Virginia Miller (Assoc. Prof.) on art of Chichen Itza at Monmouth College

Virginia E. Miller, Associate Professor in Art History lecturing at the Western Illinois Society at Monmouth College on Monday, February 2, 2015 at 7:30 P.M., Pattee Auditorium, Center for Science and Business, Monmouth College, Monmouth, Illinois.

The Aztecs considered the bones of slain captives to be powerful, a belief probably shared by the earlier Maya: one Maya hieroglyph for “captive” translates as “bone”. Nevertheless, at southern Maya sites like Tikal and Yaxchilán during the Classic period (A.D. 300-900), war-related art focuses more on the capture and humiliation of enemies rather than on their sacrificial deaths or their post-mortem remains. In contrast, at northern Maya sites in Yucatán and at Chichén Itzá in particular, battle scenes, sacrifice, skulls, and bones are frequent themes in reliefs, murals, and other media such as jade and gold. The skullrack, a new architectural form decorated with sculpted impaled skulls, was prominently placed right next to the massive ballcourt. This may have served as a grim reminder of the potential power of Chichén’s rulers, even when no human heads were on display. Why this upsurge in graphic sacrificial and death imagery between c. A.D. 800 and 1000? Were the Itzá militarily more successful than their predecessors? Why are both victors and defeated presented in groups and anonymously, in contrast to the southern Maya practice of naming individual captors and captives? Did the northern Maya practice human sacrifice on a more massive scale, foreshadowing later Aztec practices?