The Book of Mormon, 2 Nephi 5:18
This little room, then, was the heart of the temple, the place where the king carried out in solitude and darkness the most intimate phases of his personal bloodletting and the most terrifying phases of his communion with the Otherworld. Here he would prepare himself to meet the ancestors and the gods, fasting and practicing other kinds of trance-inducing physical mortifications. It was here also that the ritual perforation of his genitals took place and that he experienced the first shock of blood loss and the first flood of religious ecstasy. From this little room, he would travel like the sun rising from the earth to appear on the stairway before his people. Dressed in bleached white cotton cloth that clearly showed the stains of his bloodletting, the king would speak to the ancestors on behalf of all.
A Forest of Kings, page 111
Lady Xoc's Bloodletting Ritual
www.latinamericanstudies.org/
The
institution of divine kingship evolved slowly in Mesoamerica, over centuries,
beginning with the Olmec culture and perhaps even earlier in Oaxaca. One
constant throughout this evolution was the idea of leader as shaman. Arthur
Demarest, in his book Ancient Maya, explains: “From
the Preclassic period on, and back to the period of the Olmec societies and
earlier, there is ample evidence of shamanism in Mesoamerican cultures (Blake
1991; Clark 1994; Clark and Blake 1989; Demarest 2001, 2002). Shamans are
religious specialists believed to have special powers and knowledge to help
other members of the community deal with supernatural forces. Shamans help
others communicate with deities or ancestors, heal illnesses, and predict future
events through divination. Shamans exist in most cultures, although as social
complexity develops to the level of statehood, they are often replaced by more
formal religious institutions with dogma, priests, and hierarchical structures
that parallel (and often reinforce) state institutions. One fascinating aspect
of Maya civilization is that, as with ancestor worship, many of the
characteristics of shamanistic practice were retained in the ideology and
rituals of the advanced states of the Classic period. Indeed, many of these
practices have continued since the Spanish Conquest and have evolved along with
Maya culture and resistance practices of shamans today throughout Mexico and
Guatemala.” (p. 183)
Olmec King
dressed as Maize God www.mesoweb.com/ In the book A Forest of Kings,
Schele and Freidel explain the fundamental importance of the Holy Lord: “If we
judge the Maya only by our own definition of progress, they had few
technological wonders. By our standards, they were a Stone Age people lacking
even such rudimentary developments as the uses of metal and the domestication of
beasts of burden. Yet few people today would deny that they possessed a high
civilization and a complex social order. If the Maya did not invent an advanced
scientific technology that harnessed natural energy, what then did they invent?
The answer to this question is simple: They invented ideas that harvested
social energy. The genius of the Maya was expressed through the creation of
new visions of power. They invented political symbols that transformed and
coordinated such age-old institutions as the extended family, the village, the
shaman, and the patriarch into the stuff of civilized life.” (page 97) and “At the
time when the institution of kingship was invented, the Maya were faced with
cultural tensions so great they threatened to tear their society apart. Outside
forces were upsetting the heretofore carefully maintained system of social
egalitarianism. Trade, both between Maya communities and between the Maya and
their Mesaoamerican neighbors, such as the Mije-speaking people of the Pacific
Coast, the post-Olmec people of the Gulf Coast, the Zapotecs of the Valley of
Oaxaca, and the Teotihuacanos of the central valley of Mexico, was generating a
flow of wealth that was unequally distributed among the people. In a culture
which regarded the accumulation of wealth as an aberration, this turn of events
created unease and social strife. At the same time, the development of
raised-field agriculture and extensive water-management systems created
prosperity in regions which had the means to organize the labor pool necessary
to maintain these systems. As contacts with trading partners already organized
into kingdoms intensified, ideas of rank and privilege further exacerbated the
differences in wealth and status that had grown with the success of these
commercial and agricultural enterprises. A new leadership appeared within many
Maya communities – one that was hierarchical in its nature. We
know that the problem the Maya were trying to resolve was one of social
inequality because that is precisely the state of affairs that the institution
of ahau defines as legitimate, necessary, and intrinsic to the order of the
cosmos. The development of a high
civilization always creates problems of social inequality, but such differences
between people need not be manifested negatively. For the Maya, the kingship
became the primary symbol and rationale for the noble class, the ahauob.
Kingship addressed the problem of inequality, not by destroying or denying it,
but by embedding the contradictory nature of privilege into the very fabric of
life itself. The rituals of the ahauob declared that the magical person of
the king was pivot and pinnacle of a pyramid of people, the summit of a ranking
of families that extended out to incorporate everyone in the kingdom – from
highest to lowest. His person was the conduit of the sacred, the path of
communication to the Otherworld, the means of contacting the dead, and indeed of
surviving death itself. He was the clarifier of the mysteries of everyday life,
of planting and harvesting, of illness and health. He wielded his knowledge and
influence to create advantageous trade agreements for his people. He could read
in the heavens the signs which told him when to war and when to maintain the
peace. The farmer, the stonemason, and the craftsperson might have to pay
tribute to the king, but the king compensated them for their service by giving
them a richer, more enjoyable, more cohesive existence. The people reaped the
spiritual benefits of the king’s intercession with the supernatural world and
shared in the material wealth his successful performance brought to the
community.” (page 111)
Artist
depiction of El Mirador
www.crystallotus.com/ “The
Classic Maya had a complex social structure with few sharp divisions between
“levels” or classes of Maya society, despite the great contrast between the
poorest huts and the richest royal palaces.” (p 116) Most
Maya were able to be fairly self-sufficient, so the differentiation between
elite and the commoners was not based in the ability to care for one’s self or
one’s family (except in time of severe drought or flooding, which would, of
course, impact the entire community). In the same text, Demarest also states: “To
Western eyes, the ruins of Maya sites seem to have a haphazard layout, but in
fact they have a settlement pattern generated by the complex structure of
ancient Maya society itself. The epicenters of the sites usually had several
distinct clusters of public architecture often connected by plaster-coated stone
causeways for ritual processions between these temple and palace complexes.
Scattered between and around these centers of public culture and elite residence
were the more modest household groups of lesser nobles, craftspersons, and
farmers. Often
within a few kilometers (or less) from the major architectural complexes were
other minor epicenters of public architecture, shrines, and elite residences.
These smaller complexes served as secondary loci for religious rituals and elite
guidance, as well as residences for the local leading families, sometimes kin of
the royalty in the site core. Small funerary temple shrines in these outlying
elite groups were periodically enlarged and became foci for local ancestor
worship. Thus, the outlying elite replicated on a small scale the great rituals
of the centers and reinforced the ideological and political unity of the Classic
Maya culture. This settlement system helped form lines of connection between
rulers and the populace through kinship, through movement to the epicenter for
construction projects and rituals, and through periodic visits by the central
elite to the minor centers. While
its nested and replicative urban settlement system contributed to the political
and ideological linkages in Maya society, this dispersed urban settlement was
even more critical for the ancient Maya ecological adaptation. At most sites,
settlement became more dispersed away from the site core, with areas for fields
and gardens between clusters. A variety of agricultural systems were sometimes
placed between and within household clusters, as well as in site peripheries.
Household waste and debris became an asset, rather than the nuisance it is in
modern cities, since it provided compost for productive Maya urban gardens.
This mix of farm and residence probably made most Classic Maya cities
self-sufficient in the basic elements of Maya diet – maize, beans, squash, and
chiles. Regional and interregional exchange systems were only necessary for the
distribution of commodities such as cacao (chocolate), salt, hard stone,
ceramics, crafts and exotic goods” (p 117) These
comments are in regards to the more stratified Classic period in Maya history,
so to apply them to the Preclassic period, less stratification and less
complexity needs to be assumed.
“Complex divisions present in the Classic period between elites in roles such as
merchants, priests, or warriors became even more pronounced and occupational
class interests were better represented in state decisions. In many areas local
economies became somewhat less self-sufficient, with more overproduction of
commodities such as cotton, textiles, salt, honey, chocolate, and ceramic
styles, and with considerable long-distance exchange.” (p 278) The
vast majority of the Book of Mormon text takes place during the Preclassic
period, when the Maya were fairly self-sufficient in terms of taking care of
basic needs. The increasing stratification related to luxury items, which were
related to the practice of religious rituals. Again, Demarest states: “Recent
studies of long-distance trade in the Maya world have been aided by
neutron-activation and x-ray diffraction sourcing of obsidian used to make stone
tools and the clays in traded ceramics. The results of such research have cast
considerable doubt on the view that long-distance trade in obsidian, ceramics,
or foodstuffs was important to subsistence or to the basic economy of lowland
Maya populations. Instead, recent studies of highland-lowland exchange have
emphasized the importance of traded goods such as jade, fine ceramic vessels,
and quetzal feathers for status-reinforcement, for patronage networks, and to
maintain the status and power of rulers and nobles. (p 148)
Quetzal
Headress
mati.eas.asu.edu/Quetzal/
Presentation of
Quetzal Feathers
http://www.lost-civilizations.net/images/mayan/mayart.jpg In the
essay Commoners in Postclassic Maya Society: Social versus Economic Class
Constructs, found in the book Ancient Maya Commoners, Marilyn Masson
and Carlos Peraza Lope state: “The
concept of a commoner class in Postclassic Maya society is an evasive one,
suggesting that social status position does not vary evenly with conditions of
economic life. As many of the contributors to this volume have demonstrated,
when economic patterns of household production and local, regional, and distant
exchange are compared, commoners are not always easily distinguished from
elites. Elites are identified primarily from indicators of social status
that are rooted in political and ritual activity.” (p 197, my emphasis) The
king or shaman was more than a political leader, he was the religious leader as
well. Politics and religion were completely enmeshed within ancient
Mesoamerica. From Maya Political Science Time, Astronomy, and the
Cosmos by Prudence Rice, page 288: “The sacred or divine king or
lord known as k’ul ajaw stood at the very heart of Classic Maya political
structure. Classic Maya kings commanded a broad range of responsibilities,
whether they were lords of the may or of the k’atun, and some of these
roles are seen in their portrayals on monuments and lintels and in their titles
and epithets. They were sovereigns but also ballplayers, sacrificers, dancers,
warriors, and captors. They were very likely priests, or at least trained in
the arcane knowledge of the priesthood involving calendrics, prophetic
histories, and auguries and in maintaining records of these (aj kujun). The
multiple, complex roles of Maya kings can be elucidated etymologically, for
example, in the case of Tikal. Tikal’s dynastic founder was named Yax Eb’ Xok
‘First Step Shark’, but xok also means “to count, to read”; one of the
meanings of may is “to count, to divine.” What was being counted or
read? Days. The calendar. Time itself. This suggests that early Maya
rulers were also aj k’in, priests called daykeepers, calendric specialists in
the sense of the K’iche’ (and other highland Maya) indigenous leaders and
diviners. In addition, the original name of Tikal comes from mut
‘prophecy’ and the root of ajaw is aw ‘to shout’. This indicates that
early kings also bore the responsibility of shouting or proclaiming the
prophecies they divined as keepers of time, particularly at cycles of k’atuns
and mays based on the days Ajaw. There are hints that the role of chilam,
“speaker or interpreter” (of the prophecies of the ajaw), might have existed in
the Classic period. Maya divine kings, in other
words, were “fulcrums of cosmic order’ (Mundy 1998:234). Their powers derived
from knowledge – and therefore control, or at least custodianship – of the
mysterious forces of the cosmos… In the Classic Maya lowlands,
as in so many other early state societies, ideology and power cannot be
disarticulated. Nor can ritual and history be decoupled from structures of
power (Kelly and Kaplan 1990). Among the Maya, “political” power was
embedded in an ideology “whose key elements were cyclical time and cosmic
quadripartition. The critical aspect of the temporal cycles is not the
calendrical interval itself but rather the regular and public ritual celebration
of the completion of these cycles by the sacred king. Such rituals, assuming
they were conducted efficaciously, reaffirmed social, natural, and dynastic
history and communicated cosmic order and continuity.”
Maya Ceremonial
Dance http://www.authenticmaya.com/images/mapas/holmul%20Dancers.jpg “An invaluable source of
understanding ancient Maya religion and cosmology was written by the Quiche Maya
in the highlands of Guatemala during the colonial period. This source, the
Popol Vuh, is a cosmic epic divided into three main parts. The first part
deals with the creation of the world and its inhabitants; the second part
continues the story of creation by recounting the story of the Hero Twins; and
the third part recounts the founding of the Quiche dynasties. Actions described
in the creation story of the Popol Vuh can be identified in Preclassic
sculpture and Classic period images painted for centuries on Maya ceramic
vessels. Although this native chronicle may diverge in some respects from the
ancient versions, the parallels between this post-conquest narrative and the
scenes depicted in pre-Columbian art demonstrate the antiquity of this story.” A summary of the Popol Vuh
may be found here:
http://www.isourcecom.com/maya/books/popolvuh.htm I will note some specific links
between ceremonial ritual in ancient Mesoamerica and mythology. Many rituals and costumes
associated with divine kingship are related to the creation of human beings.
Maize was a crucial element in this creation, and thereby, is part of the royal
costuming. Again, from Handbook to Life in the Ancient Maya World, page
184: “Creation of Humans Although undertaken by the gods,
the creation of a human race was fraught with difficulty and impeded by initial
failures. Efforts to form humans first from clay and then from wood were
unsuccessful. Still lacking humans who could sustain them properly with prayer
and offerings, the gods paused until the Hero Twins defeated the Underworld
forces of death and decay and obtained the appropriate material with which to
model human beings; this material turned out to be maize. In a fourth attempt
to create a world to their liking, the gods fashioned human beings from a dough
made from ground maize and blood, and these people of maize, the Maya, turned
out to be appropriately grateful. Thus began the fourth creation of the world,
the Maya world of maize. By describing maize and blood as the substance of
human flesh, the creation story provided a correspondence between corn, the
chief domestic crop grown and eaten by humans, and humans, the primary sacrifice
to the gods as tribute payments for agricultural fertility.” Maize was included as part of
royal costuming from the Olmec period onward, as noted by F.Kent Reilly III in
his essay Olmec Ideological, Ritual, and Symbolic Contributions to the
Institution of Classic Maya Kingship, found in the book Lords of Creation
The Origins of Sacred Maya Kingship, page 36: “Like their Classic Maya
counterparts, Olmec stelae and other monuments were active participants in the
ritual landscape, and as such were often carved with rope or cloth bindings
(Reilly 2001). At La Venta, the images of kings as well as the stelae were
often carved so as to appear bundled (Guernsey Kappelman and Reilly 2001). La
Venta Monument 77 in particular, in the frontal view, depicts a seated Olmec
ruler wearing a cape and an elaborate Maize God headdress. When viewed from the
rear, his cape appears as bundle wrapping, while the headdress assumes the
aspect of the cleft-maize motif (Taube 1996).”
Olmec Maize God
www.mesoweb.com/ “Death
and Apotheosis
According to Maya cosmology, the gods initially made humans from a variety of
substances before they created successful humans from a mixture of yellow and
white maize, preserved in a sacred cave inside the primordial Mountain of
Sustenance. Through the personal blood sacrifice of the gods, humanity was
infused with life. The life cycle of humans was intimately tied to the life
cycle of maize, reflected in the corollary stages of planting, germination,
harvest, death and regeneration. Rich
layers of symbolism surrounded Maya conceptions of the breath soul, the animated
life force of the body, which was linked to the aroma of flowers and to
beautiful sounds, especially music (Taube 2001, 272). Death was defined as the
expiration of the breath soul, when the journey after death began, expressed
metaphorically in ancient texts as och b’ih (he enters the road). Upon
his demise, the king passed into the underworld, where he endured ordeals at the
hands of the Lords of the Underworld. After defeating these lords of death, as
the Hero Twins did in mythic times, the king was reborn in the guise of the
Maize God, ultimately becoming a deified ancestor venerated by his successors.”
Hero Twins
http://herotwins.hypermart.net/Parrotopia/ParrotopiaPT.htm
“Religious Duties of the King Royal
responsibilities were concerned with not only social, economic, and political
affairs but also ritual performance. For the Maya, ritual dance was, and
continues to be, not merely a symbolic act but rather a means by which humans
transform themselves into supernatural beings in order to replicate their
actions. Painted images and hieroglyphic texts on Late Classic period vessels
attest to the importance of wayo’ob, or protective spirit companions that
often take the form of animals and are invoked during rituals of transformation,
Maya kings commonly associated themselves with jaguar, which lives in caves and
moves easily on land and in water (all cosmologically significant places in
Mesoamerican thought), thus conveying enormous power. These
transformations might also be induced by methods such as blood sacrifice or the
ingestion of hallucinogenic substances. In these trance states, Maya kings
encountered divine forces, summoning ancestors and other supernatural beings to
the earthly realm to assist with human concerns. Kings also performed conjuring
rituals using mirrors as divining tools. The process of conjuring otherworldly
spirits might also bring forth an apparition known as the Vision Serpent, from
whose open mouth emerged the invoked sacred being, either a deity or an
ancestor.” “The
nature of religion in the Americas focuses on the importance of reciprocal
actions in which sacrifice and ritual are performed to nourish the gods and
ensure their beneficence. The sacrificial rite of bloodletting was the method
by which a ruler provided sustenance to the gods, because blood represented the
most precious form of reciprocity; it was also a way to enter a trance state.”
Vision Serpent
www.talariaenterprises.com/ “Blood Sacrifices Some of the most significant
rituals performed by Maya rulers involved the offering of blood, one of the most
precious substances known to humans and gods. The offering of blood through
autosacrificial rituals was ubiquitous among the ancient Maya and continued
through the early colonial period. Condemning the practice as dangerous and
heretical, the Spanish friars terminated its practice. Deigo de Landa, a 16th
century bishop, described autosacrifice rituals performed by the Yucatec Maya,
including rituals in which men cut themselves on the cheek, lips, tongues, and
phalli. Landa further noted that, in some cases, chords or pieces of straw were
forced through the incisions, “with horrible suffering.” Although Landa
explained that only men participated in this gruesome practice, the Maya
monuments of the Classic period prove otherwise; women also participated in
ritual bloodletting. They believed they could traverse cosmic boundaries in
bloodletting rituals, and Maya rulers could contact deities and ancestors. The
importance of these communications encouraged participation in autosacrifice and
justified the capture and sacrifice of others. Sustenance for the Gods Images depicting bloodletting as
a critical ritual act appear with frequency in Maya sculptures, murals, and
vessels; hieroglyphic texts both corroborate the importance of the ritual act
and provide supplementary details about its significance. During the Classic
period, Maya of elite status performed bloodletting rituals that involved the
sacrifice of high-ranking war captives as well as autosacrifice. These bloody
acts fulfilled the ancient charter with the gods that obliged humans to nourish
the deities with blood drawn from the human body. This obligation had been
incurred because the deities, during creation, had willingly spilled their
own blood atop maize in order to form human flesh. Through autosacrificial
rituals, Maya rulers returned the divine gift of sustenance to the gods.”
Olmec Jade
Perforator Used in Bloodletting Rituals http://www.yorku.ca/kdenning/images/civilizations%20images/olmec%20jade%20perforator,%20BM.jpg “Ballgames
The cosmological significance of
the ball game also incorporated aspects of the Maya creation mythology. The
ball game served as a ritual in which the participants could reenact the heroic
actions of the Hero Twins, who had battled and defeated the lords of Xibalba on
the Underworld ball court. The actions of the Hero Twins in the Underworld
demonstrate that the ball game was inextricably linked to life, death, and
rebirth.” (page 196)
Maya Ball Game
http://www.authenticmaya.com/images/ball%20game%20Motul.jpg “Their representations of dancing
kings, consorts, and nobles bear witness to the fact that Maya rulers and their
courts were, above all things, public performers. Everyone, citizens of the
realm and neighbors from other realms, knew that the king’s body functioned as a
vessel for awesome spiritual forces that could be both inimical and beneficial,
but their confidence in that knowledge depended at least partly upon how often
and how well the king affirmed his power to control these forces through dancing
in the plazas of his city.” (page 259) “It is important to realize that
Classic pageants were more than just acts of civic pride and piety. They
transformed the participants into supernaturals, as the paths across the abyss
opened on the grand stairways and plazas of their cities. Both gods and humans
danced, and through the dance the one became the other. For the Maya, the
ambiguity was as it should be. Sorcerers, kings, and nobles transformed into
their wayob and journeyed into the Otherworld before the transfixed gaze
of their people. (an example from the polychrome
vase from Altar de Sacrificios) These are the wayob of the
lords of Classic cities like Tikal and Yaxchilan dancing in charged, ritual
space. Yax-Balamte, in the way of a lord from a place called “Four-Sky,
Thirteen-Gods,” stands on the left, dancing in jaguar-skin pants, mittens, and a
head pelt, which he wears as a hat. A personified perforator dangles from his
belt in front of the red stain from his bleeding genitals. His partner in
dance, Buchte-Chan, the way of a lord from an unknown place, wears pants
made from the diamond-marked skin of a strange tailed creature, and swings a
living snake, probably a boa, above his head. His body is paunchy, his head
bald, and his face swollen with the features of a tortured captive. The text
clearly identifies this person as a way or as a human being who has
undergone a physical transformation into this being, is unknown. We only know
that the particular way he is manifesting is always shown with the
features of a tortured sacrificial victim.” (page 265)
Altar de
SacrificiosVase http://www.authenticmaya.com/images/altar%20de%20sacrificios.gif “Aspects of ancient Maya
shamanism have been revealed by the inscriptions, iconography, and art of the
ancient Maya interpreted with the aid of Conquest-period and Colonial
ethnohistory and the study of contemporary Maya shamans. As shamans, Maya rulers
and the priests under their authority were associated with especially powerful
animal alter egos or way, a coessence that would allow rulers or priests
insights into the animal and supernatural worlds (Houston and Stuart 1989).
Representations in Classic Maya monumental art often display this alter ego,
sometimes a jaguar, in association with the ruler. Also, like modern shamans, rulers
would use trance states – induced by fasting, ritual bleeding, and, sometimes,
alcohol or hallucinogens – to communicate with the supernatural for divination
and prophecy. Representations in ceramic art show rulers and priests in their
shamanistic roles in trance states dancing, smoking powerful tobacco mixtures,
having visions, or communication with gods or ancestors.”
Vision Serpent http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/en/d/d9/YaxchilanDivineSerpent.jpg “The ancestral deities are
responsible for installing an inner soul in the embryo of every unborn
Zinacanteco child. Interaction between the living Zinacantecos and the ancestors
take place via these inner souls located in the hearts and bloodstreams of
persons…. At the same time the ancestors
install the inner soul in the human embryo, it is also installed in the embryo
of a wild animal, such as a jaguar, ocelot, coyote, or smaller animal, like a
squirrel. These animal spirit companions are kept in four corrals inside the
“Senior Large Mountain,” a large volcano rising majestically to over 9,000 feet
east of Zinacantan Center. Throughout life, the inner soul of a person is shared
with the animal companion; anything that happens to the person happens to the
animal companion and vice versa.”
Maya "way"glyph
(animal companion) http://www.clearlight.com/bolaman/hen-0.gif “The battle began with a skirmish
when a chief, “Ah Xepach, an Indian captain who became an eagle, “ went to fight
the Spaniards with three thousand of his soldiers. “At midnight the Indians
went out and the captain of the Indians who had transformed himself into an
eagle became anxious to kill the Adelantado Tunadiu [Alvarado] and he could not
kill him because a very fair maiden defended him; they were anxious to enter,
but as soon as they saw this maiden they fell to the earth and they could not
get up from the ground, and then came many footless birds, and those birds had
surrounded the maiden, and the Indians wanted to kill the maiden and those
footless birds defended her and blinded them.” The attackers were paralyzed and
blinded by the way of the Spanish – the Virgin Mary and the Holy Spirit
or perhaps angels who looked to them like footless birds.” Another corollary between
Mesoamerican mythology and the rituals and services provided by the Holy Lord is
in regards to one of the most notable features of ancient Mesoamerica – time and
calendrics. From Prudence Rice’s Maya Political Science – Time, Astronomy,
and the Cosmos, pages 56-57: “Maya Cosmology and the Calendric
Science Maya political organization was
rooted in cosmology, religion, and temporal cycling, themselves inextricably
bound: “time is cosmic order,” asserts Farriss (1987:574). And Barbara Tedlock
91992:I) notes, “The ancient Maya were great horologists, students of
time[,]….interested not only in the quantities of time but also in its
qualities, especially its meaning for human affairs.” The Maya viewed time as
both linear (the familiar western conception of historical time) and cyclical.
Cyclical time seems peculiar – even prelogical – in the modern world, casually
dismissible by the epigram “History repeats itself.” But belief in cyclical
time, and its integration with linear time, is widespread in prehistory and
among modern non-Western peoples. In fact, the Maya view of time and a
quadripartite universe is not too distant from that of today’s physicists, who
see the relatively undifferentiated past, present, and fugure “laid out in a
four-dimensional block composed of time and the three spatial dimensions”
(Davies 2002: 43). Still, the Maya transcended the
familiar recurrence of day and night, and rainy and dry seasons, to calculate
and commensurate the infinitely interlocking periodicities of months, years,
eclipses, and movements of astral bodies, simultaneously retrodicting them
thousands of years into the past and predicting them thousands of years into the
future. Maya skills in predictive astronomy allowed them to foreknow upcoming
celestial events, which provided a justification for scheduling important
rituals and a ‘sacred mandate for elite decision-making” (Justeson 1989: 104).
In addition, astronomers’ calculation tables permitted them to project events
backward in time, thereby manufacturing “precursors” and “precedents” for the
timing of ritual and other activities in the present and future. This is how
the Maya created and re-created their calendars, their histories, their elite
affairs, and even their verbal arts, an unceasingly recursive process that
permitted them to “remember their future and anticipate their past” (Farriss
1987: 589, see also Bloch 1977).
Maya
Observatory
www.astras-stargate.com/ While many of the previous
citations address the Classic period in particular, the concept of the divine
kingship evolved throughout centuries, so there is no reason to doubt that the
earlier manifestations of the Holy Lord were directly related to the later, more
formalized concept. It is not possible to extricate the position of the Holy
Lord from the background Mesoamerican world-view. A Judeo-Christian ruler
simply would not be able to perform this function, so any ancient Mesoamerican
city that had a Judeo-Christian leader would have been notably different in this
aspect. And if that Mesoamerican city happened to be a powerful one, its
notably different conception of kingship would have been noted and imitated by
other, less powerful polities. Hence, the entire evolution of the Holy Lord
would have been fundamentally altered. There are two crucial periods
within the Book of Mormon that introduce the idea of a powerful Judeo Christian
polity; the Jaredite period of uncertain, but very early, dating, and the
Nephite period from 600 BC. Each of these sections in the Book of Mormon
describe a complex, socially stratified society, led by leaders who had
formalized positions and different levels of bureaucracy to aid in
administration. Book of Mormon scholars attempt to link the Olmec culture to
the Jaredites, and the various subgroups within later Mesoamerica, during
roughly the Maya period, to the Nephites. Both the Olmec culture and the later
Maya cultures (as well as other nearby groups) shared the concept of the Holy
Lord, to varying degrees of development. The challenge for Book of Mormon
scholars who attempt to present specific possible locations for Book of Mormon
cities is that the suggested cities must not only possess certain geographic and
physical traits, but they must also be of a certain level of social complexity.
While there are candidates in both the Olmec period and the later Maya period
for very complex and advanced polities, the problem is that these are the
precociously developed polities for the prerequisite time period, and hence,
the most influential and powerful polities of the time periods. To suggest
that these powerful and influential polities were actually led by a
Judeo-Christian group presents a significant challenge to Book of Mormon
scholars in that these were the very cities leading the way in regards to
ancient Mesoamerican culture in general, and in the notion of the Holy Lord in
particular. To evaluate how likely the claim that these very polities were
led by Judeo-Christians, it is first necessary to understand the nature of the
Holy Lord, and the deeply enmeshed role of religion in governance in ancient
Mesaomerica. Again, I emphasize that the
earlier Olmec culture was part of the pan-Mesoamerican culture, despite the far
earlier dating. Noticing the numerous similarities between the Olmec period and
later periods, some scholars have even suggested that the Olmec culture was the
“mother culture” of the later pan-Mesoamerican cultures, although this is not a
universal view among scholars, and the case is building for the presence of the
same traits in equally early periods in other locations in Mesoamerica, such as
Oaxaca. Michael Coe, in his book The Maya, speculates on the origins of
the Maya culture being rooted in the Olmec period: “Given the similarities among the
diverse cultures of Mesoamerica, one can only conclude that its peoples must
have shared a common origin, so far back in time that it may never be brought to
light by archaeology. Yet there is some consensus among archaeologists that the
Olmec of southern Mexico had elaborated many of these traits beginning about
3,000 years ago, and that much of complex culture in Mesoamerica has an Olmec
origin. It is also reasonable to assume that there must have been an active
interchange of ideas and things about the Mesoamerican elite over many
centuries, a state of affairs which can be documented in the Terminal Classic
epoch thanks to recent research; this in itself would tend to bring about
cultural homogenity – for example, it might explain why both the Classic Maya
and the very late Aztec held a snake-footed god to be the supernatural ruling
their respective royal houses. It was out of such a matrix of cultural
evolution and diffusion that Maya civilization was born. (page 14)” Regardless of whether the Olmec
was a “mother culture” or simply one of several that emerged at the same time
period, sharing the same basic traits, the similarities between the two cultures
is undeniable. From the Handbook to Life in
the Ancient Maya World, page 28: “With the Olmec culture,
Mesoamerica had its first civilization in which a wealthy elite class, based in
urban centers, dominated regional economies and controlled long distance trade.
The Olmec interaction sphere, from highland Mexico to Costa Rica, basically
delineated the borders of what would be Mesoamerica in the following millennia,
save for the occasional contraction or expansion along the frontiers. Through
exchange and interaction, all Mesoamerican regions achieved greater political
complexity and ranked societies. Interaction also consolidated a
worldview that was shaped by new symbols and given expression by new art forms.
This worldview, or cosmogony, was reflected in the site orientations,
paintings, and sculpture of Olmec cities. Creation myths existed at least
by the Early Preclassic Period, when they were given artistic form, and these
myths were elaborated throughout Mesoamerican civilization and persisted into
historical times in Maya books, such as the Popol Vuh. The central
gods of Mesoamerican religion, like the maize and rain gods and the feathered
serpent creator god, already were depicted in Olmec sculpture. Ancestor
worship, especially of powerful individuals, is indicated by archaeological
evidence, and ritual human sacrifice was depicted in the art. The concept of Mesoamerica
originated with archaeologist Paul Kirchhoff, who listed a set of
characteristics that differentiated Mesoamerica from its neighbors. The list
included the following traits.
·
Urbanism: Mesoamerica is one of the
seven world areas where cities were invented.
·
Monumental stone buildings built on
stepped platforms – some pyramidal in height – arranged around public plazas,
and associated with freestanding sculpture.
·
Agriculture based on maize, beans, and
squash.
·
Hieroglyphic or pictographic writing;
books folded like a screen and made of bark paper or deerskin.
·
A 260-day ritual calendar and other
calendrical calculations.
·
Astronomical knowledge.
·
A rubber ball game played in earthen or
masonry courts.
·
Human sacrifice and autosacrifice by
drawing blood from the penis, tongue, or ears.
·
A quadripartite world in which the earth
is horizontally ordered in four directions and centered by a fifth in the middle
of them; each direction was associated with colors, plants, animals, deities,
and rituals. This ordered world was symbolized by cruciform shapes and the
quincunx in which the center was indicated along with the four directions.
·
A tripartite vertical division of the
universe into the earth, multilayered heavens, and the Underworld; communication
between these levels was through the center, or fifth direction, that of the
vertical axis or world tree. The shaman ruler often represented this conduit
between the realms of the cosmos.
·
A pantheon of gods. By the end of the Early
Preclassic Period, practically all of these traits were in place, if not with
all their future Mesoamerican detail. Evidence for the Mesoamerican calendrical
and writings systems, however, would not appear until later formative times.
Kirchhoff’s delineation of Mesoamerican traits has often been criticized as
inadequate, but the geographical and cultural concept of Mesoamerica has proved
too useful to be abandoned. Archaeologists have basically limited themselves to
insisting on the addition of other traits, such as long-distance trade in elite
goods and the shared creation myths that reflect an integrated Mesoamerican
worldview. These, too, existed by the Early Preclaasic period.” John Sorenson, in his book An
Ancient American Setting for the Book of Mormon, proposes that the Jaredite
cities of Lib and Mulek were actually, respectively, the Olmec cities of San
Lorenzo and La Venta. Dr. Sorenson suggests the early dating of 3000 BC for the
beginning of the Jaredite period on page 116 of his aforementioned text: “First, let us spell out the
origin of the Jaredites in historical and cultural terms. When did the
Jaredites originate as a people? Historical texts and archaeological research
on Mesopotamia, their homeland, tell us that big pyramid-shaped temple platforms
called ziggurats were being erected well before 3000 BC. Nothing but one
of them qualifies as “the great tower” referred to in Ether 1:33. If the
departure of the Jaredite party from their original home had been many centuries
later than 3000 BC or earlier than 3300 BC, their account about “the great
tower” would sound odd in terms of Near Eastern history. (Incidentally, the
zero date from which the Mesoamerican calendars were calculated was 3113 BC,
which might or might not be a coincidence.) We have already seen that the
earliest evidences of some of the basic indicators of civilization – stable
agriculture, village life, and ceramics – date to Mesaomerica to about 3000 BC.
There is no sound evidence, by
the way, to support the idea from outmoded biblical commentaries that the great
tower (“of Babel”) dated to near 2200 BC, as some Latter-day Saints continue to
believe. Indeed, contrary data abound.”
Ziggurat
of Marduk in Babylon http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/df/Choghazanbil2.jpg “Although humans surely inhabited
Olman in Paleo-Indian times, the oldest known archaeological remains date to
5100 BC. At about that time farmers occupied the edge of a former lagoon at San
Andres, Tabasco, 15 km (10 miles) south of the current shore of the Gulf of
Mexico and 5 km (3 miles) northeast of La Venta… By 2500 BC farmer at San Andres
and their neighbors were living around an estuary bordered by channels of the
Grijalva river delta and practicing a mixed economy of foraging and farming. In
addition to domesticated maize, they cultivated the sunflower for its
nutritious, oil-rich seeds, and cotton for fiber. They also utilized the
abundant wild resources of the area such as plants of the squash family. Rust
maintains that they used pottery vessels for cooking and storage but later
investigators suggest that his sherds may be intrusions from more recent
occupations higher up in the excavation. The early inhabitants of San Andres
must have used canoes, weapons, digging sticks, net baskets, and ritual objects
fabricated from wood and other organic materials. (pp 23-24)” This is obviously problematic for
Sorenson’s early dating. Archaeologists can’t even guarantee that the Olmecs,
or more precisely the pre-Olmecs, had pottery by 2500 BC, much less the
advanced social stratification described in the Book of Mormon.
Early Olmec
Pottery from San Andres
www.famsi.org/reports/ “Until recently archaeologists
believed that Olmec culture did not emerge as an identifiable entity until 1200
BC. During that century true Olmec remains were ritually deposited at El Manati,
a sacred shrine near San Lorenzo in the lower Coatzacoalcos basin. There is
good reason to believe that the worshipers came from San Lorenzo, the first
large Olmec center and possibly the original hearth of Olmec culture and art.
The identity of these first Olmecs remains a mystery. Some scholars believe
they were Mokaya migrants from the Pacific coast of Chiapas who brought improved
maize strains and incipient social stratification with them. Others propose
that Olmec culture evolved among local indigenous populations without
significant external stimulus. I prefer the latter position, but freely admit
that we lack sufficient information on the period before 1500 BC to resolve the
issue.”
Wooden Busts
found at El Manati
www.archaeology.org/ As already stated, Sorenson has
offered San Lorenzo as a candidate for the city that Lib and his followers
built. Although dates are not included for the Jaredite section of the Book of
Mormon, a genealogy is that gives the reader a rough idea of how much time has
passed since the first landing of the Jaredites in the New World. Lib is 16
generations removed from the first landing. If we accept the later dating of
1500 BC and grant approximately 25 years for a generation, Lib would be around
1100 BC. Ether 10 18 And it came to pass that Kish
passed away also, and Lib reigned in his stead. 19 And it came to pass that Lib
also did that which was good in the sight of the Lord. And in the days of Lib
the poisonous serpents were destroyed. Wherefore they did go into the land
southward, to hunt food for the people of the land, for the land was covered
with animals of the forest. And Lib also himself became a great hunter. 20 And they built a great city
by the narrow neck of land, by the place where the sea divides the land. Again, from Diehl’s book The
Olmec, page 27: “Excavations at San Lorenzo have
revealed three phases of occupation prior to its emergence as a full-blown city
at 1200 BC; Ojochi (1500-1350 BC), Bajio (1350-1250 BC), and Chicharras
(1250-1150 BC). Remains of these occupations lie deeply buried under later
debris but even so, recent excavations suggest that San Lorenzo covered at least
200 ha (49 acres) by 1250 BC. Surveys in the 400-sq. km (155-sq. mile) region
around San Lorenzo identified more than 100 Bajio and Chicharras-phase sites
that formed a complex three-tiered settlement hierarchy with the village of San
Lorenzo at its apex. The subsidiary communities included nine small villages
and scores of small hamlets and farmsteads. Most settlements were located on
high ground that did not flood, but yet provided access to fresh water and
fluvial transport. San Lorenzo was the largest village in the region and seems
to have dominated the entire zone even at this early time, perhaps receiving
food and other tribute from its subordinates…. By 1200 BC the Olmec world was
experiencing cultural ferment as processes that had begun three or four
centuries earlier coalesced into a new rich and flamboyant civilization of as
sort that never existed before in Mesoamerica. All of Niederberger’s six
characteristics of civilization already existed in at least incipient form as
emerging social, political, economic, religious, and artistic realities began to
transform local cultures as well as those in other parts of Mesoamerica. San
Lorenzo was the primary hearth of this new civilization.”
Olmec Head, San
Lorenzo
www.ccsf.edu/Library/ To further illustrate this
problem, the following is another citation from Diehl’s book, page 29: “San Lorenzo emerged as
Mesoamerica’s first city, and perhaps the oldest urban center anywhere in
the Americas, by 900 BC. By then it covered 500 ha (1,235 acres), had several
thousand permanent residents, and exhibited the full range of urban
characteristics outlined by Christine Niederberger: political and religious
power, social ranking, planned public architecture, highly skilled craftspeople,
control of interregional trade networks, and complex intellectual achievements.
Today it is clear that the Olmec capitals at San Lorenzo and La Venta were what
William T. Sanders and David Webster define as Regal-Ritual Cities: urban
centers that have highly developed ritual functions but fairly modest
populations, relatively weak, decentralized rulership, and limited economic
functions. Regal-Ritual Cities were common in later Mesoamerican societies,
where only Teotihuacan, Tula, and Tenochtitlan and a few other mega-centers
advanced beyond this state.” Diehl states that San Lorenzo
continued to develop until its decline during the Palangana phase (600-400 BC).
I will address the specifics of
what sort of political power a polity like San Lorenzo would have in the region
in my polities article. What needs to be emphasized in this article is that San
Lorenzo was an extremely influential city in terms of the developing Olmec, and
later Mesoamerican, world-view. This world-view is entirely divorced from any
Judeo-Christian viewpoint How likely is it that the most influential city
in the developing Olmec culture was actually ruled by Judeo-Christians?
Let’s look more closely at the
type of evidence that so clearly portrays the pan-Mesoamerican world-view at San
Lorenzo. During the declining period of San Lorenzo, one of the earliest known
ballcourts was built. (Diehl) In addition, “Loma del Zapote’s (my insert -
the modern city at San Lorenzo’s location) most intriguing sculptural setting is
found at Rancho El Azuzul where four sculptures were uncovered in an undisturbed
tableau resting on a bentonite floor. Two virtually identical kneeling human
twins face the rising sun. Both are perfectly preserved except for the
deliberate obliteration of the insignia in their headdresses. They confront two
snarling jaguars that were recarved from older monuments. The entire tableau
recalls the ancient Mesoamerican myth of the Hero Twins and their epic
struggle with the forces of the Underworld on the behalf of humanity. The
tableau was visible from the river, suggesting it served to remind visitors of
the power and sanctity of San Lorenzo’s rulers, presumed descendants from the
Hero Twins. (page 33)” After listing various sculptures
found at San Lorenzo, Diehl states: “Two themes prevade San Lorenzo
sculpture: realistic portrayals of humans, at times engaged in ritual acts, and
animals. The latter range from naturalistic denizens of the forest to
phantasmagoric congeries that never existed in the real world. While these
themes are also found at La Venta and elsewhere, San Lorenzo’s corpus has its
own unique patterns and features. One such specialty focuses on felines and
depictions of humans transforming into jaguars or other felines; humans wearing
jaguar pelts are also common. The modern distribution of monuments strongly
suggests they were stored and displayed in elite zones at the peripheries of the
plateau. Only a few remain intact. Most were either mutilated or already in
the recycling process. Crisp lines and un-weathered surfaces are common enough
to suggest that many monuments were protected from the elements, perhaps inside
buildings or under protective roofs.(p 42)” Of course, according to the book
of Ether, Lib was just one of many Jaredite cities, so excavations at other
polities around San Lorenzo are also of interest. Not surprisingly, they also
demonstrate the same Olmec themes: “El Manati continued to function
as a shrine during the Macayal A phase (1200-100 BC), the local equivalent of
the San Lorenzo phase. On one notable occasion, worshipers deposited a massive
offering of objects carved from wood and other perishable materials that
miraculously survived in the anaerobic submerged environment of the bog. The
most spectacular offerings were forty life-sized human busts carved from the
wood of a local tropical cedar tree. They were accompanied by wooden scepters,
sacrificial stone knives hafted into wood handles with tar adhesive, rubber
balls, lumps of hematite, knotted cords, woven mats, plant leaves, nuts, fruit
pits, and hematite-impregnated animal bones. On a more macabre note, bones of
human neonates, infants and children, likely sacrificial victims, were deposited
among the offerings. Ortiz and Rodriguez speculate that the Olmecs realized
that these objects would resist decay in the protective waters of the bog,
perhaps an added benefit to the rituals, but could they have imagined they would
endure more than 3,000 years? El Manati was not the only shrine
where Olmecs buried ritual offerings. At least three separate offerings were
placed in standing or slowly moving water at nearby La Merced, including one
that contained more than 600 roughly carved limestone celts in an area 30 m (98
ft)on a side. Although not as finely made as the El Manati celts, they were
accompanied by hematite and pyrite mirrors, a beautifully carved 72-cm (30 in)
high stelae-like stone with a classic Olmec face, and a carved greenstone celt
depicting a squalling infant nicknamed “El Bebe”. (p 44) The ancient Mesoamericans were
like modern societies and other ancient societies in that they tended to mimic
the behaviors of the most successful people and polities of their period. San
Lorenzo was one of the earliest polities to exert such an influence. And the
result? Elements completely within the pan-Mesoamerican world view. These
elements – the sacrifices, the mirrors, the shamans transforming into their
animal way are all consistent with the native Mesoamerican religion, and
inconsistent with the Judeo-Christian religion. Richard Diehl makes another
interesting and pertinent comment on page 13 of the aforementioned book: “The origins of the Olmec culture
have intrigued scholars and lay people alike since Trez Zapotes Colossal Head I,
a gigantic stone human head with vaguely Negroid features, was discovered in
Veracruz 140 years ago. Since that time, Olmec culture and art have been
attributed to seafaring Africans, Egyptians, Nubians, Phoenicians, Atlanteans,
Japanese, Chinese, and other ancient wanderers. As often happens, the truth is
infinitely more logical, if less romantic: the Olmecs were Native Americans who
created a unique culture in southeastern Mexico’s Isthmus of Tehuantepec.
Archaeologists now trace Olmec origins back to pre-Olmec cultures in the region
and there is no credible evidence for major intrusions from the outside.
Furthermore, not a single bona fide artifact of Old World origin has ever
appeared in an Olmec archaeological site, or for that matter anywhere else in
Mesoamerica.” Of course, many Book of Mormon
scholars today who adhere to some version of the Limited Geography Theory would
protest that the Book of Mormon is actually not a story of a “major intrusion”,
but rather of a very small intrusion of a small group of people who were
immediately subsumed within the larger, preexisting culture. However, that
ignores the fact that, even if one were to accept the basic premise of LGT, this
small group of people were actually the elite leaders of the most powerful
polities of their respective time periods, and yet left not one single trace
of their Judeo-Christian worldview, despite the fact that their polities were
hugely influential over the development of the worldview in general.
More information about the Olmec
influence in the development of the concept of the Holy Lord can be found in the
beautiful work Lords of Creation The Origins of Sacred Maya Kingship. In
the essay Olmec Ideological, Ritual, and Symbolic Contributions to the
Institution of Classic Maya Kingship, F.Kent Reilly III states: “The origin of Maya ajawship
and its role in the development of state-level societies throughout the Americas
comprise major study areas in both Classic and Preclassic, or Formative, period
research. Many recent investigations clearly indicate that the office of
ajaw, indeed the glyph itself, originated among non-Mayan speakers (Fields
1989) during the earlier middle Formative period (900-400 BC). Many of the
symbols and much of the elaborate ritual deployed to enhance and publicly
validate the Maya ajaw during the Classic period originated specifically
with the Olmec culture in its Gulf Coast heartland during the Formative period
(Reilly 1991).” (p 30) and “Like their Classic Maya
counterparts, Olmec stelae and other monuments were active participants in the
ritual landscape, and as such were often carved with rope or cloth bindings
(Reilly 2001). At La Venta, the images of kings as well as the stelae were
often carved so as to appear bundled (Guernsey Kappelman and Reilly 2001). La
Venta Monument 77 in particular, in the frontal view, depicts a seated Olmec
ruler wearing a cape and an elaborate Maize God headdress. When viewed from the
rear, his cape appears as bundle wrapping, while the headdress assumes the
aspect of the cleft-maize motif (Taube 1996). The first Mesoamerican examples
of large stelae appeared at La Venta, and the later Classic Maya used stelae to
tie royal history into cyclical time. Thus, one can posit a specific accession
or coronation site on the Northeast Mound in La Venta’s enclosed court. All
these factors strongly suggest that the rulers of La Venta themselves led the
ideological transformation from paramount chief to king sometime between 900 and
500 BC. All the evidence points to La Venta being the site where Classic Maya
kins’ regalia was first visualized in the permanent medium of stone, both
monumentally and in miniature…. Undoubtedly, the template for Classic period
belief, politics, and ritual was first essayed and visually inscribed in the
Middle Formative Olmec heartland.” The same story can be seen in the
Nephite period. Dr. Sorenson offers the city of Kaminaljuyu as the City of
Nephi. Again, there aren’t many options due to the required level of social
stratification. The City of Nephi would have been the most powerful polity in
its area, according to the Book of Mormon. Kaminaljuyu was, indeed, an
incredibly powerful polity. In fact, just as with San Lorenzo, it was a
precociously developed polity that had great influence over other polities in
the region. From The Handbook to Life in
the Ancient Maya World, page 30: “New
centers emerged in the central Guatemala highlands at this period (middle
preclassic), probably because the flat plateaus became more habitable due to
diminishing volcanic activity. All these new settlements were well situated for
trade. Kaminaljuyu in the Valley of Guatemala, for example, could control
nearby obsidian sources, but it was also in an enviable position to command
trade between the Caribbean and the Pacific coast through the river routes in
the Motagua Valley, and through the highland pass down to the Pacific. Cacao,
obsidian, and jade were part of the valuable trade that would expand in the Late
Preclassic, making Kaminaljuyu flourish into one of the most important cities of
that period. By 700 B.C.E., Kaminaljuyu already had constructed a major
irrigation canal, and by 500 B.C.E., it began carving freestanding stone slabs
called stelae.” The
first point this brings to mind is the fact that obviously Kaminaljuyu was
already an established center by 600 BC when it was named after Nephi who became
its king. In fact, it would have, once again, been one of the more precociously
developed polities of the time period, and hence, one of the most influential in
terms of the developing Mesoamerican world view in general, and the concept of
the Holy Lord in particular. More information from the same text regarding
Kaminaljuyu, or the City of Nephi:
“Kaminaljuyu grew from a small center in the Valley of Guatemala in 500 B.C.E.
to a capital city dominating the terminal Preclassic period. Although the sprawl
of modern Guatemala City has destroyed much of the ancient site and made a
careful reconstruction of its development impossible, Kaminaljuyu in its final
phase (Early Classic) was a city of more than 200 earthen and adobe-plastered
mounds in contrast to approximately 80 at Izapa. The majority of the mounds
dated to the Late Preclassic period. Some were 20 meters (66 feet) high and
once supported adobe or wooden temples with thatched roofs. One massive
structure, judging from the rich tombs it contained, must have been an ancestor
shrine dedicated to deceased rulers. An artificial canal, built C. 400 B.C.E.
to replace one from the Middle Preclassic Period, fed a vast irrigation system.
Great platforms with temples and what may have been a palace courtyard complex
were constructed; stelae, some almost 2 meters (6 feet) tall, were carved in low
relief, with hieroglyphic inscriptions.
Kaminaljuyu was more powerful and wealthier than any other city in the southern
region during this period. Kaminaljuyu
influences can be seen at other highland sites and from the Salama Valley to El
Baul and Chalchuapa. Although population estimates for Kaminaljuyu cannot be
made because of the destruction of the site, tens of thousands of laborers,
probably drawn from all over the valley, were necessary to construct and
maintain the city. Many
archaeologists believe that the centralized power required to organize such
public works would have been beyond that of a mere chiefdom. And the stelae
cult probably served to glorify the rulers of such an incipient state. One
tomb – Bural C in Structure E-III-3 – is the richest yet discovered anywhere in
the Maya realm for the Late Preclassic Period. Its more than 300 artifacts –
jade, obsidian, quartz crystals, entire sheets of mica, stingray spines (known
to be used by Maya royalty for autosacrifice), fish teeth, and, of course,
ceramics including Usultan-ware – certainly suggest that its occupant,
accompanied by four sacrificed individuals, was a Kaminaljuyu king. The burial
contents also demonstrate the extensive trade and wealth of this strategically
located city. (page 38)”
Kaminaljuyu
Stelae http://www.artnet.com/magazineus/features/karlins/karlins8-14-06.asp Mosiah
10: 1 Now,
the Lamanites knew nothing concerning the Lord, nor the strength of the Lord,
therefore they depended upon their own strength. Yet they were a strong people,
as to the strength of men. 12
They were a wild, and ferocious, and a blood-thirsty people, believing in the
tradition of their fathers, which is this—Believing that they were driven out
of the land of Jerusalem because of the iniquities of their fathers, and that
they were wronged in the wilderness by their brethren, and they were also
wronged while crossing the sea; 13
And again, that they were wronged while in the land of their first inheritance,
after they had crossed the sea, and all this because that Nephi was more
faithful in keeping the commandments of the Lord—therefore he was favored of the
Lord, for the Lord heard his prayers and answered them, and he took the lead of
their journey in the wilderness. 14
And his brethren were wroth with him because they understood not the dealings of
the Lord; they were also wroth with him upon the waters because they hardened
their hearts against the Lord. 15
And again, they were wroth with him when they had arrived in the promised land,
because they said that he had taken the ruling of the people out of their hands;
and they sought to kill him. 16
And again, they were wroth with him because he departed into the wilderness as
the Lord had commanded him, and took the records which were engraven on the
plates of brass, for they said that he robbed them. 17
And thus they have taught their children that they should hate them, and that
they should murder them, and that they should rob and plunder them, and do all
they could to destroy them; therefore they have an eternal hatred towards the
children of Nephi. Alma
54: 16 I
am Ammoron, the king of the Lamanites; I am the brother of Amalickiah whom ye
have murdered. Behold, I will avenge his blood upon you, yea, and I will come
upon you with my armies for I fear not your threatenings. 17
For behold, your fathers did wrong their brethren, insomuch that they did rob
them of their aright to the government when it rightly belonged unto them.
23 I am Ammoron, and a
descendant of Zoram, whom your fathers pressed and brought out of Jerusalem. 24
And behold now, I am a bold Lamanite; behold, this war hath been waged to avenge
their wrongs, and to maintain and to obtain their rights to the government; and
I close my epistle to Moroni.
Ancestor worship was very important in ancient Mesoamerica, as it appeared to be
in the Book of Mormon. Yet nowhere in ancient Mesoamerica can be found
references to these ancestors who came from across the sea, despite the fact
that both groups identified with these ancestors, and were the rulers of the
most influential cities in Mesoamerica during the given time period. The period
of Kaminaljuyu after 400 BC is just as important to this issue as the period
before the Nephite exodus. Yet Kaminaljuyu consistently demonstrates evidence
of the pan-Mesoamerican world-view, which had nothing to do with any form of
Judeo-Christianity. Once again, I focus on the Holy Lord, which is particularly
pertinent given the assertion that Judeo-Christians were the elite rulers of the
most powerful cities in ancient Mesoamerica. “The ideology of rulership was
communicated in dramatically contrasting ways during the Late Preclassic period
along the Pacific slope. One example, Izapa (in present day Chiapas, Mexico),
reached its apex of growth during the Guillen phase (300-50 BC), which was
characterized by extraordinary construction activity in which all of the central
plaza groups reached their maximum proportions. The majority of monuments at
the site also appear to have been carved during this period (Lowe et al.1982,
13). The primary sculptural vehicle employed at Izapa was the stela, carved or
plain, which was often paired with an altar at its base. These stela altar
pairs punctuated the site center with their imagery, working in tandem with
architectural surroundings to create a unified program of sacred space.
Oriented so that their highly narrative imagery could be viewed from the plaza
center, they defined the space as one of performance, designed to accommodate
and engage a large audience. Although stelae first appeared in
sculptural assemblages during the latter part of the Middle Preclassic period,
they quickly became the primary sculptural mode along the Pacific slope for the
dissemination of potent messages during the Late Preclassic period. With
their more regular contours and smoothed stone surfaces, they provided an ideal
– and permanent – means for recording rulers’ performances and complex
mythological narratives. The development of the stela format may also have been
a response to external pressures and culturally diverse interaction spheres that
were in place across Mesoamerica by at least 600 BC. Their appearance at Izapa –
as well as Takalik Abaj, El Baul, Kaminaljuyu, and elsewhere – was probably one
symptom, manifested in sculptural form, of the amalgamation of power at selected
Late Preclassic sites (Parsons 1986, 7) While stelae functioned as one
means through which the events of creation and the ruler’s role within them were
visualized to audiences, they did not stand merely in mute testimony to
performances from the recent or distant past. Stela played active roles in the
ritual life of the community, as Stuart (1996) observed, and they were
continually revitalized through ceremonies and processions performed within
their midst. Their effectiveness may also be related to their human scale,
which readily accommodated and engaged audiences gathered around them (Clancy
1999, 126; Newsome 1998). But what were the themes recorded
on the stela monuments in this region and how, specifically, did they articulate
themes of rulership? One recurring image is that of rulers costumed as birds
– replete with feathered wings, towering avian headdresses, and dramatically
hooked beaks on Izapa Stela 4 and Kaminaljuyu Stela 11. This imagery, which
was invoked throughout a broad geographic region during this period, was
predicated on the myth of the Principal Bird Deity (Bardawil 1976; Cortex
1986; Guernsey Kappelman 1997). This avian deity, closely associated with
the previous creation in the K’iche’ Maya Popol Vuh, appears during the
Early Classic period as the way, or alter ego, of Itzamnaaj, the
primordial shaman or ruler (Bardawil 1976; Hellmuth 1986, 1987; Guernsey
Kappelman 1997, 2004: Taube in Houston and Stuart 1989: n. 7). By wearing the
costume of this bird deity, kings defined themselves as analogous to Itzamnaaj,
who also transformed into the bird. They also wore the avian costume in death:
the principal occupant in the Late Preclassic Tomb II, a royal burial in
Kaminaljuyu Mound E-III-3, wore an elaborate greenstone mask that may represent
a three-dimensional version of the bird mask worn by rulers at Izapa,
Kaminaljuyu, and elsewhere (Shook and Kidder 1952, 115). On Takalik Abaj Altar
30, the relationship between this imagery and the office of rulership is
explicit: a ruler costumed as the bird deity decorates the top of a Late
Preclassic throne (Vinicio Garcia 1997, 169; Orrego and Schieber 2001, 923).
Clearly, wearing the avian costume was central to statements of rulership during
the Late Preclassic period in this region and beyond, as evidenced by La Mojarra
Stela I, pulled from the Acula River in Veracruz, upon which another king
appears in a remarkably similar bird costume (Winfield Capitaine 1988). Rulers must have commissioned
monuments that recorded their avian performances to demonstrate their abilities
to communicate with the supernatural realm. This, in turn, buttressed their
claims to political power. Moreover, the geographic spread of the imagery
attests to a standardized vocabulary of forms and actions that signaled
participation in an elite communication network spanning southeastern
Mesoamerica during this period. This narrative directly inserted the ruler into
a cosmological framework. This theme was also invoked in Group B at Izapa.
There, three monumental stone pillars, each capped with a stone sphere, formed a
triad at the base of Mound 30. This triad referenced the three-stone hearth – a
symbol of the center of the universe – which was the locus of important creation
events according to Classic Maya inscriptions and reflected in the sky in the
triadic arrangement of stars in the constellation Orion (Freidel et al. 1993,
79-84; Looper 1995, 25; Taube 1998, 439; Tedlock 1985, 261). Rulership was
cleverly inserted into the astronomical and mythological framework of Group B:
Throne ( sat at the central pillar’s base, effectively placing the seat of
rulership at the apex of the cosmic hearth. Monuments at Izapa were not
carved with the elaborate calendrical and hieroglyphic inscriptions that
characterize monuments at sites such as Takalik Abaj and Kaminaljuyu. It
should not be assumed, however, that a lack of inscriptions indicates
unfamiliarity with nascent hieroglyphic traditions. Rather, it more likely
reflects a deliberate choice by the elite at Izapa to commission public royal
artworks that communicated to audiences of diverse cultural and linguistic
backgrounds on a purely visual level.” Rulers in ancient Mesoamerica
verified their right to rulership through their ancestorship. This is very
similar to the practice in the Book of Mormon in which leaders recite their
genealogy to the Lehites. So it is not unreasonable to expect the leaders of
the most powerful polities in ancient Mesoamerica to refer to those ancient
ancestors from across the sea in their stela. Yet there is no evidence of any
attempt to validate right to rulership by any lineage other than those long
established native Mesoamerican lineages. From the Forest of Kings, page
87: “The
title of kings also included their numerical position in a line of succession
reckoned from the founders of their lineages.
These founders were usually real historical persons, but they could also be
supernaturals. In the realm of Copan, however, we see another type of
situation. There the small population center of Rio Amarillo was governed by a
group of lords belonging to a lineage who claimed descent not from the founding
ancestor of the high king but from a local founder. The existence of this state
of affairs confirms that many subordinate lineages did not bear a real kinship
status to the royal line and hence constituted allied vassals rather than
relatives of inferior status. Nevertheless, the overriding metaphor of kingly
authority was kinship. Kings at Copan and elsewhere used the regalia and ritual
of their office to claim identity with the mythical ancestral god of the Maya.
In this way they asserted ultimate kinship authority over all their subjects,
including such subordinates as the Rio Amarillo lords.
Problems with legitimate descent, such as the lack of a male heir or the death
of one in war, were solved in extraordinarily creative ways. Some of the most
innovative programs in the sculpture and architecture at Yaxchilan and Palenque
were erected to rationalize such divergences from the prescribed pattern of
descent, problems that are discussed in detail in Chapters 6 and 7. So critical
was the undisputed passages of authority at the death of a king that the
designation of the heir became an important public festival cycle, with magical
rituals spreading over a period of a year or more. At the royal capital of
Bonampak o the great Usuamacinta River, exquisite polychrome murals show that
these rites included both the public display of the heir and his transformation
into a special person through the sacrifice of captives taken for that purpose.” So
while it is possible that an elite leader may have arisen outside the previously
set familial relationships, but when that did occur, great effort was made to
justify this leadership by finding some way to still connect it to the founding
elites. One
case that demonstrates the fact that ancient Mesoamericans, like human beings
everywhere, tended to emulate the powerful in their time period is that of
Teotihuacan. Teotihuacan was the most powerful polity to have developed by that
point in ancient Mesoamerica. It was located a bit north of the Book of Mormon
geographical region as shared by Sorenson, and its power was growing at the end
of the Book of Mormon time frame. It seems to have begun to reach its full
power around 100 AD. This site contains detailed information about this polity:
http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/teot/hd_teot.htm The
book The Maya and Teotihuacan Reinterpreting Early Classic Interaction
is entirely devoted to exploring the influence that this powerful polity had on
ancient Mesoamerica. Its influence is so pervasive in some areas that some
scholars believed that only a military invasion and control by Teotihuacan could
possibly explain this level of influence. Yet, most scholars today tend to
believe that it was simply the economic and trading power of Teotihuacan that
led to this widespread imitation. The less powerful seek to establish and
demonstrate ties to the more powerful in order to legitimate their own power.
This is common throughout the history of the world, and can be seen today, as
well. From the essay “Problematic
Deposits and the Problem of Interaction: The Material Culture of Tikal during
the Early Classic Period” in the aforementioned text, Marai Josefa Iglesias
Ponce de Leon states: “A recent reading of texts from
Tikal and Uaxactun suggests that a strongly disruptive event played an important
role in the sociopolitical development of the central Maya lowlands, and even
names the individuals whose arrival promulgated these changes (Stuart 2000a).
This interpretation raises a multitude of questions. Why did foreigners
“arrive” at Tikal? What happened in Tikal that allowed an interruption of its
dynastic line? Did the same or a similar series of events occur at Copan? Did
Calakmul stay out of this intrusion, or has its involvement so far escaped
detection? How does Kaminaljuyu fit into these events? Why was it necessary
for rulers of a variety of sites in the Maya region to seek legitimization or
sanction from Teotihuacan and other distant sites? When cultures interact, specific
processes that are mediated by numerous factors come into operation. A strong
determinant in these relations is the nature of the contact. Was it peaceful or
violent? Was the authority or coercive power of Teotihuacan so strong that it
was capable of imposing rulers in a variety of places more than 1,500 km from
its center? From my perspective, a control by force is assumable only if we
believe that a Teotihuacan presence at Tikal was somehow similar to the Spanish
Conquest. The essential actors in that later drama were the thousands of
indigenous people – allied by conviction or subjugation – without whom the
imposition of sociopolitical control would have been impossible. Did something
equivalent occur in the event of 8.17.1.4.12.11 Eb’ 15 Mak (Stuart 2000a),
January 16, AD 378? Who were the Maya allies that made the imposition of a
foreign-born ruler possible? What were the economic circumstances behind this
arrival – a struggle to control the obsidian trade? Few scholars now think that
Teotihuacan played any role in the distribution of obsidian within the Maya
region. Could it have been an overwhelming need to exchange Thin Orange ware?
Even if Teotihuacan controlled production of this ceramic, which seems unlikely,
the total number of whole vessels (perhaps as many as five and two lids) and
sherds (ten total, representing another four to six vessels) found in primary
contexts at Tikal is negligible. They may represent one load carried to Tikal
by a single person. In any case, the exchange of this pottery over such
distances cannot be explained in economic terms. What, then, happened? As a Spaniard and a European, I
belong to a culture in which marriages of state between elites of different
nations have been practiced for centuries. The idea that a person of mixed
descent – the product of the union of local and foreign elites – can come to
control a territory and be accepted by the local populace is understandable to
me. An example from Spanish history seems quite analogous to the situation in
Mesoamerica. King Charles I of Spain (Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire; AD
1500-1558), son of the Spanish Dona Joanna the Mad and the Flemish Philip the
Fair, was born and educated far from the Iberian Peninsula. He came to Spain
without speaking a word of Spanish, but he died completely Hispanicized and
immersed in a culture that absorbed him. The Austrian Hapsburg dynasty was
maintained for more than two hundred years before other foreigners, from the
House of Bourbon, intervened. The first king in that line, the French-born
Philip V, greatly increased the appreciation of French and Italian fashion among
the Spanish elite, but had little effect on the common people. Eventually,
members of Houses of Bonaparte and Saboya also interceded dynastic lines that
crosscut ethnic and national identities is the notion of divine kingship, a
concept shared with some Mesoamerican cultures. During all the centuries of
intermarriage, Spanish culture did not remain static. Nonetheless, changes
fundamentally were due to internal dynamics and to the fluidity of European
relations, and, of course, to the economic and influences of the Americas.
Throughout this long period, Spain remained undeniably Spanish. This is
perfectly equivalent and analogous to the development of Mesoamerican
civilization.” (pages 193-194) In the same text, Joyce Marcus,
in her essay The Maya and Teotihuacan, she offers alternative
explanations for the pervasive influence of Teotihuacan: “Model 1: Single Event
Interaction Sites such as Altun Ha and Becan
(as well as Monte Alban in Oaxaca) suggest a single-event model for interaction
with a distant foreign power. The event may be violent, such as the
burning of a building during a raid, or amicable, such as elite gift
giving or attendance at a building dedication. 
Again from
Lords of Creation The Origins of Sacred Maya Kingship,
in the essay Late
Preclassic Expressions of Authority on the Pacific Slope by Julian Guernsey
and Michael Love, page 40:
