Karen Bassie-Sweet - Maya Narrative Arts

Karen Bassie-Sweet and Nicholas A. Hopkins

University Press of Colorado

Louisville

2018 by University Press of Colorado

Published by University Press of Colorado

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Louisville, Colorado 80027

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the Association of University Presses.

The University Press of Colorado is a cooperative publishing enterprise supported, in part, by Adams State University, Colorado State University, Fort Lewis College, Metropolitan State University of Denver, Regis University, University of Colorado, University of Northern Colorado, Utah State University, and Western State Colorado University.

ISBN: 978-1-60732-821-6 (cloth)

ISBN: 978-1-60732-741-7 (pbk)

ISBN: 978-1-60732-742-4 (ebook)

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5876/9781607327424

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Bassie-Sweet, Karen, 1952 author. | Hopkins, Nicholas A., author.

Title: Maya narrative arts / Karen Bassie-Sweet and Nicholas A. Hopkins.

Description: Boulder : University Press of Colorado, 2017. | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2017048381| ISBN 9781607327417 (pbk.) | ISBN 9781607327424 (ebook) | ISBN 9781607328216 (cloth)

Subjects: LCSH: MayasAntiquities. | MexicoAntiquities. | Palenque (Chiapas, Mexico)Antiquities. | Narrative artMexico. | MonumentsMexicoPalenque (Chiapas) | Inscriptions, Mayan.

Classification: LCC F1435 .B37 2017 | DDC 972.81dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017048381

Cover photograph of Vessel K793 courtesy of Justin Kerr

Yaxchiln Stela 12

Genealogy chart of primary deities

Dumbarton Oaks Tablet

The deity GI

The deity GII

The deity GII

Water symbols

Vessel K771

Vessel K4681

Vessel K1892

The Waterlily Bird-Serpent

Palenque Temple XIV Tablet

Copn Bench 10K-2

Yaxchiln Stela 1

Yaxchiln Structure 44, Step III

Glyph C of the Lunar Series

Copn Bench 8N-11

Yaxchiln Lintel 1

Yaxchiln Lintel 2

Yaxchiln Lintel 3

Palenque Palace Tablet, scene

Palenque Palace Tablet, main text

Chab-akab couplet

Piedras Negras Stela 7 and Stela 8 obsidian spears

La Pasadita Lintel 2

Place name from Tres Islas Stela 1 and Stela 2

Copn Margarita Panel

Palenque Tablet of the Cross, scene

Yaxchiln Lintel 5

Vessel K5466

Vessel K2695

Vessel K1387

Dieseldorff vessel

Cham Bat vessel

Vessel K5354

Vessel K1183

Vessels K793

Vessel K791

Altar de Sacrificios vase

Quirigu Stela I

Dresden Codex Wayeb pages

Yaxchiln Lintel 8

Yaxchiln Stela 35

Palenque Temple XIX platform

Palenque Tablet of the Slaves

Palenque Temple XXI Bench

Laxtunich wall panel

Site R, Panel 3

Yaxchiln Lintel 25

Palenque Tablet of the 96 Glyphs

Palenque Temple of Inscriptions, sarcophagus lid

Dos Pilas Burial 30 vessel

Palenque sarcophagus lid, text

Palenque sarcophagus box, east side

Palenque sarcophagus box, north side

Palenque sarcophagus box, west side

Palenque sarcophagus box, south side

Vessel K6547

Palenque Temple of the Cross, alfarda inscription

Palenque Temple of the Sun, alfarda inscription

Palenque Temple of the Foliated Cross, alfarda inscription

Palenque Temple of the Foliated Cross, jamb

Palenque Tablet of the Cross, main text

Palenque Tablet of the Sun

Palenque Tablet of the Foliated Cross

Vessel K2849

Palenque Temple XVII Panel

Chichn Itz cenote pectoral

Corpus of Maya Hieroglyphic Inscriptions (CMHI), Harvard University

https://www.peabody.harvard.edu/cmhi/

Mesoweb, Palenque Resources, Monuments and Inscriptions (photographs and drawings)

http://www.mesoweb.com/palenque/monuments/monuments.html

Justin Kerrs Maya Vase Data Base (rollout photographs of Maya vessels; search by K number)

http://research.mayavase.com/kerrmaya.html

Schele Drawing Collection, Ancient Americas at LACMA (Los Angeles County Museum of Art)

http://ancientamericas.org/collection/search

In an age in which the hoarding of data is commonplace, we celebrate the free and open access to images provided by David Schele, Inga Calvin, Justin Kerr, and Karl Herbert Mayer. We would like to express our sincere appreciation to David Schele for allowing us to reproduce drawings by the late Linda Schele in our volume. Thanks are also due to Inga Calvin who provided us with permission to reproduce her fine rollout image of the Altar de Sacrificios vessel. We are indebted to Elin Danien for supplying us with images of Mary Louise Bakers paintings of Cham vessels and to the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology for permission to reproduce them. We are especially grateful to Justin Kerr for supplying us with many pottery images from his peerless database of Maya vessels and for allowing us to reproduce his wonderful photographs. We also have benefited greatly from the documentation of Maya art by Karl Herbert Mayer. Just like Justin, Karl generously shares his work and insights.

Since our early studies of Classic-period narrative structure and the relationship between text and image, a number of researchers have explored these topics and significantly advanced the understanding of the field. We have benefited greatly from discussions with Michael Carrasco, Allen Christensen, Kerry Hull, Timothy Knowlton, and Alfonso Lacadena, and we have learned a great deal from their fine publications.

We would also like to thank Jessica dArbonne, Daniel Pratt, and Darrin Pratt of the University Press of Colorado for their support and editorship.

This book treats domains of Classic Maya language, art, and culture that at first glance might seem to be unrelated. One is narrative structure in text, dealing with the way stories (including history) are presented to the reader and the manipulations of language that constitute the text genres and rhetorical devices that are recorded on Classic period monuments. This domain is partly linguistic and partly hieroglyphic, entailing how language is used to achieve the purposes of the writers (pragmatics) as well as the written forms the texts may take (epigraphy). The second domain involves the structure of art forms and conventions, and how these principles relate to the narrative structure of the text. The third domain is cognitive and mythological, the belief systems that form the context in which stories were written and illustrated, including the ways in which history is portrayed in monumental text and image. This domain is partly iconographic and partly ethnographic, and entails the ways in which personal and social relations were conceived as well as the ways in which such relationships were represented in Classic Maya art.