Mirrors and the Ancient Maya

Pyrite is an iron ore that the Maya would use for mirrors. This
image -- from the USGS site, taken by Carlin Green -- shows
a piece of pyrite and quartz.

The ancient Maya civilization, like other Mesoamerican civilizations, used pieces of iron ores to create shiny flat surfaces -- archaeologists call these artifacts mirrors. These mirrors, for the ancient Maya, were symbols as well as tools. One thing its thought mirrors were a symbol of was either the northern part of the sky when it was night or the North Star. They were also a symbol of ruler's rightful power, royal lineage, and sunlight.

The Mirrors
The ancient Maya liked to make their mirrors with minerals that are types of iron ore and slate. (As to what kind of iron ore, you may see that it said that the Maya just used pyrite, or used other kinds too, like pyrite.) They polished the iron ore and made them into a mosaic. A lot of mirrors have at least one hole near an edge.

For the backing of the mirror, they preferred to use slate. (The Maya also made wooden backings and ceramic backings.) There were times the ancient Maya decorated the visible side of the backing.

Consideration: Mirror Holders Found?
A few wooden sculptures have been found that might have been holders for mirrors. These possible holders are shaped like people with dwarfism. (The ancient Maya may have seen dwarfism as representing an "in between" state.) Below is an image (from the Metropolitan Museum of Art's website) of one of these sculptures, which you may have seen in other places on this blog.

There are notches on the man's "kilt" and in his arms. This may have been where a mirror about 5 inches wide and 5 inches long may have been put.

Uses
Elites may have worn mirrors -- the mirror's holes could have been used to hang the mirrors on the elites somehow.  The Maya may have used mirrors in their rituals, for when they wanted to make smoke or fire -- possible evidence for this are mirrors taken from the site of Chichén Itzá that were burned. They also used mirrors as tools for telling the future. You may also see the view that mirrors were for communicating with supernatural beings, and that doing this made the person using the mirror divine.

There's an idea that royalty had a ceremony that concerned future rulers and involved a mirror. It's not sure what the ritual was for. One possibility was that it was part of the rituals for a new ruler who was taking the throne. Another possibility is that it was a ritual for telling everyone who was going to be the next in line.

Mirrors were also put in burials. You can find them in elite tombs -- more in the highlands than the lowlands. (They're not common in the lowlands.)

Gods Connected with Mirrors
Archaeologists have found that the Maya drew some of their gods with mirrors on their foreheads. One god is known today as god C.  A monkey god, this god's name was an "animated" version of a mirror glyph. This god was connected with rulership. The Maya drew him with a mirror in his forehead.

K'awiil (also known as god K) also had a mirror drawn on his forehead. And, also like god C, he was a god that had a connection to rulership.


References:
Manufactured Light: Mirrors in the Mesoamerican Realm"; Emiliano Gallaga M. and Marc G. Blainey (editors); 2016

Google Books: "Mortuary Landscapes of the Classic Maya: Rituals of Body and Soul"; Andrew K. Scherer; 2015

Google Books: "Cosmology, Calendars, and Horizon-Based Astronomy in Ancient Mesoamerica"; Anne S. Dowd, Susan Milbrath (editors); 2015


Cambridge University Press: Cambridge Core: "Ancient Meosamerica" Volume 22 Issue 2: "Ancient Maya Mosaic Mirrors: Function, Symbolism, and Meaning"; Paul F. Healy, Marc G. Blainey; Fall 2011

Google Books: "Maya Calendar Origins: Monuments, Mythistory, and the Materialization of Time"; Prudence M. Rice; 2007

Metropolitan Museum of Art: Mirror-Bearer

Image Credits:
USGS: Pyrite and Quartz; Carlin Green; c. 2016

Metropolitan Museum of Art: Mirror-Bearer

K'awiil (God K)

A ceramic box made between 450 AD and 550 AD (and therefore from the Early Classic.)
K'awiil is on the left side. From LACMA.

K'awiil or K'awil was a god connected to several things: royalty, flint, and like Chaak, lightning -- and you may also see it said that he was connected to rain as well. (It seems he was perhaps also worshiped at Palenque as a patron god.) Other names you might see him called include the scepter god and god K.

Features

K'awiil has a snout that turns up, big eyes that have spirals for pupils, a fang coming out of his mouth, and one or both of his legs is a snake, with a snake's head where a foot should be. K'awiil's forehead has a smoking item stuck to it -- a smoking ax head seems to be a common item the Maya would draw on his forehead, though they would draw other items sometimes, like a cigar or a torch. (In a definition of K'awiil on the Metropolitan Museum's website, K'awiil's forehead is also described as being high and having a cartouche on it -- and it is this cartouche that the item is stuck into.)

Connection to Royalty

This artifact may have been a leg from a K'awiil
scepter. It was made between the 600s to 800s AD,
and came from either Guatemala or Mexico.
From The Metropolitan Museum of Art

The ancient Maya connected K'awiil with protection of royal lines as well as coronation -- that is, rulers officially becoming their city-state's ruler. There are drawings of rulers becoming their city'state's ruler while holding a scepter that looks like K'awiil. Inscriptions would have a phrase for when a new ruler took power, a phrase that translates as "he took the K'awiil."

But it went further than that in some city-states like Dos Pilas and Copan. Rulers of these city-states would use the name "K'awiil" as one of their own, as a title. It's possible that because rulers did this -- and also would use Chaak and Yopaat as names -- that it may have been that the ancient Maya thought their rulers had "co-essences" that were lightning.

On a related note, it's possible that people with dwarfism were also connected with K'awiil. They may have been thought to somehow actually be K'awiil.

Connection to Flint/Chert

This eccentric flint came from
Guatemala. It was made between the 
600s AD and 700s AD. From 
The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The ancient Maya would create items that are now called eccentric flints. These artifacts are pieces of flint/chert or obsidian that the ancient Maya sculpted into different shapes. Some were meant to look like real things, some were meant to look like gods, and some were just shapes. Among these various designs, they would make K'awiil-shaped eccentric flints. (And on a related note, the ancient Maya either may have thought or really did think that flint/chert happened when lightning hit the ground.)

It's also been found that, at the site of Piedras Negras, there are flakes of flint that had been painted with different gods's image, including K'awiil's image. In fact, K'awiil's image was the one that got painted the most.

Connection to Chaak

Speaking of stone, K'awiil was sometimes drawn as a hammer -- but not just any hammer. In his hammer form, drawings show him being used by Chaak.

This vessel was made between 800
AD and 1200 AD, in Mexico. From
the Yale University Art Gallery.

Patron God at Palenque

You may find it said that K'awiil was one of three patron gods of Palenque. He is seen as being the same as a god worshiped there that was called "Baby K'awiil" or "Unen K'awiil. (Archaeologists also call this god GII.)

Consideration: Astronomy Connection?

In the Late Classic, it was common for references to K'awiil -- inscriptions that include his name, or images of him -- to also talk about either Saturn or Jupiter when in retrograde. (Retrograde is the part of an object's orbit when it looks like it is moving west to east in comparison with the stars.)

There is a theory that has a lot of ideas about what this meant. Two ideas in it wonder if K'awiil was connected somehow to Jupiter -- or perhaps to Saturn and Jupiter's retrograde part of their orbits.

References:

Google Books: "The Ch'ol Maya of Chiapas"; Karen Bassie-Sweet; 2015

Google Books: "The Life Within: Classic Maya and the Matter of Permanence"; Stephen Houston; 2014

Google Books: "The Maya and their Central American Neighbors: Settlement Patterns, Architecture, Hieroglyphic Texts, and Ceramics"; Geoffrey E. Braswell (editor); 2014

Google Books: "Historical Dictionary of Mesoamerica"; Walter R.T. Witschey, Clifford T. Brown; 2012

Google Books: "The First Maya Civilization: Ritual and Power before the Classic Period"; Francisco Estrada Belli; 2011

Mesoweb: Maya Archaeology: Reports: "Painted Lithic Artifacts from PiedrasNegras,Guatemala"; Zachary X. Hruby; Gene Ware; 2009

Google Books: "Daily Life in Maya Civilization" second edition; Robert J. Sharer; 2009

Google Books: "Maya Sacred Geography and the Creator Deities"; Karen Bassie-Sweet; 2008

ResearchGate: "Archaeoastronomy: Journal of Astronomy in Culture": "The Maya Katun Cycle and the Retrograde Periods of Jupiter and Saturn"; Susan Milbrath; January 1, 2005

The University of Texas at Austin: Department of Astronomy: college of Natural Sciences: AST 301: Introduction to Astronomy

LACMA: Carved Box with Deities

The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Scepter with Profile Figures

The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Grasping the Foot of Lightning in a Maya Scepter Fragment

Image Credits:

LACMA: Carved Box with Deities

The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Ceremonial Handle (?)

The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Scepter with Profile Figures

Yale University Art Gallery: Pedestal Vase Depicting K’awiil, God of Lightning

Chert -- A Commonly Used Stone

Author's note: This post was last updated 11/25/17.

A Belizean eccentric flint that dates to around 500 AD. From Yale University Art Gallery.

Like jade and obsidian, chert was one of the multitude of minerals archaeologists know the ancient Maya made part of their lives. It was a part of their religious views, including the belief as they thought it was made from lightning strikes. (Encyclopedia of the Ancient Maya says that they thought Chac (God B) caused the lightning.) But it was more than just their beliefs -- the Maya saw chert as a source for making useful items. A type of quartz called microcrystalline quartz, chert (and flint, a dark type of chert) seems to have been used both for everyday uses and for ritual uses.

Uses

A Belizean blade with a point 
on each end that dates to 
550 AD to 675 AD. 
From Yale University
Art Gallery.

One way the ancient Maya incorporated chert into their lives was to make tools, such as the ax or hatchet that the ancient Maya used for farming, knives (some of which were used for ritual blood-letting,) and points for spears. When a tool lost its usefulness, the ancient Maya reshaped the chert to use for another tool. Chert tools used for heavy work like axes and hoes don't work as well as steel tools.


Then there were eccentric flints. These were pieces of chert (or one of several other kinds of stones) shaped into designs like the god K'awiil (God K.) They may have been used for rituals, and there's an idea out there that they could have been painted.

The ancient Maya, at least at the site of Piedras Negras during the Classic Period,  made something similar to eccentric flints. These were painted, but not shaped into different shapes like eccentric flints. Archaeologists didn't realize at first they were painted. They used to think these flakes were just that, flakes of chert. When organizing artifacts, they disrupted the surface of the flakes so they could write numbers on them.

Sourcing and Working It

An eccentric flint that
comes from 600 AD to
900 AD. It was either
made in Mexico or
Guatemala. From Yale
University Art Gallery.

A place with definite success potential when looking for chert in the Maya area is the lowlands, near bajos or swamps/wetlands that dry up in the dry season. To get chert out of the ground, the ancient Maya used pit mines that weren't that deep. (And when used up, the Maya would turn their chert mines into a place to store water -- these places are called aguadas, though there's also another kind of aguada that forms naturally. Limestone mines also would be turned into aguadas.)

To work chert, the ancient Maya used two types of methods. These methods were pressure flaking and  percussion flaking. Chert that wasn't the best for shaping got heat treated first. (Pressure flaking and percussion flaking were also the methods they used for obsidian.)

A site of note when it comes to chert and chert tools is Colhá, located in the north of Belize. This site had a centuries long history of being a place where chert came from -- a history that started in the Late Preclassic.

Consideration: The Chert-Free Zone
There is a part of the northern Yucatán Peninsula where archaeologists have not found much when it comes to chert tools. Technology of Maya Civilization says a possibly good name for this part of the peninsula is the Chert-Free Zone. The book also includes different ideas out there about how the ancient Maya in the Chert-Free Zone were able to not use tools made of chert.

References:
Google Books: "Encyclopedia of the Ancient Maya"; Walter R.T. Witschey (editor); 2016

Google Books: "The Life Within: Classic Maya and the Matter of Permanence"; Stephen Houston; 2014

Google Books: "Technology of Maya Civilization: Political Economy and Beyond in Lithic Studies"; Geoffrey E. Braswell, Oswaldo Chinchilla Mazariegos (editors); 2011

Google Books: "Cities of the Maya in Seven Epochs: 1250 B.C. to A.D. 1903"; Steve Glassman, Armando Anaya; 2011

 Mesoweb: Maya Archaeology Reports: "Painted Lithic Artifacts from Piedras Negras, Guatemala"; Zachary X. Hruby, Gene Ware; 2009 

Princeton University Art Museum: Eccentric flint with profiles of K'awiil, the lightning god, A.D. 600–800

Image Credits:
Yale University Art Gallery: Art of the Ancient Americas: Eccentric Flint

Yale University Art Gallery: Art of the Ancient Americas Double pointed flint blade

Yale University Art Gallery: Art of the Americas: Eccentric Flint