Mayan Art Megathread

[Warden]

Small Stela from Dos Pilas:



Can't read this, but here is the description.

 

[Aginor]

Small Stela from Dos Pilas:

View attachment 62332

Can't read this, but here is the description.

View attachment 62330

My Spanish isn't very good, but I think the text says roughly this (TL;DR version)

The Mayas and their sacred plant, the corn, had a special relationship, as corn could grow on the jungle soil, and also on the half-desert soils and in the mountains, allowing them to grow enough food to build and sustain their huge cities.
They Mayans also closely observed the plants and animals around them, and understood them, their characteristics.
They believed that animals were manifestations of the gods and humans and animals were brothers.
Mayan art often depicts this.

 

[Ge32]

https://jloart.artstation.com/projects/4Wqr1

 

[Warden]

The centipede was considered a gateway to the underworld (specifically the jaws of the centipede) because when ancient Mayans opened the tombs of their ancestors they would always find large jungle centipedes crawling on the freshly-dead remains or bones.

The centipede, or wak / waka was the symbol of the Centipede (Wak) Dynasty of Palenque and El Peru.

Map of El Peru:


Two links where I got these images from:

History Blog
Ancient Origins

King of Palenque holding captive a king from Tonina:



Maya Snake Queen of the Waka dynasty, from Stela 43.

Spoiler

Mayan Snake Queen (Ikoom) name listed on stela 44:

And to finish a few centipedes in artsy style:



Bone jaws of the underworld:

 

[Warden]

Written Language of the Maya

 

[Aginor]

Written Language of the Maya

View attachment 63193

Wow I am tempted to create a program that lets you input english words and it returns mayan script that could fit...

Edit: a similar thing already exists. It sucks though, since it doesn't follow the rules.
https://www.paleoaliens.com/event/mayan_glyphs/index.html

 

[Warden]

Wow I am tempted to create a program that lets you input english words and it returns mayan script that could fit...

Edit: a similar thing already exists. It sucks though, since it doesn't follow the rules.
https://www.paleoaliens.com/event/mayan_glyphs/index.html

That is a great find!

 

[Warden]

 

[Warden]

Stela 3 from Seibal.

This stela was made at the end of the classic period, like a lot of the stela from the terminal classic they did not have the same high-quality standard of many of the beautiful Mayan carvings of the lowlands that came before it

Spoiler

 

[Warden]

So this one is definitely not a piece of Mayan art, but I love how it looks. Imagine a giant ruined structure like this built into the side of a waterfall!!

 

[Warden]

 

[Warden]

Mayan polities ~1519:

 

[Warden]

 

[Warden]

Random assortment of glyphs, pretty sure this is just wrapping paper or something:

 

[6MilPhil]

Excellent stuff. That Mayan translator just assign a letter to a glyph, a poor option, so Jaguar would be six glyphs instead of the one for jaguar...

 

[Warden]

Excellent stuff. That Mayan translator just assign a letter to a glyph, a poor option, so Jaguar would be six glyphs instead of the one for jaguar...

Yeah... translating English to mayan-glyphs isn't exact. Our alphabet is only 26 letters, but each letter can stand for a different sound. Mayan "alphabet" was a lot bigger because their "letters" stood for specific sounds.

 

[Aginor]

Excellent stuff. That Mayan translator just assign a letter to a glyph, a poor option, so Jaguar would be six glyphs instead of the one for jaguar...

Yeah... translating English to mayan-glyphs isn't exact. Our alphabet is only 26 letters, but each letter can stand for a different sound. Mayan "alphabet" was a lot bigger because their "letters" stood for specific sounds.

Yeah it doesn't work that way.
That "translator" neither applies the correct sounds nor the structure of writing. The output doesn't even look like mayan writing. Which is sad. It should be possible to program a better one. But I lack the time to give it a shot.

 

[Warden]

Been a minute, so here are some more stela. All from the classic period (600-900 AD)

Yaxchilan lintel 33:



Also Yaxchilan, Lintel 48:



Manchaquila Stela 3 (never heard of this place, will have to look it up).



Xcalmukin Stela:



Lagartero Stela: very basic looking, almost as though it was a sketch



Tila Stela:

 

[Warden]

A few more beautiful maya carvings.

Amazingly detailed fragment from Chinikija:

Spoiler

From Tonina:



Comalcalco:



Another amazing carving from Comalcalco, really like this one for how much depth is in the face:



Glyph carvings, also Comalcalco:



Carving from the subterranean caverns of Palenque:



From Pakal Na:

 

[Warden]

A few from the city of Tonina

Monument 171, showing a ballcourt scene.



Monument 175

Spoiler: moar from Tonina

Monument 114



Monument 154, a captive in stone:



Monument 155, second captive: