Tuesday, February 20, 2018

Codex-Style Vessels

The scene in this vessel shows different gods. Two of them are a god of rain and the god of corn -- the god of rain has broken part of a building, and this is letting the god of corn become alive again. From the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Codex-style vessels are ceramic vessels that come in different shapes and were painted in the same style as the four known ancient Maya codices, which were made in the Postclassic Period. (The term "codex-style" for the vessels comes from Michael D. Coe.) The vessels were made in the part of the Classic Period called the Late Classic. So far, most of the codex-style vessels archaeologists have found come from Guatemala’s Petén region, in the north-central part of it.

History
The gods that were painted on this codex-style
may be images of K'awiil (god K.) From the
Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Within the Late Classic, codex-style vessels were made around the start of the 700s AD – between 672 AD and 731 AD or 670 AD and 740 AD. They weren’t made for very long though – possibly around 50 years. They were made mostly or entirely in the Mirador Basin. The vessels may even have been made only at one site, Nakbé-- though there is another view that they were made in the area in and around Calakmul.

How many codex-style vessels have archaeologists come across? This seems to depend on the source. In her 2015 dissertation, Sacrificing the Jaguar Baby: Understanding a Classic Maya Myth on Codex-style Pottery, Penny Steinbach says that 350 to 400 of vessels with no missing parts have been found. This seems to be backed up by the site MayaVase, a site that shows, among other things, photographs of ancient Maya pottery. The site gives over 50 pages of results for codex-style pottery. (Archaeologists have found a lot of shards of codex-style vessels as well.)

This codex-style vessel has
a fluted outside. From LACMA.
There is something to consider when it comes to codex-style vessels: a lot of them are unprovenanced. The term “unprovenanced” means that they were not found at a site. Because these vessels pass through sellers, it is common for the paint to have been touched up (or even modified) – done in the hope they will be easier to sell.

General Design
Normally, codex-style vessels have glyphs and images painted in black on a cream, yellow, or beige background with a red line around the edge of the base and a red line around the rim. Thin gray paint was used to add shading. The painters liked to use a lot of curves for the images and glyphs they painted -- you may see their painting style described as being a type of calligraphy.

What the Maya Painted on the Vessels
A variety of images and glyphs were drawn on codex-style vessels. For example, one scene the Maya would paint is a scene of magic being used to make an old, male god appear. Another scene they would paint shows a sacrifice of a supernatural being called the Baby Jaguar. (There’s a theory that scenes on these vessels together make one myth. It’s also been theorized that some vessels show parts of the story also found in the Popol Vuh.)

Other than different kinds of images with glyphs, the ancient Maya who made codex-style vessels would paint large inscriptions about a line of rulers.

The scene painted here shows the scene of the Baby Jaguar being sacrificed. The right shows the death god (god A) or a death spirit, and the left shows either the or a rain god. From the Metropolitan Museum of Art.


Consideration: The Glyphs
Speaking of glyphs, inscriptions on codex-style vessels have some strange features. It is common for glyphs on codex-style vessels to be “pseudo-glyphs,” which are glyphs that don’t mean anything. And when there is real writing, it’s only in the passive tense. (A comparison of passive and active in English: I threw the ball (active.) The ball was thrown by me (passive.)) Also, some less common glyphs are used.

Then, the dates. They don't make sense with the Maya calendar system. There are theories that try to explain this. One theory says that it’s because the dates are meant to be set in mythological times. Another says that a lot of codex-style vessels are probably just fakes.

Use
There are a number of theories about what codex-style vessels were used for. One theory says that they were tools for teaching ancient Maya boys about to become adults. Another of the theories says that they were political gifts sent from the ruler Calakmul – they were sent to less powerful rulers as part of making them loyal to Calakmul.


But what archaeologists have found for sure is that codex-style cylinder vessels were put in burials. They, like other types of pottery put in burials, may have been used before they were buried.


References:
The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History: "Ancient Maya Painted Ceramics";  James Doyle; April 2017

Maya Decipherment: Ideas on Ancient Maya Writing and Iconography: "The Universe in a Maya Plate"; James Doyle;  March 4, 2017

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

Google Books: "The Origins of Maya States"; Loa P. Traxler, Robert J. Sharer (editors); 2016

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

The University of Texas at Austin: Texas Scholar Works: University of Texas Libraries: "Sacrificing the Jaguar Baby : understanding a classic Maya myth on codex-style pottery"; Penny Steinbach; May 2015 (Click on the PDF icon for it to download.)

Google Books: "Faking Ancient Mesoamerica"; Nancy L. Kelker, Karen O. Bruhns; 2010

The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Cylindrical Vessel

Image Credits:
The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Codex-Style Vase with Mythological Scene

The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Cylindrical Vessel

LACMA: Fluted Cylinder Vessel

The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Vessel, Mythological Scene
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Tuesday, February 13, 2018

Constellations and the Ancient Maya

A photo taken at Arches
National Park.

Did the ancient Maya have constellations? It is believed they did – and the constellations may have been on the ecliptic, the route the sun "takes" annually. However, archaeologists still haven’t been able to figure out what ancient Maya constellations were exactly.

Constellation Evidence
One example of evidence that the ancient Maya had constellations is in their structures. Archaeologists have found that the Maya would build structures so that they lined up with a constellation during its cycle through the sky. For example, at Utatlan, they have found buildings that are lined up with Orion when it is “setting.” But evidence for ancient Maya constellations also seems to show up in ancient Maya art as well.

One example of what’s thought to be evidence for ancient Maya constellations is in the codices. For example, in the Paris codex, page 23 and 24 have drawings of animals, each biting an eclipse glyph. These are possible constellations. Each drawing has the number 168 next to it. ("168" might mean 168 days.) And it’s not just in the codices – images of groups of animals thought to be drawings of constellations have been found in buildings.

Examples of structures where you can find images groups of animals thought to represent constellations include the East Wing of the Nunnery at Chichen Itza, the Governor’s Palace at Uxmal, and at Acanceh’s Palace of the Stuccoes.

These groups of animals don’t all show the same animals, or the same number of animals. And, at least with the Paris Codex, there is some disagreement about which animals the ancient Maya were drawing.

Possible Identities
Two people who study ancient Maya astronomy, Victoria and Harvey Bricker, created a list of possible constellations, using the list in the Paris Codex’s animals. In this list they thought the constellations the ancient Maya may have had were:

  • The Pleiades, drawn as a rattlesnake
  • Aries, drawn as an ocelot
  • Gemini, drawn as a bird they called a cox bird or bird 2
  • Pisces, drawn as a skeleton
  • Scorpio, drawn as a scorpion
  • Aquarius, drawn as a bat
  • Libra, drawn as an animal they called bird 1
  • Sagittarius, drawn as a fish-snake
  • Capricorn, drawn as an animal they called bird 3
  • Virgo, drawn as an animal they couldn’t identify
  • Orion, drawn as a turtle
  • Leo:
    • eastern stars: a peccary
    • western stars: a frog


Outside this list, you'll find sources that say the ancient Maya saw the stars of Orion’s belt as a constellation. It seems there was more than one idea about this group of stars. It looks like one idea they had – at least at Quirigua and Palenque -- was that it was a group of hearthstones connected to creation. (They called it the “three-stone place.) Another idea was that it was a turtle.

Speaking of turtles, there’s another view about what constellation the ancient Maya saw in Gemini: a turtle. And that’s not the only other view: there’s another idea that says when the ancient Maya looked at Gemini, they saw a peccary.

As for the Pleiades, you may see it theorized that a rattlesnake's rattle was a symbol of the these stars. (On a related note, Diego de Landa's writings say that that's what the Maya he spoke with saw in the Pleiades. He also says that along with Gemini, the Pleiades was a constellation that the Maya he spoke with liked to keep track of the most.)

Zodiac
The ancient Maya may have had a zodiac as well as constellations. One theory says the Maya had a zodiac that had 13 constellations. This theory also says that each constellation was connected to a period of 28 days.


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

 Mesoweb: "The PARI Journal" Volume XV; Winter 2015

(Link goes to what the site calls: Paris Codex: 23-24 Frame: 1)


Image Credits:
NPS/William Pedro
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Monday, February 5, 2018

Atole -- Ancient Maya Drinks

The glyphs for ul ("u" and "lu.") A picture glyph for ul
hasn't been found yet.


Atole (ah-TOE-lay) is one of the varieties of drinks that we know the ancient Maya (and the Maya today) drank.) The two ingredients you absolutely need to make it are cooked corn that's been ground up and water – but other ingredients can also be put into it. (The True History of Chocolate says it is made with corn that is "young.") You may see it called gruel.

The Basic Name
Our name for the drink, “atole,” does not come from any Mayan language. Atole (ah-TOH-lay) comes from an Nahuatl (the language of the Aztecs) word ātolli (which is an altered form of ātl, which means “water.”) This is the word that the Spanish used when they saw the ancient Maya's versions of corn drinks.

What did the Maya, or at least the elite Maya, call atole? Well, there are vessels that were used for atole, and from these archaeologists have found two words: ul (which you may see spelled ‘ul, with a glottal stop) and sa’. One theory thinks it’s possible that sa’ was a word for all types of atole. It’s also possible that ul was a word used for the special kinds of atole that elites drank for special times.

On something of a related note, atole shows up on the captioned murals at Calakmul’s North Plaza. A woman pouring a cup of atole for a customer has a caption: aj ul. This phrase has been translated as “atole person” and seems to be a title for an atole seller.


Types
The glyphs for sakha'.
One type of atole that has been found is kakawal ul, a translation of which is “chocolatey atole.” Some other types that have been found include k'an atole or "ripe atole" and ch'aj ul or "bitter atole." Ch'aj ul may be a drink where parched corn that's been powdered has been mixed with water. There’s also sa’al kakaw, which may be a cacao drink that some basic atole mixed into it or a cacao drink that had a texture like atole – or both. 

Yet another of the different types of atole the ancient Maya had was used for religious purposes. This type of atole had the name sak ha’ (also spelled sakha,) which means “white water.” According to The True History of Chocolate, the ancient Maya made it by mixing together water and fully ripe corn that had been cooked and ground -- but hadn't been treated with the mineral lime. (The treatment is called nixtamalization.) 

Consideration: Atole Vessels
Archaeologists have found a lot of bowls that have inscriptions that include the ul word for atole. These bowls are not deep, and they have walls that are first straight then lean outwards a little bit higher up. This isn’t the only type of atole vessel, but it is a common one.


References:



Image Credits:
Author's drawings based off of:







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Tuesday, January 30, 2018

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

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Monday, January 22, 2018

The Jaguar God of the Underworld

This is a rollout of a vessel that comes from Guatemala and dates to the 500s AD to the 600s AD. It shows the Jaguar God
of the Underworld. From the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Like the Waterlily Jaguar, the Jaguar God of the Underworld was a supernatural jaguar being that the ancient Maya believed existed. This god seems to be connected to the underworld (Xibalbá) and may have been an aspect of the sun god. Other names you might see used for him include the Jaguar Night Sun, the Jaguar War God, and JGU. 

Features
Other than having jaguar features, the Jaguar God of the Underworld has some other characteristics of worthy of note. For one thing, his eyes were square. (This isn't unusual, because there are other ancient Maya gods also had square eyes.) The pupils of his eyes were spirals. (Archaeologists have found that underworld beings had spiral eyes.) Between his eyes, a twisted cord or rope goes up -- archaeologists call this a "cruller."

Then there was his teeth -- or more accurately, tooth -- as the ancient Maya drew him only with one. There were, however, two ways that they drew his tooth. One of the two ways they drew it was a fang. The second way was to draw it like a capital "T." (This "T" shape is an ik' symbol.) Both of these teeth were in the middle of his top gum, where a person's front teeth would normally go.

Finally, the ancient Maya drew this god with k'in signs. These are symbols of the sun.

Purpose
The Jaguar God of the Underworld may have been the sun at night (when it was going through the underworld) and been connected to the Moon. As such, he may have been an aspect of the sun.

There's another idea though. The Jaguar God of the Underworld may have been a fire god. The cruller may represent a rope used for a fire-making tool called a fire drill. And there are images of certain elites doing rituals connected to fire -- dressed as the Jaguar God of the Underworld.

This supernatural being was connected to several other things, one of which was war. (On a related note, one place you can see an image of the Jaguar Sun of the Underworld is the "Tablet of the Sun" at Palenque. On the tablet, his image is on a shield.) Art and Myth of the Ancient Maya says that the Maya in the Classic Period believed this god was a patron god of war. And that wasn't the only thing he was patron of -- he was also the number 7's patron god.

Connected Beings
Another supernatural jaguar being that the ancient Maya believed in was the Jaguar Baby (Unen Bahlam or Unen B'alam.) This being was an aspect of the Jaguar God of the Underworld, a form of him as a baby.
This is an stone carving of a "GI type deity."
It was made from limestone or marble around
100 BC to 100 AD and comes from Mexico.
From the Yale University Art Gallery.

Another god that the Maya at Palenque believed in, which archaeologists call GI, may also bee connected to the Jaguar God of the Underworld. GI could be the sun when it is rising -- and therefore be the Jaguar God of the Underworld turning into the sun god again. 

As Part of Glyph C
In monument inscriptions, the ancient Maya would take the time to write down calendar-related information. This included glyph C, which was part of a series of glyphs that talked about the moon. Part of glyph C could be one of three different images, depending on where the moon was at in its cycle. One of these, it seems, was the Jaguar God of the Underworld.

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

Google Books: "Mortuary Landscapes of the Classic Maya: Rituals of Body and Soul"; Andrew K. Scherer; 2015
  
Google Books: "Archaeoastronomy and the Maya"; Gerardo Aldana Y Villalobos, Edwin L. Barnhart (editors); 2014

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

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

Google Books: "The Memory of Bones:Body, Being, and Experience Among the Classic Maya"; Stephen Houston, David Stuart, Karl Taube; 2006


Image Credits:
The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Vessel, Seated Deities

 Yale University Art Gallery: Jaguar head of a GI type deity, probably an inset from a waist or chest assumblage
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Monday, January 15, 2018

The Baby Jaguar


This vessel came from Guatemala and was made between the 600s AD and 700s AD. It's style is the codex style. From the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The ancient Maya believed in different kinds of supernatural jaguar beings, such as the Water Lily Jaguar and the Jaguar God of the Underworld. Yet another was a being known as the Baby Jaguar or Unen Bahlam. (You might also see Bahlam spelled as B'alam.) The Baby Jaguar looks like it may have been connected to sacrifice, the sun, and rain.

 Appearance
This particular jaguar was drawn three ways, from all jaguar and half-jaguar to human. (There's a theory about why they drew it three ways, which suggests that there were three beings the Maya were drawing.) There's a cord that goes out from somewhere around his eyes, which archaeologists call a "cruller." 

 Also, this being was drawn with a tooth in the middle of the upper part of his mouth, where you normally have your front teeth. This tooth was either a a fang or a tooth that you may see called an "ik' tooth" -- a tooth shaped like the ik' symbol. (This symbol looks like the capital letter "T.")

History
There is a kind of pottery called "codex style" pottery. "Codex style" means that the painters drew images the same way that images are drawn in the codices. The ancient Maya only made codex style pottery around the beginning of the 700s AD, though they made a lot of it. A scene they liked to draw on this kind of pottery is one that has the Baby Jaguar being sacrificed in it. (There were actually two Baby Jaguar scenes they painted, but they preferred the sacrifice scene.)

And the ancient Maya didn't just use images. They also wrote about the Baby Jaguar. Tikal especially seemed to like writing about it, in the Early Classic.

 The Baby Jaguar may have been part of a myth that was connected to the belief in divine rulers. This is because archaeologists haven't found any records about a Baby Jaguar myth from the records that date to the time of contact with the conquistadors. (Belief in divine rulers had become less and less common before the conquistadors arrival -- so it's possible myths connected to the rulers began to disappear.)

The Scene(s)
The basic idea of the scene has two gods, the Baby Jaguar, a witz (a living mountain,) and water moving around on the ground. As for the gods, they are described somewhat differently, depending on the source. One god is either a rain god, the rain god, Chaak, or a version of Chaak called First Rain Chaak. The second god is either a death god or the death god -- and one source (a 2015 dissertation by Penny Janice Steinbach) calls this being a death spirit. The basic scene has all these beings be outside, and the time is between sunset and sunrise. 

 It looks like the death god or spirit has thrown the Baby Jaguar to the mountain. As for the rain god, who the ancient Maya liked to draw wearing eyeballs around his neck in the scene, there are two possibilities. One is that he is going to open a door to the underworld (Xibalbá) so the Baby Jaguar will end up there. The other is that he's going to remove the Baby Jaguar's head. 

 There are also vessels that show a lord being shown the Baby Jaguar. Vessels that have this scene are not common.

 Meaning
More than one theory is out there on what the Baby Jaguar sacrifice scene means. One theory says it's about an offering in order to conjure up another god, who is old. Another says the scene shows a sacrifice to make rain happen.

There's also a theory that's based off of part of a vessel that came from the site of Calakmul. The theory says the images are showing a ritual that a royal child next in line to be ruler had to do in order to be able to do conjuring magic.
Consideration: The Jaguar God of the Underworld
The Baby Jaguar looks like its connected to the Jaguar God of the Underworld. The Jaguar God of the Underworld was a god that may have been connected to different things, including the sun when it goes through Xibalbá. The Baby Jaguar may have been a form of the Jaguar God of the Underworld.
References:

 Image Credits:
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Tuesday, January 9, 2018

The Water Lily Jaguar

In the middle of this rollout image is the Water Lily Jaguar. It is on a witz (a living mountain) in between a wahy on the left and Chaak on the right. (There's also a serpent that is coming out of the witz.) The vessel was made between 600s AD and 700s AD, either in Mexico or Guatemala. From the Metropolitan Museum of Art. 

Known today as the Water Lily Jaguar, this underworld (or Xibalbá) god was one of the more major ones the ancient Maya worshiped. It was associated with royalty and libation (pouring liquid as a sacrifice.) The Water Lily Jaguar is still a puzzle for archaeologists, and there are different theories about what the ancient Maya believed about it.

Appearance
This vessel was made between the 600s AD to the
700s AD, in Guatemala. It's style is the Chamá style.
From the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
The Water Lily Jaguar looks like a jaguar that has water lilies on it or next to it and a collar of eyeballs, which could mean the god was connected to sacrifice.

As for the water lilies' placement, sometimes they're on the god, sometimes there's just one flower on its head (and its ears are water lily leaves,) and sometimes they're around it. (One description -- in a paper by J. Andrew McDonald and Brian Stross -- also says that you can find images of the god with a water lily "blade" is on its head, instead of a water lily flower.)

When the flowers are around or all over the Water Lily Jaguar, there are also symbols for Venus, but not just any Venus symbols. These were drawn so they look kind of like water lilies.

There's another notable feature of the Water Lily Jaguar: its teeth. The ancient Maya drew supernatural jaguars' teeth two ways. One way was to draw a fang in the middle of the mouth. The other way was to draw them with a tooth shaped like an ik' sign. But not the Water Lily Jaguar -- the ancient Maya drew it with regular canines.

Connection with Royalty
It looks like the ancient Maya believed the Water Lily Jaguar protected royalty. Another theory about this god's connection to royalty says it might have been a god of male lines of royalty. (Speaking of royalty, there's a burial at Tikal called Burial 196 that had a jade figurine of the Water Lily Jaguar  -- it weighs 3.5 pounds!)

Connection with Libation
Images of elites making libations show them with certain features. One feature is that the elites wear water lilies in their hair. The second feature is that they have jaguar spots on their skin.

Other Connections
One theory about the Water Lily Jaguar says that the god may have been connected to the rainy season. (Because water lilies bloom in the rainy season.) Another theory says that it was a god of plants as well as fertility. Meanwhile, the same theory that suggests the Water Lily Jaguar was a god of male lines of royalty also suggests that it was connected to fire.

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

San Francisco State University: Mark C. Griffin Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology San Francisco State University: "Jaguar Manifestation in Mesoamerica and Peru"; Amandine Dorian Castex; August 2014

Journal of Ethnobiology": "Water Lily and Cosmic Serpent: Equivalent Conduits of the Maya Spirit Realm"; J. Andrew McDonald, Brian Stross; Spring/Summer 2012

Britannica: Libation

The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Vessel, Mythological Scene

The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Vessel, Throne Scene

Image Credit:
The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Vessel, Mythological Scene (Second additional image)

The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Vessel, Throne Scene (Fourth additional image)
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Thursday, January 4, 2018

Sweat Baths

Composite image made with a photo from the Library of Congress and a photo
from the CIA World Factbook. See the Image Credits section below for more on
the original photos.


The sweat bath or steam bath was a type of sacred sauna that the Maya civilization built for a wealth of uses. A word for it in the Classic Period was pib' naah/pib na, which has been translated various ways, including "oven house." Archaeologists -- who have had to use post-Contact accounts a lot for understanding the ancient Maya view of sweat baths -- have come across different kinds of sweat baths all over the Maya area.

 History
The oldest sweat bath that archaeologists have found yet is at a site in Belize called Cuello. It dates back to 900 BC -- this means that it was built during Preclassic Period, in the part called the Middle Preclassic. The ancient Maya kept building sweat baths through their history, into the Postclassic Period. Archaeologists have found that it was common for elites to build sweat baths in two types of places: cities' ceremonial centers and patios near their homes.

(Somewhat related to the history of the ancient Maya sweat bath, there's a theory that the ancient Maya affected the development of the sweat lodge in North America.)

Some Features of Note
The ancient Maya would build their sweat baths' roofs so the steam would be vented out. As for doors, when building a sweat bath, the Maya tended to use different kinds. There were times they also put in a drain. Archaeologists have also found remains of sweat baths that have benches in them.

For making steam, the Maya would build a hearth in the room called a firebox. This feature was put either in the middle of the room or in a wall. In the hearth, they would put rocks that had been heated. They would pour water on theses rocks to make the steam.

Sometimes the Maya made a sweat bath inside another building, and when they did this they had other rooms that were connected with the sweat bath, such as a room for changing. There was also a kind of sweat bath that was built with these other rooms -- but was not inside another building. (This last style looks like it was a lowland style.)

Uses
The ancient Maya used sweat baths as a way to help keep themselves healthy. They also had other uses, including when someone was giving birth, religious purifying rituals, and when someone was sick.

The Maya thought they could use sweat baths as a way of getting to the underworld. They thought sweat baths let them talk not only with previous generations that had died but gods as well.

Consideration: Possible Gods of the Sweat Bath
Speaking of religion, there's a theory that there were two deities that, among their different connections, were deities of sweat baths. Specifically, sweat baths in connection with giving birth.

One of them was goddess O. She was a goddess drawn as aged woman from the Postclassic Period that may or may not have been connected to the moon.

The second deity was Pauahtun (god N). Pauahtun was a god connected to the earth who was drawn as a man who, like goddess O, had reached old age.

Symbolic Sweat Baths and Other Symbolism
It's possible not all sweat baths were sweat baths, exactly, but symbolic ones. These are sweat baths that don't look like they ever had a way of heating them. It's possible that these sweat baths were somehow used for gods.

Speaking of symbolism, the ancient Maya thought that both leaving and entering a sweat bath had a meaning. Leaving was like a rebirth. Entering was like being eaten. (Archaeologists think the ancient Maya looked at entering a sweat bath as like being eaten because of some doors they found. These doors were built to look like the mouths of certain beings. There were also doors made to look like bellybuttons -- these also had the same meaning as the doors that look like mouths.)

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

Google Books: "The Maya of the Cochuah Region: Archaeological and Ethnographic Perspectives on the Northern Lowlands"; Justine M. Shaw; 2015

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

Boston University: "A Tale of Three Plazas: The Development and Use of Public Spaces in a Classic Maya Ritual and Residential complex at Zultun, Guatemala"; Jennifer Carobine Groeger Wildt; December 2015

The Pennsylvania State Unversity: Cite Seer X: "Earth. Water. Sky.: The Liminal Landscape of the Maya Sweatbath"; Catherine Annalisa Miller; April 12, 2013

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

Oklahoma State University: Edmon Low Library & Branch Libraries: Digital Collections: "The Effects of Sweat Therapy on Group Therapeutic Factors and Feeling States"; Stephen A. Colmant; December 2005

University of Illinois College ofLiberal Arts & Sciences: "A Place for Pilgrimage: The Ancient Maya Sacred Landscape of Cara Blanca, Belize"; Lisa J. Lucero, Andrew Kinkella

Image Credits:
CIA World Factbook: Mexico

Library of Congress: Smoke Stacks (LOC); Alfred T. Palmer; c. 1939
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