A Study of Early Classic Maya Ritual at Copán, Honduras

Introduction

This project focused on the documentation, conservation, and analysis of artifacts and other material residues from a series of Early Classic (ca. A.D. 400-600) ritual deposits at the Classic Maya site of Copán in western Honduras. The Early Classic offerings in question were associated with a hieroglyphic monument and burial (field name, Motmot) found beneath the pyramid of the Hieroglyphic Stairway in the civic-ceremonial center of the site. The sequence of ritual deposits demonstrates a remarkable correspondence with events recounted in the hieroglyphic inscription on the monument that marks the location of the burial. The primary objective of this project was to provide detailed documentation of the Motmot artifacts as well as to identify other material residues (primarily pigments) associated with the Motmot marker in order to yield additional data that can be correlated with known textual and contextual information (Fash 2001; Fash and Stuart 1991). This work will allow us to identify patterns in the relationship between material culture and politico-ritual activity at Copán, and ultimately to investigate broader issues concerning the ritual behaviors that sustained institutionalized kingship in the Maya lowlands during the Early Classic (e.g., Davis-Salazar 2003; Demarest 1992; Fash et al. 2001; McAnany 1997).

The Motmot burial consists of a circular cobblestone cist located 3.5 m in front of a building adorned, in painted stucco, with large birds (Motmot Structure). The occupant of the cist was a young woman who was originally placed seated, in a cross-legged position, on a woven mat. The contents consisted of eleven ceramic vessels, fourteen pieces of carved jade, worked and unworked shell, a deer antler, coral, stingray spines, and mercury, as well as the skeletal remains of several different animal species and a decapitated human skull. The contents of the cist were significantly disturbed, suggesting that it had been re-entered sometime after the initial burial of the woman.

The burial was marked by a carved limestone monument (Motmot marker) equal in diameter to the cylindrical cist, and .5 m directly above the cist. The marker was set in the stucco plaza floor of Motmot Structure. Carved on the marker, two individuals sit facing one another, separated by a double-column inscription. The figures are identified as K’inich Yax K’uk’ Mo’, the founder of the Copán dynasty, and his son, Ruler 2. The hieroglyphic text bears the date of 9.0.0.0.0., or A.D. 435. On top of the marker, debris relating to the ritual termination of the marker (and the associated architectural complex), which appears to have included some kind of smoking or burning, produced over 500 samples of pigments, feathers, carbon, squash seeds, and other materials within a 5-8 cm layer (Figure 1, shown above). This layer was capped by an arrangement, in the center, of three stones, a Spondylus shell, and feathers, as well as four large jade earflares, each placed at one of the four cardinal points.

Table of Contents  |  Next Page