Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-dnltx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-19T21:58:09.133Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

To set before the king: residential mural painting at Xultun, Guatemala

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 January 2015

William Saturno ,
Heather Hurst ,
Franco Rossi  and
David Stuart
William Saturno
Affiliation:
Archaeology Department, Boston University, 675 Commonwealth Avenue, Suite 347, Boston, MA 02215, USA (Email: saturno@bu.edu; frossi@bu.edu)
Heather Hurst
Affiliation:
Anthropology Department, Skidmore College, 815 North Broadway, Saratoga Springs, NY 12866, USA (Email: hhurst@skidmore.edu)
Franco Rossi
Affiliation:
Archaeology Department, Boston University, 675 Commonwealth Avenue, Suite 347, Boston, MA 02215, USA (Email: saturno@bu.edu; frossi@bu.edu)
David Stuart
Affiliation:
Department of Art and Art History, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712, USA (Email: davidstuart@austin.utexas.edu)
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Maya murals depicting scenes of courtly life are well known from sites such as Bonampak; far less common are scenes depicting life outside the royal sphere. Recent excavations at Xultun in Guatemala have revealed well-preserved murals in a domestic context that offer a fresh perpective on life in the Maya court, that of the priests, scribes and artists who attended the royal governor. Here, the authors decode the images to reveal the lives and activities of those who planned, performed and recorded official events in Classic-period Xultun. One of only two well-preserved examples of eastern Maya lowland wall painting from the Late Classic period, this rare display of master craftsmanship outside of the royal court sheds new light on the lives of those who produced it.

Keywords

GuatemalaXultunMayaClassic periodmuralsemblem glyphroyal imagescribal priestsfigurative wall arttaaj
Type
Research
Information
Antiquity , Volume 89 , Issue 343 , February 2015 , pp. 122 - 136
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd., 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aoyama, K. 2009. Elite craft producers, artists, and warriors at Aguateca: lithic analysis. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press.Google Scholar
Bono, F. 2013. Arqueólogos valencianos sacan a la luz un excepcional mural maya pintado al fresco. El País, 12 December 2013. Available at: http://ccaa.elpais.com/ccaa/2013/12/12/valencia/1386855799_258461.html (accessed 2 October 2014).Google Scholar
Garrison, T. & Stuart, D.. 2004. Un analisis preliminar de las inscripciones que se relacionan con Xultun, Petén, Guatemala, in Laporte, J.P., Arroyo, B. & Mejía, H. (ed.) XVII Simposio de Investigaciones Arqueológicas en Guatemala, 2003: 851–62. Guatemala City: Instituto de Antropología e Historia de Guatemala.Google Scholar
Grube, N. 1992. Classic Maya dance: evidence from hieroglyphs and iconography. Ancient Mesoamerica 3: 201–18. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S095653610000064X Google Scholar
Haviland, W. 1985. Excavation in small residential groups of Tikal, Groups 4F-1 and 4F-2: Tikal Report 19. Philadelphia (PA): University Museum.Google Scholar
Houston, S. 1984. A quetzal feather dance at Bonampak, Chiapas, Mexico. Journal de la Société des Américanistes 70: 127–37. http://dx.doi.org/10.3406/jsa.1984.2241 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Houston, S. 1986. Problematic emblem glyphs: examples from Altar de Sacrificios, El Chorro, Rió Azul, and Xultun (Research Reports on Ancient Maya Writing 3). Washington (DC): Center for Maya Research.Google Scholar
Houston, S. 2008. A Classic Maya bailiff? in D. Stuart (ed.) Maya decipherment: a weblog on the ancient Maya script. Available at: http://decipherment.wordpress.com/ (accessed 2 October 2014).Google Scholar
Houston, S. 2009. A splendid predicament: young men in Classic Maya society. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 19 (2): 149–78. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0959774309000250 Google Scholar
Houston, S. & Stuart, D.. 1996. Of gods, glyphs, and kings: divinity and rulership among the Classic Maya. Antiquity 70: 289–312.Google Scholar
Hurst, H. 2009. Murals and the ancient Maya artist. Unpublished PhD dissertation, Yale University.Google Scholar
Inomata, T., Triadan, D., Ponciano, E., Terry, R. & Beaubien, H.F.. 2001. In the palace of the fallen king: the royal residential complex at Aguateca, Guatemala. Journal of Field Archaeology 28: 287–306. http://dx.doi.org/10.1179/jfa.2001.28.3-4.287 Google Scholar
Kamal, O.S., Ware, G.A., Houston, S.D., Chabries, D.M. & Christiansen, R.W.. 1999. Multispectral image processing for detail reconstruction and enhancement of Maya murals from La Pasadita, Guatemala. Journal of Archaeological Science 26: 1391–407. http://dx.doi.org/10.1006/jasc.1999.0415 Google Scholar
Kerr, J. n.d. Mayavase database: an archive of rollout photographs by Justin Kerr. Available at: http://research.mayavase.com/kerrmaya.html (accessed 2 October 2014).Google Scholar
Lohse, J. & Valdez, F. Jr, (ed.). 2004. Ancient Maya commoners. Austin: University of Texas Press.Google Scholar
Looper, M. 2009. To be like gods: dance in Ancient Maya civilization. Austin: University of Texas Press.Google Scholar
Magaloni, D. 2001. Materiales y técnicas de la pintura mural Maya, in Fuente, B. & L. Staines Cicero (ed.) La pintura mural prehispánica en México: área Maya: 155–98. México, D.F.: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Instituto de Investigaciones Estéticas.Google Scholar
Mateos González, F.I. 1997. Toniná: la pintura mural y los relieves técnica de manufactura. México, D.F: Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia.Google Scholar
Miller, M.E. & Brittenham, C.. 2013. The spectacle of the Late Maya court: reflections on the murals of Bonampak. Austin: University of Texas Press.Google Scholar
Prager, C., Wagner, E., Matteo, S. & Krempel, G.. 2010. A reading for the Xultun toponymic title as B’aax (Tuun) Witz’ Ajaw. Mexicon 32: 74–77.Google Scholar
Reents-Budet, D. 1994. Painting the Maya universe: royal ceramics of the Classic Period. Durham (NC): Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Robin, C. (ed.). 2012. Chan: an ancient Maya farming community. Gainesville: University Press of Florida. http://dx.doi.org/10.5744/florida/9780813039831.001.0001 Google Scholar
Ruane, J. 2012. Mapeo en el sitio arqueológico Xultun, in Castillo, P. Rivera & Saturno, W. (ed.) Proyecto Arqueológico Regional San Bartolo-Xultun: informe de resultados de investigaciones temporada de campo 11: 437–50. Guatemala City: Instituto de Antropología e Historia de Guatemala.Google Scholar
Saturno, W., Aveni, A., Stuart, D. & Rossi, F.. 2012. Ancient Maya astronomical tables from Xultun, Guatemala. Science 33: 714–17. http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1221444 Google Scholar
Stoler, A.L. 2010. Along the archival grain: epistemic anxieties and colonial common sense. Princeton (NJ): Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Stone, A. & Zender, M.. 2011. Reading Maya art: a hieroglyphic guide to ancient Maya painting and sculpture. London: Thames & Hudson.Google Scholar
Stuart, D. 1997. Kinship terms in Maya inscriptions, in Macri, M.J. & Ford, A. (ed.) The language of Maya hieroglyphs: 1–11. San Francisco (CA): PARI.Google Scholar
Tate, C. 1986. Summer solstice ceremonies performed by Bird Jaguar III of Yaxchilán, Chiapas, Mexico. Estudios de Cultura Maya 16: 85–112.Google Scholar
Vogt, E. 1969. Zinacantan: a Maya community in the highland of Chiapas. Cambridge (MA): Harvard University Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.4159/harvard.9780674436886 Google Scholar
Webster, D. (ed.). 1989. The house of the Bacabs, Copán, Honduras. Washington (DC): Dumbarton Oaks.Google Scholar