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FAMSI © 2007: Bryan R. Just |
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Ninth-Century Stelae of Machaquilá and Seibal
Seibal under Aj Bolon Haabtal Wat'ul K'atel: the Structure A-3 program Structure A-3, with its elaborate stucco façade and associated set of five stelae, was an impressively labor-intensive initial commission for Seibal's new ruler, Aj Bolon Haabtal Wat'ul K'atel. It includes nine portrayals of him, four large-scale, in-the-round stucco portraits above each of the structure's four doorways and one on each of five stelae (Stelae 8–11 and 21, Figure 14 and Figure 15, shown above; Figure 16, Figure 17, and Figure 18, shown below). The associated inscriptions, and potentially the smaller-scale human figures flanking Aj Bolon Haabtal Wat'ul K'atel's stucco portraits, document that at least six emissaries came to Seibal to participate in the 10.1.0.0.0 (A.D. 849) period-ending ceremonies and, presumably, to endorse this new ruler's authority and membership in a regional political network. Four of these emissaries, namely those from Ucanal, Motul de San José, Calakmul, and Lakamtuun, bear titles consisting of a numerical coefficient and either Pet or Ek'. Two of these emissaries carry both titles. While these titles are not well understood, the people who used them in the Structure A-3 text seem to have served a central role in the re-establishment of Seibal as a full-fledged Maya polity with its own semi-divine lord.
There seems to be a correlation between the cardinal directions Stelae 8–11 face and the places from which the emissaries documented on them came: Stela 11, facing east, records the visit of an Ucanal lord; Stela 10, facing north, documents the visit of lords from Tikal, Motul de San José, and Calakmul; Stela 9, facing west, notes the visit of a Lakamtuun lord; and Stela 8, facing south, documents a visitor from an unspecified 'Place of Reeds,' presumably to the south. This directional array of visitors, in conjunction with the radial form of Structure A-3, suggests that the program as a whole may have made physically manifest, on a small scale, the geopolitical situation of Seibal in relation to extant Maya political structure. Seibal was thus 'centered' within the political landscape. Stela 21 stands at the center atop the radial structure, in the midst of stelae that address polities in the four cardinal directions, specifically referencing the appropriate polities on each side. Ucanal may have played a more substantial role than the other cited polities in Seibal's renewal, as Stela 11 documents that an Ucanal lord oversaw Aj Bolon Haabtal Wat'ul K'atel's arrival at Seibal some 21 years prior to the period-ending rites witnessed by the other visitors. Still, Aj Bolon Haabtal Wat'ul K'atel may have been a Seibal native who traveled to Ucanal for royal investiture ceremonies, subsequently 'arriving' back at Seibal as a K'uhul Ajaw endorsed by another K'uhul Ajaw.17 While the Structure A-3 stelae have some eastern affinities, they are not uniquely derivative of Ucanal's sculpture. Significantly, Ucanal's contemporaneous Stela 4 incorporates several features traditionally considered 'non-Classic,' such as square-cartouched glyphs, a floating figure, and an atlatl, all of which are absent from the Structure A-3 program. If reference to any sculptural corpus can be considered primary among the Structure A-3 stelae, it is that of Machaquilá. Given that Machaquilá had the latest sculptural program in the region and likely controlled east-west trade through the first half of the ninth century, it is not surprising that Aj Bolon Haabtal and his sculptors looked to that site's art for inspiration.18 However, the incorporated Machaquilá features derive from various stelae and are amalgamated with an array of innovations and references to the art of other regions. Further, the Structure A-3 stelae do not seem to reflect the overt interest in human proportions or reduction of superfluous detail evidenced in Machaquilá's late series. Instead of responding to the formal interests of Machaquilá's visual discourse, Aj Bolon Haabtal and his sculptors seem to have made reference to visual precedent at Machaquilá to generally facilitate the shift in regional political dominance from Machaquilá to Seibal. The diverse Structure A-3 stelae drew inspiration widely, while remaining well-grounded in thoroughly Maya visual discourse. The wide range of surface treatment, composition, and iconography implemented in Structure A-3 stelae presented Aj Bolon Haabtal Wat'ul K'atel as thoroughly 'Classic Maya,' encompassing many regional trends and mannerisms. Though Schele and Mathews proposed that the distinct period-ending rites depicted and documented on the Structure A-3 stelae record a ritual sequence of events, the lack of calendrical or temporal deictic sequencing in the texts – devices common in Late Classic inscriptions – suggest instead that the stelae more generally incorporate an array of typical, 'Classic Maya' period-ending rites.19 With his Structure A-3 stelae, Aj Bolon Haabtal Wat'ul K'atel seems to have sought to appease the visual expectations of a diverse audience of Maya lords, likely including the emissaries mentioned on them. In so doing, Aj Bolon Haabtal Wat'ul K'atel presented himself heterogeneously, without a coherent, unique visual identity. The diverse Structure A-3 stelae also lack formal unity. Although some of Seibal's subsequent sculptors seem to have drawn inspiration from this program, they took disparate formal qualities and iconographic elements and adapted them in distinct ways. The appropriative strategy of the Structure A-3 program, of appeasing a wide, heterogeneous audience's visual expectations, characterizes Seibal's later ninth-century sculptures as well. As the intended audience became more diverse, however, Classic Maya conventions became merely one of multiple, competing communicative systems in a more eclectic visual discourse.
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