed at about three months and has godparents of

6156-416: The end of the year. In 16th-century Yucatán, a straw puppet called 'grandfather' ( mam ) was set up and venerated, only to be discarded at the end of the marginal period, or Uayeb ( Cogolludo ). In this same interval, the incoming patron deity of the year was installed and the outgoing one removed. Through annually shifting procession routes, the calendrical model of the four 'Year Bearers' (New Year days)

6264-578: The entire community. In many places, they operate within the Catholic brotherhoods (or 'cofradías') and the so-called civil-religious hierarchy (or ' cargo system '), organizations which have played a crucial role in the preservation of pre-Spanish religious traditions. The two most important male deities (Martín and Maximón) of the Tz'utujil Mayas of Santiago Atitlán, for example, have their own brotherhoods and priests. Public ritual focusing on agriculture and rain

6372-468: The existence, within each individual, of various souls, usually described in quasi-material terms (such as 'shadow', 'breath', 'blood', and 'bone'). The loss of one or more souls results in specific diseases (generically called 'soul-loss', 'fright', or susto ). In Classic Maya texts, certain glyphs are read as references to the soul. Much more is known about the so-called 'co-essences', that is, animals or other natural phenomena (comets, lightning) linked with

6480-434: The fact that the general Yucatec word for 'priest' ( ah k'in ) referred more specifically to the counting of the days. K'iche' daykeepers use puns to help remember and inform the meanings of the days. Divinatory techniques include the throwing and counting of seeds, crystals, and beans, and in the past also – apart from the count – gazing in a magical mirror ( scrying ), and reading the signs given by birds ( auguries ); in

6588-416: The feasts, capital could be redistributed in food and drink. The continual and obligatory drinking, negatively commented on by early as well as contemporary outsiders, establishes community, not only among the human participants, but also between these and the deities. Both in recent times and in the Classic period, more complex rituals would include music and dance, processions, and theatrical play. Nowadays,

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6696-404: The first-person plural "we," Díaz del Castillo strongly defends the actions of the conquistadors while emphasizing their humanity and honesty. He summarizes their actions by saying, "We went there to serve God, and also to get rich." The history is occasionally uncharitable about Cortés, whom Díaz del Castillo felt had taken most of the glory for himself while intentionally ignoring the efforts of

6804-430: The form of long litanies, in which the names of personified days, saints, angels (rain and lightning deities), features of the landscape connected with historical or mythical events, and mountains are particularly prominent. Its importance is highlighted by the fact that Maya communities in the northwestern highlands of Guatemala have a specialized group of 'Prayermakers'. Prayers, with their hypnotizing scansion, often show

6912-585: The game, on penalty of supernatural sanction; for this same reason, in another month of the 16th-century Yucatec feast cycle, a rite of contrition was held by the hunters. The claims on territory by social groups of varying dimensions were expressed in rituals such as those for the waterholes, ancestral lands, and the boundaries of the entire community. The focus of these rituals were often crosses, or rather, 'cross shrines', and prayers were directed at rain and earth deities. For earlier periods, such crosses and shrines can, perhaps, be thought of as being connected to

7020-441: The geographical lay-out of shrines and temples (see also Maya architecture ), but also by the projection of calendrical models onto the landscape. In contemporary Quichean Momostenango , for example, specific combinations of day-names and numbers are ascribed to specialized shrines in the mountains, signalling the appropriate times for their ritual use. In the northwestern Maya highlands, the four days, or 'Day Lords', that can start

7128-434: The governor of Yucatán, Martín de Ursúa y Arizmendi , began to build a road from Campeche south towards Petén. Franciscan Andrés de Avendaño followed the new road as far as possible then continued towards Nojpetén with local Maya guides. They arrived at the western end of Lake Petén Itzá to an enthusiastic welcome by the local Itza. The following day, the current Aj Kan Ek' travelled across the lake with eighty canoes to greet

7236-476: The hunt and specific hunting animals; and stars sending certain illnesses. With but few exceptions, the names of stars and constellations are all that have been preserved, and the influence of star lore on social and professional activities beyond agriculture and on individual destiny can no longer be traced. In this respect, other Mesoamerican groups (such as Totonacs and Oaxacan Chontals ) have fared better. The far more sophisticated pre-Hispanic Mayan astrology

7344-447: The individual (usually a male) and protecting him. In some cases (often connected to black sorcery), one can change into co-essences acting like a sort of 'werewolves' (see also nagual ). The Classic Maya grandees had a whole array of such soul companions, which were called wayob , and carried distinct hieroglyphic names. Among them were spook-like creatures, but also violent stars. In the pre-Spanish past, there may never have existed

7452-451: The intention may often have been a dedication to a specific religious purpose, rather than an offering to a divine recipient. Purificatory measures such as fasting, sexual abstention, bathing, and (especially in the pre-Hispanic past) confession generally precede major ritual events. In 16th-century Yucatán, purification (exorcism of evil spirits) often represented a ritual's initial phase. The bloodletting-rituals (see below) may also have had

7560-636: The island and renamed Nojpetén as Nuestra Señora de los Remedios y San Pablo, Laguna del Itza ("Our Lady of Remedy and Saint Paul, Lake of the Itza"). Kan Ek' was soon captured with help from the Yalain Maya ruler. Ursúa returned to Mérida, leaving Kan Ek' and other high-ranking members of his family as prisoners of the Spanish garrison at Nuestra Señora de los Remedios y San Pablo. Reinforcements arrived from Santiago de los Caballeros de Guatemala (modern Antigua Guatemala ) in 1699 but they did not stay long due to an outbreak of disease. When they returned to

7668-418: The king's raising and balancing of this serpent, accompanied by his 'conjuring' of the emerging deities, may well have been expressed and supported by ritual. During the Classic period, Tikal's North Acropolis consisted of nucleated royal burial temples and is even referred to as a 'necropolis'. In Classic-period royal courts, tombs are generally found integrated in the residences of the nobility. Apart from

7776-469: The king, represented by the hero Hunahpu , is sacrificing his own blood in front of directional trees (murals of San Bartolo ), or he is officiating in front of such a tree (Cross temple sanctuaries of Palenque). The king not only took a leading part in ritual, but ritual is likely to have focused on his office as well. The erection of stelae showing the king and dedicated to the day 'King' ( Ahaw ), which concluded intervals of five 360-day years, constituted

7884-405: The kingdom's maize supplies. In the Classic period, earth and sky are visualized as horizontally extended serpents and dragons (often bicephalic, more rarely feathered) which serve as vehicles for deities and ancestors, and make these appear from their maws. Other serpents, shown as vertically rising, seem to connect the various spheres, perhaps to transport the subterranean or terrestrial waters to

7992-520: The kingly katun cycle. Aside from calendrical learning, however, priests had multiple tasks, running from performing life crisis rituals to managing the monthly feast cycle, and held special offices, such as that of oracle ( chilan ), astrologer, and sacrificer of human beings ( nacom ). In the K'iche' Kingdom of Q'umarkaj , the most important deities ( Tohil , Awilix , Jacawitz and Gukumatz ) had their own high priests. At all levels, access to late Postclassic priesthood seems to have been restricted to

8100-421: The lightning deity. The heads are frequently those of the rain deity ( Chaac ) and of an aquatic serpent. On the other hand, the reigning queen, or queen consort, usually represents the principal maize goddess, that is, a female Tonsured Maize God . Young men, perhaps princes, can impersonate the four deities carrying the earth ( Bacabs ) while holding the four associated Year Bearer days in their hands or carrying

8208-443: The maize. Particularly the rituals of the Yucatec and Ch'orti' Mayas have been described in great detail. For eastern Yucatán, a whole taxonomy of ritual sequences has been established, including variable rituals for protecting an area against evil influences ( loh ), thanksgiving ( uhanlikol 'dinner of the maize field'), and imploring the rain deities ( ch'a cháak ). An important sanctuary for Terminal Classic rain and maize rituals

8316-564: The monthly feasts (e.g., the holkan okot 'dance of the war chiefs'). The god most often shown dancing during the Classic period is the Tonsured Maize God , a patron of feasting. The theatrical impersonation of deities and animals, a general Mesoamerican practice, also characterized pre-Hispanic Mayan performances and included the wayob (were-animals). Ritual humor (a vehicle for social criticism) could be part of these events, involving such actors as opossums, spider monkeys, and

8424-438: The mythology of the Maya maize god appears to have been involved. References to 4 Ahau 8 Cumku events are few in number (the most important one occurring on Quirigua stela C), seemingly incoherent, and hard to interpret. They include an obscure conclave of seven deities in the underworld (among whom the deity Bolonyokte') and a concept of 'three stones' usually taken to refer to a cosmic hearth. The traditional Mayas believe in

8532-530: The next day but were beaten back. This turn of events convinced Martín de Ursúa that Kan Ek' would not surrender peacefully and he began to organise an all-out assault on Nojpetén. In 1696 the Ko'woj kingdom launched an attack upon Nojpetén. The Itza were able to push the Ko'woj out of Nojpetén, but the city had been significantly damaged. Martín de Ursúa arrived at the lakeshore with a Spanish army on 1 March 1697 and built

8640-572: The nobility. Little is known with certainty concerning the Classic Maya priesthood. Iconographically, there can be no serious doubt but that the aged, ascetic figures depicted as writing and reading books, aspersing and inaugurating dignitaries and kings, and overseeing human sacrifice, represent professional priests and high priests at court. Certain hieroglyphic titles of noblemen have been interpreted as priestly ones (e.g., ajk'uhuun , possibly 'worshipper', yajaw k'ahk 'master of fire'). The king ( k'uhul ajaw or 'holy lord'), too, acted ex officio as

8748-458: The numbers 13 and 20 that, multiplied, defined both the mantic day count and, on a vast scale, the amount of time elapsed before the first day (5 Imix 9 Kumk'u) of the Long Count. Like all other cultures of Mesoamerica , the Maya used a 260-day calendar , usually referred to as tzolkin . The length of this calendar coincides with the average duration of human gestation. Its basic purpose

8856-528: The other Spaniards and their indigenous allies. Díaz del Castillo also criticizes some of Cortés’ decisions during the expedition as selfish or unjust, such as the torture and execution of Tlatoani (emperor) Cuauhtémoc . Like other professional soldiers who participated in the conquest of New Spain, Díaz del Castillo found himself among the ruins of Tenochtitlán only slightly wealthier than when he arrived in Mexico. The land and gold compensation paid to many of

8964-423: The past, as well as anthropologists and historians who studied them and continue to do so. What is known of pre-Hispanic Maya religion stems from heterogeneous sources (the primary ones being of Maya origin): Traditional Maya religion, though also representing a belief system, is often referred to as costumbre , the 'custom' or habitual religious practice, in contradistinction to orthodox Roman Catholic ritual. To

9072-539: The patrons of the priestly scribes and diviners ( ah k'in ) themselves, that is, as Howler Monkey Gods , who seem to have been conceived as creator deities in their own right. In the Postclassic period, the time-unit of the katun was imagined as a divine king, as the 20 named days still are among the traditional 'day-keepers' of the Guatemalan Highlands. On a more abstract level, the world was assumed to be governed by certain fundamental numbers, first of all

9180-524: The performance of important dances and dance dramas (not always religious ones) often takes place on the feast of the patron saint of the village and on certain set occasions dictated by the Catholic calendar (such as Corpus Christi and the 'May Cross'). For the late Postclassic period, Landa mentions specific dances executed during either the New Year rituals (e.g., the Xibalba okot 'dance of Xibalba') or

9288-441: The pyramid would still have been imposing. It possibly had only one access stairway rather than the four radial stairways found in the examples in Yucatán. The pyramid was topped by a flat-roofed summit shrine that contained idols representing Itza gods. The dismantling of this pyramid would have required considerable effort but no mention of this is found in Spanish records. When Spanish missionary Andrés de Avendaño y Loyola visited

9396-462: The re-establishment of the world and its five world trees upon the cycle's conclusion and resumption. The lightning deity ( Bolon Dzacab ), the divine carriers of sky and earth (the Bacabs ), and the earth crocodile (Itzam Cab Ain) all have a role to play in this cosmic drama, to which a much earlier, hieroglyphic text from Palenque's Temple XIX seems to allude. The Quichean Popol Vuh does not mention

9504-407: The sacrifice of fowl treated as the patient's 'substitute' (Tzotzil k'exolil-helolil ). The main collection of ancient Yucatec curing rituals is the so-called Ritual of the Bacabs . In these texts, the world with its four trees and four carriers of earth and sky ( Bacabs ) located at the corners is the theatre of shamanic curing sessions, during which "the four Bacabs" are often addressed to assist

9612-434: The same way, a drink made of exactly 415 grains of parched maize was to be offered to participants in a pre-Hispanic New Year ritual, and on another occasion, the precise number of 49 grains of maize mixed with copal (incense) was to be burnt. A well-known example of a ritual meal is the "Holy Mass of the maize farmer" ( misa milpera ) celebrated at an improvised altar for the Yucatec rain deities. Particularly Lacandon ritual

9720-525: The sky. Dragons combine features of serpent, crocodile, and deer, and may show 'star' signs; they have been variously identified as the nocturnal sky and as the Milky Way. Within the framework of the post-Classic cycle of thirteen katuns (the so-called ' Short Count '), some of the Yucatec Books of Chilam Balam present a deluge myth describing the collapse of the sky, the subsequent flood, and

9828-455: The south-eastern kingdoms of Copan and Quirigua – to conceive the mechanism of time as a sort of relay or estafette in which the 'burden' of the time-units was passed on from one divine numerical 'bearer' to the next one. The numbers were personified not by distinctive numerical deities, but by some of the principal general deities, who were thus seen to be responsible for the ongoing 'march of time'. The day-units ( k'in ) were often depicted as

9936-415: The succession of the 365-day years, and to the so-called 'Year Bearers' in particular, that is, the four named days that can serve as new year days. Conceived as divine lords, these Year Bearers were welcomed on the mountain (one of four) which was to be their seat of power, and worshipped at each recurrence of their day in the course of the year. The calendrical rites include the five-day marginal period at

10044-411: The throne, severe illness of the ruler, royal burial, or drought and famine) also came to include human beings, adults as well as children. The sacrificed child may have served as a 'substitute', a concept known from curing ritual. Partaking of the sacrifice was common, but ritual cannibalism appears to have been exceedingly rare. A characteristic feature of ancient Mayan ritual (though not exclusive to

10152-435: The travellers were well received by the current Kan Ek'. They stayed at Nojpetén for some days in an attempt to evangelise the Itza but the Aj Kan Ek' refused to renounce his Maya religion , although he showed interest in the masses held by the Catholic missionaries. Kan Ek' informed them that according to ancient Itza prophecy it was not yet time for them to convert to Christianity. In the time since Cortés had visited Nojpetén,

10260-404: The underworld is often assumed to have consisted of nine layers. However, the Popol Vuh does not know such a ninefold division, and Classic period references to layers of the underworld have not been identified. In the world's centre is a tree of life (the yaxche ' ceiba ') that serves as a means of communication between the various spheres. In Palenque, the tree of life is a maize tree, just as

10368-498: The village saints (as represented by their statues), but also visits to farther-removed sanctuaries, as exemplified by the Q'eqchi' pilgrimages to their thirteen sacred mountains. Around 1500, Chichen Itza used to attract pilgrims from all the surrounding kingdoms to its large cenote ; other pilgrims visited local shrines, such as those of Ix Chel and other goddesses on the islands off Yucatán's east coast. Eight centuries earlier, noblemen from sundry Classic kingdoms went on pilgrimage to

10476-403: The visitors. The Franciscans returned to Nojpetén with Kan Ek' and baptised over 300 Itza children over the following four days. Avendaño tried to convince Kan Ek' to convert to Christianity and surrender to the Spanish crown, without success. The king of the Itza, like his forebear, cited Itza prophecy and said the time was not yet right. He asked the Spanish to return in four months, at which time

10584-568: The weapons. The jaguar-spotted War Twin Xbalanque counted as a war deity in the Alta Verapaz ; preceding a campaign, rituals were held for him during thirty days, so that he might imbue the weapons with his power. The Yucatec ritual for the war chief ( nakom ) was connected to the cult of a puma war god, and included a five-day residence of the war leader in the temple, "where they burned incense to him as to an idol." In Classic war rituals,

10692-416: The winds' and 'Sealing the frost' just before the sowing season. The officiating priests of the rain-making rituals are sometimes believed to ascend into the clouds and there to act like rain deities themselves. Influencing the weather can also mean deflecting the rain clouds from neighboring areas, and thus imply black sorcery. The principal focus of the agricultural rites is the sowing and harvesting of

10800-399: Was (and still is) to provide guidance in life through a consideration of the combined aspects of the 20 named days and 13 numbers, and to indicate the days on which sacrifice at specific 'number shrines' (recalling the number deities of Classic times) might lead to the desired results. The days were commonly deified and invoked as 'Lordships'. The crucial importance of divination is suggested by

10908-430: Was entirely focused on the 'feeding' of the deities, as represented by their incense burners. The forms of sacrifice might take vary considerably. In contemporary sacrificial rites, there is an overall emphasis on the sprinkling of blood, especially that of turkeys. In the pre-Hispanic past, sacrifice usually consisted of animals such as deer, dog, quail, turkey, and fish, but on exceptional occasions (such as accession to

11016-646: Was projected onto the four quarters of the town. Landa's detailed treatment of the New Year rites – the most important description of a pre-Hispanic Maya ritual complex to have come down to us – corresponds on essential points to the schematic depiction of these rites in the much earlier Dresden Codex. Like the Year Bearers, the thirteen twenty-year periods ( katuns ) of the Short Count were viewed as divine lords in their own right and worshipped accordingly. The katuns had specific divine patrons (as mentioned in

11124-463: Was rendered unconscious by an Itza warrior. The missionaries were expelled without food or water but survived the journey back to Mérida. In 1622 Captain Francisco de Mirones set out from Yucatán to launch an assault upon the Itza. His army was later joined by Franciscan friar Diego Delgado. En route to Nojpetén, Delgado believed that the army's treatment of the Maya was excessively cruel and he left

11232-483: Was said to be so impressed that he pledged to worship the Cross and to destroy his idols. Cortés accepted an invitation from the king to visit Nojpetén, and crossed to the Maya city with a small contingent of Spanish soldiers while the rest of his army continued around the lake to meet him on the south shore. Cortés left behind a lame horse that the Itza treated as a deity, attempting to feed it poultry, meat, and flowers, but

11340-605: Was spread over many indigenous kingdoms, all with their own local traditions. Today, it coexists and interacts with pan-Mayan syncretism, the 're-invention of tradition' by the Pan-Maya movement , and Christianity in its various denominations. The most important source on traditional Maya religion is the Mayas themselves: the incumbents of positions within the religious hierarchy, diviners, and tellers of tales. More generally, all those persons who shared their knowledge with outsiders in

11448-589: Was the large cave of Balankanche near Chichén Itzá, with its numerous Tlaloc censers and miniature metates. In one of the 16th-century Yucatec month feasts, hunters danced with arrows and deer skulls painted blue. The focus on animal skulls is significant, since even today, traditional Maya hunters have the duty to preserve the skulls and bones of their booty, deposit these periodically in hunting shrines, and thus restore them to their supernatural Owners for regeneration. They should also respect certain hunting taboos, such as those on adultery and unnecessarily wounding

11556-484: Was thrown into the cenote of Chichen Itza . The cenote is a deep hole filled with water. It is 15 meters from the ground to the water, and the walls are very steep. It is considered an entrance to the afterlife, and it is almost impossible to climb out. But Ceel managed to climb out. He proclaimed himself Ajaw , a spiritual and political leader. He also renamed himself Hunac Ceel Cauich. The Itzas did not recognize his authority. Ceel gathered many followers from Mayapan and

11664-415: Was written by friar Diego de Landa (ca. 1566). However, major ritual domains, such as those of agriculture and kingship, are hardly touched upon by Landa. The Maya calendar, connected to networks of sacrificial shrines, is fundamental for ritual life. The rites of the 260-day cycle are treated below ('Sciences of Destiny'). Among the highland Maya, the calendrical rites of the community as a whole relate to

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