Avocados and the Ancient Maya

Avocados on the tree. From Pixabay uploader sandid.

Scientifically known as Persea americana, you may also know the avocado as the avocado pear or the more surprising-sounding alligator pear. Avocados (which grow on trees also called avocados) were in part domesticated by the ancient Maya, who used it in their diet -- and more.

Avocado in the Maya Calendar
The 14th month of the Haab', or solar calendar, was connected to avocados. The main part of the glyph was the glyph for avocado, which currently is thought to have been pronounced as "un." (On a related note, possible names for this month glyph are Uniw and Uniiw -- though you may have heard it called K'ank'in.) Below are drawings of K'ank'in as seen in a work by Sylvanus Griswold Morley called An Introduction to the Study of Maya Hieroglyphs.

In Religion
There was a belief among the ancient Maya that people who had died could come back as fruit trees -- and one such tree was the avocado. However, for this to happen, you had to have been important.

One place you can see the avocado tree in connection to a reborn ancestor is the sarcophagus of Pakal the Great (known by other names including Pacal.) Images of certain relatives of his were put on the sarcophagus, each one drawn near a fruit tree. Ix or Lady Yohl Ik'nal's (known by other names such as Lady K'anal-Ik'al and Lady Olnal) image is associated with an avocado tree.

The ancient Maya also had sacred groves, and they saw avocado trees as a worthy species to have in them.

Consideration: As a Place Name
In what is now Belize, a city-state seems to have been connected very strongly with the avocado. The name for this city-state -- or perhaps Pusilhá, one of its capitals -- included the glyph for avocado as its main part. In English, you may see Pusilhá called the Kingdom of the Avocado.

References:
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

ResearchGate: "Phyton" volume 29: "West Indian Avocado: Where Did It Originate?"; María Elena Galindo, Amaury martín Arzate; December 2010

University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln: "Nebraska Anthropologist": "Domestication and Significance of Persea americana,the Avocado, in Mesoamerica"; Amanda J. Landon; 2009

University of California, San Diego: “Archaeological Settlement Patterns in the Kingdom of the Avocado”; Beniamino P. Volta; 2007

The Free Dictionary: Avocado

Mesoweb: Palenque Resources: Rulers: Genealogy of Rulers at Palenque

Mesoweb: Palenque Resources: Rulers: "The Rulers of Palenque" fifth edition; Joel Skidmore; 2010

Image Credits:
Pixabay: Hass Avocado, Avocados, Fruit, Food

Project Gutenberg: "An Introduction to the Study of Maya Hieroglyphs"; Sylvanus Griswold Morley; 1915

Chacmools

Author's note: the images in this post come from the Project Gutenberg. The first one comes from the work titled "Queen Moo's Talisman" by Augustus Le Plongeon's wife Alice. The second image comes from "The Mayas, the Sources of Their History and Dr. Le Plongeon in Yucatan, His Account of Discoveries" by Stephen Salisbury, Jr.

Chacmools are statues carved in stone that look like man partly lying down. Peoples in Mesoamerica, including the ancient Maya -- at least in Guatemala's Quirigua and the state of Yucatan's Chichen Itza -- used these statues as part of their religion. You may find different spellings of the word chacmool when you look, such as chaacmol, chaac mool, chak mol, and chac mol.
Name Origin

Augustus Le Plongeon leaning
on the chacmool found on his
excavation.

The name came from a man named Augustus Le Plongeon (1826 to 1908.) He and some others were excavating a platform on the site of Chichen Itza, and they came across a chacmool. Le Plongeon decided it was a statue was a statue of a prince and called it either "Chaac Mool" or "chaacmol." He thought this was the prince's name. (Or may have been told this name.) The source that says Le Plongeon chose "Chaac Mool" says it means "great/red jaguar paw." The source that says he chose "chaacmol" says Stephpen Salisbury Jr. changed it into chacmool when he wrote about Le Plongeon.
(Afterwards, a lot of people found out about the statue and were very happy about this statue being found -- it was an exciting find, culturally. Le Plongeon wanted to take the chacmool to an exposition called the Centennial Exposition (which was in Philadelphia.) However, the president he asked was replaced by Porfirio Diaz. Diaz sent some of the military to take it up to Mexico City's National Museum of Mexico.

History
The ancient Maya in the Yucatan Peninsula started to use chacmools in the Postclassic Period or the Terminal Classic, which was the last part of the Classic Period. A theory says that the ancient Maya were the first to start using chacmools. Another possibility is that another culture, the Toltecs, had come to the Yucatan Peninsula -- the cities are similar to each other in other ways too.

Appearance
The idea was possibly to make them look like warriors that had been hurt or died. These carvings look like a man paused in the middle of a sit-up to watch something off to his side. Their arms are carved so it looks like they have knives tied to them, and their elbows are bent so it looks like they are holding themselves up with them. As for their heads, it was common for chacmools to be carved so it looked like they were wearing helmets or at least hats that look like helmets. And there's another important feature: they hold a disk/plate or bowl on their chests/stomachs.

Purpose
Chacmools were -- or at least possibly were -- used as places to put offerings. (Human sacrifice may or may not have been a kind of offering connected to chacmools. No one knows for sure.) The ancient Maya who used chacmools put them in their temples, in a front room that led to another room that was bigger -- that is, their temples' antechambers.

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

"Romancing the Maya: Mexican Antiquity in the American Imagination 1820 - 1915"; R. Tripp Evans; 2004

"The A to Z of Ancient Mesoamerica" The A to Z Guide Series, No. 140; Joel W. Palka; 2000

Mesoweb Encyclopedia: chacmool

"Chacmool"; Lawrence G. Desmond, Ph.D.  Senior Reseach Fellow in Archaeology  Mesoamerican Archive and Research Project  Peabody Museum, Harvard University 

The Free Dictionary: Antechamber

"Augutus Le Plongeon (1826-1908): Early Mayanist, archaeologist, and photographer"; Lawrence G. Desmond, Ph.D. Senior Research Fellow in Archaeology Mesoamerican Archive and Research Project Peabody Museum, Harvard University

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

Project Gutenberg: "The Mayas, the Sources of Their History and Dr. Le Plongeon in Yucatan, His Account of Discoveries"; Stephen Salisbury Jr.; 1877

The Maize God (God E)

Author's note: this post was last updated on 11/19/17.

Composite image by the author, made from photos of figurine made in the 700s AD,
in Mexico.It shows the Maize God wearing jewelry and a headdress,
in a corn plant. Source photos from the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Fertility, jade, beauty, and the idea of being young were all things the ancient Maya thought when they thought of the Maize God; they also would draw his head when they wanted a symbol of corn -- or a symbol of cacao. Other than all of these things, this god was connected to rulers and may have had several aspects. The ancient Maya believed in a lot of gods, and the Maize God -- which you may see called God E -- was definitely a major one in their religion.

Appearance 
The Maize God was drawn as young and with a head that looks somewhat like an ear of corn. That is, his head was elongated and he only had hair right on top of his head. He is also drawn with a whole bunch of jewelry made from jade, and on his belt there's an ornament that you may see called the "xook monster." (The "xook monster" looks like the head of a shark that was drawn with a lot of artistic license.)

This stucco artifact was made between
100 BC and 100 AD. It comes either from
Mexico or Guatemala. From LACMA, which
calls it an "architectural medallion."

The ancient Maya also liked to draw images of the Maize God wearing a netted "skirt" of jade that goes down to the middle of his thighs. This "skirt" might be a symbol of something else. Another is that it represents a turtle shell, which is a symbol representing the earth. (The turtle shell symbol is also part of a myth about the Maize God that the ancient Maya seemed to like a lot. See below for more in The Myth of the Maize God section.)

 How the ancient Maya drew the Maize God didn't always stay exactly the same. For a while, in the Early Classic (the first part of the Classic Period,) the ancient Maya liked to draw the Maize God so that his mouth was open and his two front teeth stuck out. They moved away from this, and eventually began to like drawing him with a closed mouth.

The Two Aspects
This description of the Maize God -- being young, with a long head and having only some hair -- might only apply to an aspect of the Maize God. You may know this aspect as the Tonsured Maize God. His ancient Mayan name might be Juun Ixiim, which has several translations including "One Grain Corn."

The reason why the description might be only for the Tonsured Maize God is because of what the ancient Maya who lived in the Classic Period never seemed to want to put on their pottery: images of another possible aspect, the Foliated Maize God. (Though they did use his name glyph as a "head variant" for the number eight.)

The Foliated Maize God, whose name might be Ajan, was connected to corn plants that were fully grown. The ancient Maya drew this possible aspect with an ear of corn coming out of his head. The ancient Maya who created the four known codices -- which come from the Postclassic Period -- seem to have drawn only him.

These two aspects might not even be aspects at all. There is also the belief that they were both gods on their own, though they were both gods of corn.

The Myth of the Maize God
There is a myth of the Maize God, seen from the Preclassic Period on into the Popol Vuh. (It doesn't mean it's always the exact same myth, though.) In it, the Maize God dies, goes into the underworld, and comes back to life.

The front pieces of a pair of earflares
showing the head of the Maize God
as a symbol of picked corn -- his
close eyes mean he's dead. They
were made in the 400s AD to 600s AD
and might be from Guatemala. From
The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

When they drew the Maize God going to the Underworld, which is drawn as being watery, Ancient Maya artists liked to show him going there in a canoe. The Maize God is then reborn, but as strange as it may sound, he isn't resurrected yet -- he only does that after he forces his way back above the ground. (He doesn't do it alone either -- he either has Chaak or the Hero Twins help him back out.) Before he can force his way back above ground through, women in the Underworld put pieces of jade jewelry on him -- this has to be done before he resurrects.

Connections to Ancient Maya Rulers
It seems rulers in the ancient Maya world wanted people to look at their family's rule as like the cycle of plants: when a ruler died, another one took that ruler's place. (It was supposed to be like the cycle had started over with the new ruler.)

This piece of pottery is from Guatemala and was
made between 300 AD and 600 AD. The ruler drawn
on it is impersonating the Maize God. From LACMA.

It also looks like rulers thought that they would actually have the same thing happen to them that happened to the Maize God in the myth -- so they had jade jewelry put on their bodies when they died. While alive, rulers would impersonate the Maize God for rituals, which was something they did with other gods too.

An example of where you can see a ruler dressed like the Maize God (and another god, K'awiil) is the sarcophagus lid of K'inich Janaab Pakal I, a ruler of Palenque. He may either be rising up from the Underworld, rising up to the Upperworld, or perhaps falling into the Underworld.

Another example of an impersonation of the Maize God is on Stela H at the site of Copan. The king impersonating the god on this stela is Waxaklajuun Ub'aah K'awiil. His netted "skirt" though goes to his ankles, which is not the normal length at all for it.

Consideration: Other Aspects?
According to Oswaldo Chinchilla Mazariegos, the Maize God had a lunar aspect. This is because there are a lot of images where he is drawn with a rabbit as well as a symbol representing the moon. This symbol, can start from one of two places: either his armpit or his back.

The figure on the left of this vase is a drawing of the Maize God
with that moon symbol. The vase comes from either Guatemala or Mexico
and was made between 300 AD and 900 AD. From LACMA.

There is a theory that the Maize God was somehow female too. This is because of the netted "skirt" that the ancient Maya liked to draw him wearing. However, this garment doesn't have any specific connection to women.

References:
Florida Museum: Latin American Exhibit: "Mesoamerican Artifacts"; Jeffrey R. Vadala; March 23rd, 2017

Google: Books: "Beauty around the World: A Cultural Encyclopedia"; Erin Kenny, Elizabeth Gackstetter Nichols; 2017

Google Books: "Art and Myth of the Ancient Maya"; Oswaldo Chinchilla Mazariegos; 2017

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

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

Mesoweb: "The PARI Journal" Volume XV, No. 2: "On the Reading of Three Classic Maya Portrait Glyphs"; Marc Zender; 2014

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

Mesoweb: "Antiquity" Volume 85; "In the path of the Maize God: a royal tomb at Nakum, Peten, Guatemala"; Jarosław Zrałka, Wiesław Koszkul, Simon Martin, Bernard Hermes; 2011

Google Books: "Death and the Classic Maya Kings"; James L. Fitzsimmons; 2009

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

Google Books: "The Ancient Maya: New Perspectives"; Heather McKillop; 2004

Google Books: "Archaeology of Ancient Mexico and Central America: An Encyclopedia"; Susan Toby Evans, David L. Webster (editors); 2001

Google Books: "Trees of Paradise and Pillars of the World: The Serial Stela Cycle of "18-Rabbit-God K," King of Copan"; Elizabeth A. Newsome; 2001

Los Angeles Mission College: "Jade - The Green Gold of the Maya"; Elisabeth Wagner


Image Credits:
The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Young Corn God

LACMA: Architectural Medallion Depicting the Maize God

The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Pair of Earflare Frontals

LACMA: Seated Ruler in the Guise of the Maize God

LACMA: Cylinder Vase with Moon Goddess and Other Celestial Beings

Jade -- A Precious Stone of the Maya

A jade ornament dating from the 600s to 700s AD. The design is 
meant to look like a ruler's head with a headdress. From The Metropolitan 
Museum of Art.

Jade is something of an umbrella term: its used as a name for two stones, nephrite and jadeite. Rarer than nephrite -- which has yet to be found in Mesoamerica -- jadeite is the type of jade that the Maya culture group made part of its life. While they also made use of a host of green-colored stones (like zoisite, serpentine, jasper, and amazonite), jade was the one the ancient Maya liked the most. 

Name Origin

The word jade comes from a phrase used by the Conquistadors. When talking to the Aztecs about green-colored stones, the Aztecs said these stones were supposed to heal liver, kidney, and spleen problems. So the Conquistadors started to call green-colored stones "piedra de ijada," which you might see spelled other ways such as "piedra de yjada." Translations for this phrase include "side/flank stone" or "loin stone."

Scientific Facts

This carving is of a god called Ux Yop H'un.
It's from the 600s AD to 700s AD.
From The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The formula for jade's chemical makeup is NaAlSi2O6. This means that it is made up of certain molecules of these elements: oxygen, silicon, aluminum, and sodium. Changes to this formula create different colors, such as black, light purple, white, blue and, of course, green. (Green is the most common color. It comes about when chromium is added into the mix.) 

This pendant comes from the 500s AD to

 800s AD. From The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

 Jade can be shaped so that it has a sharp edge, which can stay sharp pretty well. An important thing to note though, is that it is not common to find jade that's just jade. It's more common to find it combined with other minerals. This changes jade's features somewhat, such as how hard it is. (There is a scale called the Mohs scale of mineral hardness. This scale tests how hard minerals are when compared to each other. Diamond gets a 10. Jade's range of hardness goes from around 6.5 to 7.)

How They Worked It

From what archaeologists can tell, a multitude of ways to shape and/or set designs into stones were known to the ancient Maya. Examples of these ways include -- but are not limited to -- percussion (breaking jade to get the size you want,) polishing, reaming (making drilled holes' insides less rough,) sawing, and pecking (another style of breaking jade that left scars.) Another example of the many stone working methods the Maya had was drilling, done with both tubular drills, which drilled out a piece of stone, and solid drills, which drilled out a cone-shaped hole.

This jade object dates from the
200s AD to the 500s AD. It is a form of
the Principal Bird Deity. There is some
cinnabar still attached to it.
From The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Some of the ways the ancient Maya shaped jade involved an abrasive substance/grit, the fineness of the grains depending on what was being done to the jade. (A few kinds of grit they may have used include powdered jade and powdered quartzite.) An example where grit may have been used was sawing -- one type of sawing may have involved a string or cord that actually had grit stuck to it. (A variant on this says they also used water along with the string/cord and grit.)

As for tools, of which archaeologists haven't found a that many, the ancient Maya used stone and may have also used materials that can rot away over time, like the string used in the possible sawing method. One tool they may have had that was made of stone was the polishing rock -- archaeologists have found rocks that have dips in them from where the Maya may have rubbed jade to make it shiny. (It's possible the Maya also had other kinds of things they used to make jade shiny, like bamboo.) They may not have used rocks alone, but used grit and polishing rocks together.

Titled "Duck Pendant," this piece of jade was made
anywhere from 250 AD to 950 AD. The country it comes
from is either Mexico or Guatemala. From LACMA.

A popular way to add to the details of a jade object was to glue on red powder, made by crushing either hematite or cinnabar.  If a piece of jade had more than one color, there was a practice of trying to use the colors as part of the design of the object being made.

Where It Came From

The jade that the Maya civilization used came from the only source of jade in all of Mesoamerica -- so far as anyone's found. The source is in the Maya area -- specifically, in eastern Guatemala, in the Motagua River Valley. 

Things They Made

This is a par of earflares (without anything to go
through the holes) from the 200s AD to 500s AD.
From The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The ancient Maya made different items with jade. Examples items that the Maya made include pendants, beads  -- made with less high quality jade --, inlays for teeth, and funeral masks made of pieces of jade fitted together. They also made a type of earring called an earflare, which looks like a spool but with a hole in the middle. (An earflare was set into a piercing in an earlobe, and something would be set into the earflare's hole to keep it in place.)

Another jade pendant, this time from the
600s AD to 700s AD. The carved image is a ruler sitting.
From The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The biggest jade object that archaeologists know of weighs about 9.7 pounds and was found in 1968. It came from a royal grave in Belize's site of Altun Ha, from a building archaeologists call the Temple of the Masonry Altars. This piece of jade had been carved so that it looked like the head of the ancient Maya sun god, K'inich Ajaw/Kinich Ahau.

Cultural Meaning

For most of their history, the ancient Maya liked jade that was bright green above all. What did it mean to have jade? For one thing, it's possible the ancient Maya saw jade as the most impressive thing you could be seen wearing. (And it wasn't just an elite item, as archaeologists have found jade in both commoner and elite graves.)

Jade also meant religion in the ancient Maya civilization. There was a practice of putting a jade bead in a dead person's mouth. They also thought it was an object worthy of being used as a religious offering.

When the Maya thought of jade, they couldn't help but think of water, wind, the smell of flowers, and mist. It also looks like they were reminded of the soul somehow in connection to breath. (You may see this breath and soul connection called "breath soul.") They thought of all these things because they saw jade as the stone version of these them. The Maya also thought of other things: that jade was a symbol of divine rulership as well as corn.

References:

University of Arkansas College of Education and Health Professions Center for Mathematics and Science Education: Mohs Scale of Mineral Hardness

Google Books: "The Technology of Maya Civilization: Political Economy and Beyond in Lithic Studies"; Zachary X. Hruby, Geoffrey E. Braswell, Oswaldo Chinchilla Mazariegos; 2011

Google Books "Archaeomineralogy" second edition; George Rapp; 2009

University of Central Florida College of Sciences: "Ancient Maya Stone Polishers and Issues with the Terminology for the Artifacts Polished with these Tools"; Rachel R. Landry, B.A. University of Southern Alabama, 2008; 2013 

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

The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Pair of Earflare Frontals

Google Books: "The Oxford Handbook of Mesoamerican Archaeology"; Deborah L. Nichols, Christopher A. Pool (editors); 2012

Stanford University: Expressions of Central America: Guatemala: Ancient History: The Maya

Google Books: The Ancient Maya" sixth edition; Robert J. Sharer; 2006

Google Books: "The Memory of Bones: Body, Being, and Experience among the Classic Maya"; 2006

"Google Books: The A to Z of Ancient Mesoamerica" The A to Z Guide Series, No. 140; Joel W. Palka; 2000

PBS NOVA: Map of the Maya World

Academia: "Ancient Mesoamerica" Volume 16: "The Symbolism of Jade In Classic Maya Religion"; Karl Taube;  2005

The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Deity Figure

The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Deity Face Pendant

The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Pendant with Seated Lord

The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Pendant

The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Head Pendant

LACMA: Duck Pendant

The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Pair of Earflare Frontals

The Pennsylvania State University: "Ancient Mesoamerica" volume 17: Dental Modification in the Postclassic Population from Lamanai, Belize"; Jocelyn S. Williams, Christine D. White; 2006