Death Iconography: An Overview Of The Maya Death Iconography

Maya Death Iconography

The entirety of Maya culture was based on the experience and knowledge accumulated by their ancestors. They were passive, modest, religious people who believed in the cyclical nature of their reality, events and phenomena (Bower 1986). The Maya can be deeply understood due to their elaborate calendar, numerical system, logographic glyphs, and detailed recording of dates and events on various media. Maya glyphs are known for depicting place names, political events and religious beliefs (Coe and Houston 2015). The cyclical pattern of birth, death and rebirth is associated with the underworld, Xibalba, whose inhabitants represent cause of death like disease, sacrifice, war, and games of defeat (Bassie 2002, Wilson 2006).

Depictions of Xibalba suggest the Maya believe it as a world of “festering boils, rotting flesh, and decomposition” of people and animals (Wilson 2006). References to Xibalba originate in the Maya creation story, Popul Vuh, where games of defeat “doomed a soul to burial in the evil smelling Xibalba, whereas victory allowed it to dance away and, with other reborn ancestors, guide its descendants” for years to come (Bower 1986). Depicted on Pakal the Great, King of Palenque’s sarcophagus in the Temple of Inscriptions (683 A.D.) is a picture of the ruler surrounded by Xibalba (Scherer 2012). Schele and Miller (1986: 268) interpret the lid as a guide to lead Pakal’s soul into the underworld (See figure 1). A ceramic vase, with remnants of painted stucco, found in the Mirador Basin (A.D. 670-760) presents a scene similar to a segment of the Popul Vuh; the cunning Hero Twins trick the lords of the underworld into their own decapitations (See figure 2) (Coe

Spinden suggests that the power of death is so strong because “death and destruction were within the sphere of every deity if they chose to extend their power beyond a given point” (85). The death deities are commonly portrayed with decaying flesh on their bodies, distended stomachs, skeletal bodies, closed eyes, fleshed and bloated, and black spots signifying petrification (Fitzimmons 2009, Foster 2002, Mazariegos 2017, Wilson 2006). A fine-line ceramic vessel found in Guatemala, dating back to 600-700A.D., shows an underworld mythological scene with the Maya Rain Diety, Chaac, swinging an axe over a baby and a Death God joins in a dance or “shuffle,” an important component of the Underworld, according to Schele (See figure 3) (Metropolitan Museum of Art, Schele 1988). The most common death god, known as Ah Puch, lives in the Underworld and patronizes the day Kimi, meaning “death” (Foster 2002). He is most commonly represented in an anthromorphic appearance with a skull head, skeletal spine and black dots on his body (Foster 2002). He can also be seen with an adornment headpiece in the shape of an owl of caiman, when alongside the God of War in scenes of captive sacrifice (Barnhart 2005). As a conductor of death, he is believed in to be present in the quick transition between life and death. Since death