Ancient Maya Life: water

Showing posts with label water. Show all posts

Wednesday, April 25, 2018

Caves

Caves were special places to the ancient Maya. The Maya connected caves with a number of things, including the underworld, mountains, water, and corn -- which the Maya thought the creator gods had taken from a mountain to make people. Caves were also also places for burial and for holding rituals. Some of the more famous caves that the ancient Maya used are Naj Tunich and Actun Tunichil Muknal (Cave of the Crystal Sepulcher.)

The Mayan Name for Cave

It's thought that the ancient Mayan name for cave is either ch'en or ch'een, though people studying ancient Mayan writing are still making sure – and you may also find ch'é'en. (To keep things simple, this post will just use ch'een.) This word doesn't just mean cave though. It means a lot of other things too -- well, rock shelter, cenote, canyon, hole, and spring, for example.

The word also seems to somehow be connected to the idea of location or community. One view on this can be seen in Tikal: Paleoecology of an Ancient Maya City. This view says ch'een’s meanings include "city center" and “water cave.”

Added Features

The ancient Maya often changed the caves they used. One thing they would do is paint images of animals as well as people in the caves. Another thing they would do is carve things like heads, skulls, footprints and geometric shapes into the cave. They would also build things in them like tombs, stairways, platforms, and shrines.

Functions

In the ancient Maya view of the way the world worked, caves had a lot of different functions. I've separated the functions I've come across below.

Source of Water, Rain, Corn, and Clouds

The Maya thought that water, clouds and rain, came from caves. (The idea of clouds from caves isn’t so strange as it may seem -- the Maya area has tropical locations, and it is in tropical locations that clouds can form and come out of caves.) You may also find the view that there was a belief among the ancient Maya that lightning came from caves too.

Place of Sacrifice/Burial

One use the ancient Maya had for caves was as a place to put the dead. And it wasn’t just people who had died naturally. The Maya would also bury people they had killed as sacrifices in caves -- in fact, they would also go to really hard to get to sections of caves to sacrifice people. (The Maya also killed animals in caves as sacrifices.) It may even be the ancient Maya had caves for burying the bodies of their sacrifices as well as caves for burying people who had died but hadn't been sacrifices.

Source of Formations

The Maya used cave formations in rituals and not just in caves. There was a practice where a tall stalactite or stalagmite would be taken from where it formed and set up somewhere else. The stalagmite or stalactite could be set up inside the cave it formed in, just in a different spot – or was taken outside to be set up somewhere else.

Supernatural Doorway

The Maya thought that caves were connected with the Underworld. There are different views on how exactly the Maya thought the two were connected. One view says they thought caves were doorways that connected the human world to the underworld. (There's also a view that the ancient Maya thought caves were parts of the underworld, not just doorways to it.) They thought that gods from the underworld sent things out through caves. (There's also a different view that caves were ways to talk to creator grandparent gods – and that these gods were believed to control the sea. Yet another view says that the ancient Maya thought that more than one rain god lived in caves.) The Maya would give the gods of the underworld offerings in these caves.

Possible Use: Period Ending Rituals

One specific ways the ancient Maya may have used caves as places to have ritual celebrations – archaeologists have found evidence that these ritual celebrations were celebrating other rituals for “period ending.” (Period ending rituals were rituals for when a certain period of time had become complete, like a b'akt'un – a period of 144,000 days.)

Consideration: Diphrastic Kennings

The ancient Maya had special phrases that you may see called diphrastic kennings. These were pairs of words that sounded close to each other – but meant two different things -- that when put together were a way of saying an idea.

For example, one diphrastic kenning that had ch’een in it was chan ch’een. This translates as “sky cave” but means "world" or "universe." That is, all of reality. (There’s a view that says it’s possible that when the ancient Maya wrote ch’een, they were just using a short form of the diphrastic phrases that had ch’een in it.)

References:

Mesoweb: "The PARI Journal" Volume 17 Issue 4: "A Carved Speleothem Monument at Yaxchilan, Mexico"; Christophe Helmke; 2017

YouTube: "How caves showed me the connection between darkness and imagination | Holley Moyes | TEDxVienna"; TEDx Talks; November 22, 2016

Google Books: "Tikal: Paleoecology of an Ancient Maya City"; David L. Lentz, Nicholas P. Dunning, Vernon L. Scarborough (editors); 2015

Google Books: "Maya Pilgrimage to Ritual Landscapes: Insights from Archaeology, History, and Ethnography"; Joel. W. Palka; 2014

Google Books: "Sacred Darkness: A Global Perspective on the Ritual Use of Caves"; Holley Moyes (editor); 2012

Western Oregon University: "From Out of the Earth: Water, Maize and Caves in Ancient Maya Myth and Religion"; Clara Scillian Kennedy; June 13, 2011

University of Central Florida: STARS: "New Perspectives On The Quatrefoil In Classic Maya Iconography The Center And The Portal"; Rachel K. Egan; 2011

Google Books: "Exploring Maya Ritual Caves: Dark Secrets from the Maya Underworld"; Stanislav Chládek; 2011

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

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

Mesoweb: "Maya Creator Gods"; Karen Bassie; 2002

UC Merced: Holley Moyes: Belize Cave Project

Thursday, December 14, 2017

The Waterlily Serpent

This vessel (in the collection of LACMA) comes from Guatemala's
southern highlands. It shows different beings,
including what LACMA calls the Waterlily Monster.

There are different supernatural beings in the art created by the Maya civilization. Wahys -- also known as ways -- are one example. Another example is the Waterlily Serpent as archaeologists call it (among other names.) A god, it seems to have connections to very different things, including water.

Appearance
Descriptions of the Waterlily Serpent can differ somewhat. One way of describing it is to say it's a giant, squiggling snake that has a long, droopy nose, has no jaw, has a long projection coming from the upper part of its mouth and has plumes of feathers on its body. As for its eyes, they've been described as scrolled or spiral. (And, sometimes it doesn't have the body of a serpent. The ancient Maya had images of this being with a human body too.)

The being also tends to have been drawn with a headdress of a blooming waterlily and its pad -- fish are drawn biting the hat or both ends of the serpent, depending on the source.

Names
Other than the Waterlily Serpent, you may find sources that call this being the Water Serpent, Waterlily Monster or Imix Monster, among other names. There are also sources use "water lily" instead of "waterlily." But these are modern names -- what did the ancient Maya call it?

One possible translation for the being's name is witz', which may mean something sort of like moving water. David Stuart, a noted ancient Maya expert, wrote once that its name could be Juun Witz’ Naah Kan, or a variation on that possibility.

Powers and Connections
One thing that this being may have been a god of is water. The exact type of water god it was depends on the source. It may have been the god that controlled just the surface of water. Or it was the god of sources of water on/in the ground such as lakes, cenotes, and running water like rivers.

Some other things in nature that it's thought the Waterlily Serpent was connected to was wind as well as caves (thought to be the places from which wind and water came) and the moon.

The Waterlily Serpent also seems to have been a god connected to certain, more specifically human things, including the Haab' and the Long Count as well as elites. It seems to be connected to rituals the ancient Maya did whenever there was a "period ending." (In the Classic Period, there would be rituals for the end of different periods in the Long Count. Which periods were chosen depended on the community.) Finally, this serpent being is thought to be the god of the number 13.

Uses of the Serpent's Image
The Waterlily Serpent's image as something to wear has been found in the Maya civilization's art. For instance, it looks like there were times that people would dress as the Waterlily Serpent to do period ending rituals. (There are also other images of rulers wearing the serpent's head as a headdress.)

But that wasn't the only way that the ancient Maya used the image of the Waterlily Serpent. Scribes used it as a glyph for Haab' (360 days) in their calendar inscriptions -- sometimes they drew it as a sentient form of the Haab'.

And that wasn't the only way that the ancient Maya used the Waterlily Serpent's image in their writing. The head variant glyph for the number 13 is thought to be the Waterlily Serpent's head. (Head variant glyphs are glyphs that look like heads. They are used as part of monument inscriptions, in a section archaeologists call the Initial Series.)

In terms of art, this being was also a popular choice for painting on ceramics. Artists especially preferred to draw it in a type of theme that archaeologists call the Underwater World.

Consideration: Two Different Beings?
The terms Waterlily Serpent and Waterlily Monster might not mean the same being, because they don't look exactly the same -- a theory separates these two terms based on differences in images that have been studied. They might be two aspects of another being. Or, each might be a being in their own right. Another possibility is that the Waterlily Monster is the Waterlily Serpent's head after it has been cut off.

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

Mesoweb: The Pari Journal: "In The Realm of the Witz’:Animate Rivers and Rulership among the Classic Maya"; Jeremy D. Coltman; 2015

Google Books: "Obsidian Reflections: Symbolic Dimensions of Obsidian in Mesoamerica"; Marc N. Levine, David M. Carballo (editors); 2014

University of Missouri-Columbia: Museum of Art and Archaeology: "End of Days: Real and Imagined Maya Worlds"; November 17, 2012 - March 17, 2013

Google Books: "Breaking the Maya Code", Third Edition; Michael D. Coe; 2012

The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley: Journal of Ethnobiology 32(1): 74–107: "Water Lily and Cosmic Serpent: Equivalent Conduits of the Maya Spirit Realm"; J. Andrew McDonald, Brian Stross; 2012

Google Books: "The Ashgate Research Companion to Monsters and the Monstrous"; Asa Simon Mittman with Peter J. Dendle (editors); 2012

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

Google Books: "To Be Like Gods: Dance in Ancient Maya Civilization"; Matthew G. Looper; 2009

Maya Decipherment: Ideas on Ancient Maya Writing and Iconography: "Reading the Water Serpent as WITZ'"; David Stuart; April 3, 2007

University of California, Davis: Maya Hieroglyphic Database Project: Glyph Dwellers, Report 16, December 2003: "The 'Manikin' Glyph Compound (T86:700) as a Reference to Headdresses"; Matthew G. Looper

Mesoweb: Mesoweb Articles: "Maya Creator Gods"; Karen Bassie; 2002

Image Credit:
LACMA: Vessel with Water Lily Serpent and Underworld Imagery

Friday, October 12, 2012

Itzamná (God D)

In the Postclassic Period codices, this god used to be called (and in some books still is) god D. Worshiped at least as far back as the Preclassic Period, Itzamná -- a name spelled various ways -- was a god whose name translates as "one who does itz." ("Itz" seems to be a word that means any sacred liquid -- such as water, sap, and blood.)

Itzamná was the first shaman and a creator god (though some books say that he was an aspect of a creator god or one-half of a god.) He had a lot of avatars, was connected with various things such as rulers, writing and possibly god N. He also seems to have connections to the gods of rain, corn, and the sun as well as the world tree.

History of Importance
As history passed, Itzamná became a very important god to the ancient Maya. Then the Classic Period collapse happened, and he became less important. His importance went down because the Maya had begun to stop believing in rulers that were connected to the gods -- they were switching to councils. Later on, in the Yucatan Peninsula, Itzamná's importance increased again.

Appearance
Itzamná appears to be elderly and male. His nose is big, and a description you may see of it is "Roman." The shape of his eyes was drawn either square or round, depending on the artifact.There are also certain things the ancient Maya tended to draw as part of their depictions of Itzamná. One is his headdress, which has a flower with an ak'bal symbol (ak'bal means dark/night) in it. Another thing they tended to show him wearing was a necklace made of shell.

Art with Itzamná in it shows him doing things like creating the sky or being a ruler that's managing a ritual. Also, it was common for the ancient Maya to draw him sitting on a throne.

Function
Among other gods, rulers may have looked to Itzamná's supernatural court as something to imitate as a form of 'correct' behavior. If true, this included how they set up their cities as well as how they acted themselves. (It seems that other gods' lives were possibly imitated as well.)

Quirigua's Stela C appears to be an example of the belief that Itzamná helped make the current world. It seems like the stela says that Itzamná -- which the stela calls Six Sky Lord -- and three other gods set three "throne stones" for a hearth in the sky. (Itzamná's throne stone was the water or waterlily throne stone.) Part of this stela also shows Quirigua's Ruler I in a ceremony, dressed up as Itzamná -- dressing up as gods as part of rituals was something the Maya did, and one of the gods they're known to have imitated in rituals was Itzamná. (There's a theory that rulers used quetzal feathers as part of their headdresses to copy the Principal Bird Deity, one of Itzamná's aspects.)

The ancient Maya in the Postclassic Period went to him (among certain other gods) when the coming year was predicted to be an unfortunate year, with disasters such as crop failure. They would ask him to keep the year from having disasters.

Itzamná was a god of scribes -- and he was a scribe himself. He was also a god of knowledge.

This god was also connected to some more pointedly mystical things. One of these was foretelling the future. The other was the ability to look at things that you couldn't normally see as a person.

Curiously, it seems Itzamná had a bad side too. This negative part of him would destroy crops.

Aspects
Four aspects of Itzamná are a peccary, a turtle with a k'an sign on its shell, a possum, rattlesnake and the crocodile-like creature that makes up the earth -- that is, the part that people live on, in between the upperworld and underworld. (There is a theory though that Maya art that shows animals as being the land on which people walk should not be taken literally.) Itzamná also has a group of four aspects, each connected to one of the four cardinal directions and a color. And another aspect of his was the Milky Way.

The goddess Chak Chel (you might come across books that refer to her as Ix Chel) may be an aspect of Itzamná, or perhaps they were two parts of one deity. The ancient Maya may have given Itzamná and Chak Chel credit for being the creators of people as well as time. The two may have been seen as the gods of healing as well.

In the Classic and Postclassic Period at least, another aspect -- or perhaps spirit animal companion -- of Itzamná was a supernatural bird that has the same headdress as him. Images of the bird also tend to have it holding a snake in its beak. Archaeologists sometimes call this bird the Principal Bird Deity (PBD for short) or the Itzamná bird. Because of how it looks, there's a theory that this bird's appearance may have been based off of a real species of bird called the laughing falcon or guaco (Herpetotheres cachinnans) -- but not everyone agrees on what bird the Principal Bird Deity is supposed to be like though.

(There's a also theory that Itzamná (god D) is actually a a mix of of Pauahtun (god N) and the Principal Bird Deity.)

Consideration
Itzamná tends to be drawn with a hummingbird. In these images, the hummingbird is giving him things. This may mean that the hummingbird was Itzamná's messenger. It's not the only possible messenger of this god's though. Archaeologists have found evidence that there were times where the Principal Bird Deity delivered messages for Itzamná. The name for the Principal Bird Deity as a messenger could be Muut Itzamnaaj.

References: