Archaeologist, Alberto Ruz Lhuillier, was born in France on January 27, 1906. He moved to Mexico, becoming a nationalized Mexican on September 3, 1940. Ruz took much pride in his Mexican identity and acquired an admiration for Mexico’s history. In 1938, he began studying anthropology at the Escuela Nacional de Antropologia e Historia (ENAH) in Mexico City. Ruz graduated from ENAH in 1945, becoming one of the first people in Mexico to acquire the professional title of “archaeologist.” In February of 1949, Ruz was assigned head of the excavation team at the Palenque ruins by the director of the Instituto Nacional de Antropologia e Historia (INAH), which is where he landed his great discovery.
With a height of 65 feet, the Temple of Inscriptions is the tallest structure found at the Palenque ruins. It possesses a wide frontal stairway that leads up to the temple where the three panels, covered in 620 carved hieroglyphs, are located. It was revealed by scholars that the hieroglyphs are dates of important events that occurred in Palenque, such as enemy attacks on the city and the rise of a new ruler to the throne, with the latest of the hieroglyphs dating back to 692 A.D. What intrigued Ruz about the Temple of Inscriptions was its flagstone flooring, as no other structure’s floor in Palenque was made of this type of material. He became particularly interested in the double row of holes that one of the stone slabs possessed. Ruz’s close observations of the temple allowed him to notice a valuable detail, it appeared the temple’s walls did not end at the floor.
Upon lifting the stone slab with the double row of holes, Ruz discovered an underground stairway that led into the center of the structure, but the entry had been purposefully blocked with large stones. From 1949 to 1951, Ruz and his team spent three seasons working countless hours that consisted of digging and removing stones from the hidden stairway.
In their fourth excavation season of 1952, they finished uncovering the stairway’s seventy-one stair steps, which led directly to a barred stone doorway. After digging through the doorway, Ruz and his team discovered a second blockaded door and in front of it was placed a box containing seven jade beads and earplugs with three red painted shells. Behind the second doorway, they found yet another box, which held the remains of six human skeletons. To their astonishment, Ruz and his team came across a third doorway that entered into a 29 ft. long by 13 ft. wide room, in which their great discovery was accomplished. The walls of the mysterious room were adorned in stucco figures that appeared to be nine men dressed in ancient attire. It is unclear whether these men were the Nine Lords of the Night from Maya theology or ancestors of the deceased. In the room, there was also a large rectangular stone slab, decorated in carved hieroglyphs, that was thought by Ruz to be an altar for Maya priests.
In mid November of 1952, Ruz solved the mystery of the hidden staircase in Palenque's Temple of Inscriptions after he ordered to have the large stone slab lifted and beneath it was found the tomb of the great Palenque ruler, K’inich Janahb Pakal. Pakal had ascended the throne when he was twelve years old and ruled the city of Palenque until his death in 683 A.D., at the age of eighty. Inside his sarcophagus, Pakal was found adorned with several pieces of jade jewelry, including a burial mask made of numerous jade fragments, shells and stones. Ruz’s discovery of Pakal’s tomb in the Temple of Inscriptions allowed for advancement in the understanding of ancient Maya culture and inspired Mexican archaeologists to further explore the intricate Maya architecture.
]]>One of the most important Maya sites is Palenque. With its unique characteristics, it has kept some of the best quality bas reliefs in the whole Maya world, and with the work that Merle Greene Robertson accomplished, the almost four thousand stelas and bas reliefs are now documented. She worked for over four decades to accomplish the rubbings of all the bas reliefs and is an essential piece of why historians and archeologists can look back into the past with accurate details.
Robertson’s influence in the Maya world was very impactful. She led a series of Palenque Round Table conferences which began in December 1973, and convened for eight meetings, with the last one held in June 1993. These meetings were held to further the exploration of Palenque and the study of Maya literature. With these meetings, the Maya culture was laid out over a series of dates that depicted the secession of rulers and what happened during their period of rule. Throughout her sketches, she encountered many different depictions of life in Palenque that was discussed in detail when they attended these meetings to collaborate together to work out a common solution.
Robertson was very particular on how she did her sketches. She emphasized two things always, the original monument must not be blemished in any way and no pigment at all was be allowed to come in contact with the stone. The rubbing must be authentic; no embellishments, no 20th century additions or any process that would help the detail. Many of her sketches were the only real image of bas reliefs left due to graffiti and erosion. Over 2,000 pieces of these are located at Tulane University's Latin American Library in New Orleans and are the only way that historians can continue to peel back the layers of the very complex Maya culture and writing system.
In 1982, Robertson founded the Pre-Columbian Art Research Institute which conducts important research in Mesoamerican art, iconography, and epigraphy. They have also sponsored excavations in Palenque at the group cross project. In 1993, the Mexican government acknowledged Robertson's contributions to the study of Palenque with the honor of the Order of the Aztec Eagle, which is the highest medal a foreigner can achieve in Mexico. Similarly, in 2004, Robertson received the Orden del Pop Award from Guatemala's Museo Popol Vuh for her contributions to the study of cultural heritage through her documentation of Maya monuments and hieroglyphic writing.
On April 22, 2011 Merle Greene Robertson died at the age of 97 her contributions to the study of the Maya will never be forgotten. Her legacy of documentation of primary materials in the form of drawings, paintings, photographs, and rubbings is so important, and they will continue to be studied for as long as they exist.
]]>A middle aged man drenched in sweat and overcome by exhaustion stands amidst the heat of the jungle. Swatting at mosquitos and never losing focus, he is determined to finish what he started. With the help of his camera lucida and his attention to detail, he completes the most accurate depictions of the lost civilization to date. The civilization is known as Palenque, and the artist is Frederick Catherwood.
Frederick Catherwood, born on February 27, 1799, was an English artist and architect. By the year 1836, Catherwood became a well-known topographical artist after completing his detailed drawings of historical monuments such as the Ancient Pyramids of Egypt, the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, and many others across Greece, Turkey and Palestine. It was this notoriety that helped him meet American writer and lawyer, John Lloyd Stephens in London. The two would join forces for a much bigger expedition throughout Central America to create a detailed account of their discoveries and what remained of the ancient Mayan civilizations.
Catherwood and Stephens left New York on October 3, 1839. Stephens, appointed by President Van Buren, was to act as an ambassador of the United States and meet leaders of the newly formed United Provinces of Central America. His goal was to form a trade agreement between the two nations, however he and Catherwood had another goal in mind. They were to use the remainder of their time to investigate the ancient civilizations such as Copan and Palenque.
In May of 1840, they arrived in Palenque with the assistance of the native people. Upon first examination, Palenque was covered in thick vegetation of the rainforest that surrounded it. Mountains of stones covered the passageways, which made it difficult to navigate. Nevertheless, Stephens noted that elaborate ornamentation of the buildings could still be seen through the brush. The Indians cried “El Palacio”, the palace, as they entered the site. The pair along with their travel companions and crew, entered the palace before exiting and firing four gunshots each into the air. These gunshots were not only an act of celebration, but also as a way to let the locals know of their presence. For they didn’t want any visitors during the night.
The group set up a camp inside the palace corridor and fastened branches together to form beds. A heavy storm hit their first night and soaked the area, making it impossible to find a dry place to stand the following morning. However, Catherwood and Stephens persevered. Stephens began surveying the area and taking measurements of the palace and surrounding structures. They worked to clear area for Catherwood to set up his Camera Lucida, an optical device which Catherwood used throughout their journey to create proper proportion in his drawings. Once a proper spot which allowed Catherwood to create the utmost accurate drawing was found, Catherwood began to draw.
Every day, the rain would come at 3 or 4 pm and continue into the night. Mosquitos swarmed their beds and made sleep unbearable. Finally, they slit open their sheets and draped them over branches creating a dome-like structure to sleep in. Stephens fell ill after a flesh-eating tick, called Nigua, infected his foot. Stephens had to return the village where he took two days to recover. Upon returning to the ruins, Stephens was taken aback at the site of Catherwood. Stephens wrote of his travelling companion’s appearance, “He was wan and gaunt, lame like me from the bites of insects; his face was swollen, and his left arm hung with rheumatism as if paralyzed.” Nevertheless, Catherwood continued to work and in little under three weeks, he had completed his goal. Catherwood captured the beauty and exquisiteness of the ruins with more accuracy than anyone had before. In addition, he was also able to capture hundreds of hieroglyphic inscriptions.
He completed his last drawing on May 31st, and the group departed on June 1st. Catherwood was barely able to make it back to the village, because he had fallen ill, but he slowly recovered after days of rest.
Catherwood’s drawings accompanied Stephens’ text in their book Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas and Yucatan (1841), 34 illustrations accompanied the 36 pages of text describing Palenque. Catherwood’s work not only gave an accurate depiction of the ruins, but it helped bring the text to life by showing the world the beauty of Palenque. Today, Catherwood’s drawings continue to have a lasting impact. They are noted as some of the most accurate drawings before the photograph. However, the beauty of Palenque would continue to amaze as more discoveries came in the decades that followed.
]]>The Cross Group at Palenque are the first and last set of buildings of their kind that were designed to honor the three set of gods of Palenque . The three buildings were constructed during the reign of Chan Bahlum II (A.D. 648-702) after the death of his father Pakal. The three temples have recordings on panels which depict the accession of Chan Bahlum II on hieroglyphs and iconography.
The Temple of the Sun, The Temple of the Cross, and The Temple of the Foliated Cross are constructed on their own pyramidal platforms and share the same courtyard on the lower slope of the majestic Mirador hill next to the sacred Otolum River. All three temples have the same interior dimensions. Each temple has its own inner metaphoric sanctuary or “sweatbaths” that have symbolic qualities in Maya culture. The sweatbaths carried symbolic connotations and were never used as bathhouses or ovens. The buildings were not designed to hold heat inside because of the sanctuaries large doorways. Large panels of glyphs in the back of each sanctuary have relief-carved tablets that depict scenes which have similar icons. The Cross Group temples consist of hieroglyphics and iconography that can be complex to translate because of its symbolic manipulations. However, the Alfardas texts or balustrade slabs are easier to translate. The text’s inscriptions refer to the birth of the three set of gods or Triad of Palenque during mythological times and are associated with all three temples as buildings of divine birth as well as the birth of the deity known as GI.
The Temple of the Sun is on the west side of the Cross group with its back to The Temple of the Inscriptions. The emblematic icon on the tablet in the Temple of the Sun has a shield in the center with two crossed spears on a bar which is held on the backs of two figures sitting on the floor, and two larger figures standing on smaller figures on either side of the icon. At the end of the tablet Chan Bahlum II heir-apparency rites are recorded. The Temple of the Cross is located on the north end. The tablet inside the sanctuary depicts the large profile figures with a cross in the center with a unique serpent- bird on top of the cross. At the beginning of the tablet Chan Bahlum II ancestors are recorded. The Temple of the Foliated Cross is located on the east. The tablet depicts the recording of his accession along with the two figures but this time the cross and the unique serpent- bird on top seem to be shaped as being part of a tree. All three tablets have a plot with iconographic themes with different stories. The taller figure is identified as Chan Bahlum II in the event of his accession to the throne. The limits on the meaning of iconographic images can be different because the second tallest figure on the tablets could be Chan Bahlum’s II father Pakal or the father of the three patron gods of Palenque.
]]>Copan was a Maya civilization that took place in the classical era of 300-900 AD. This civilization had many political, religious or civil issues. The Maya leader of Copan was Yax Kuh Mo, he was originally from Tikal and ended up being one of the most powerful leaders of Copan. Yax Kuh Mo was also responsible for creating a dynasty of 16 rulers, which lead Copan to become one of the most important Maya civilizations. However, like all great Mayan civilizations, Copan suffered the same destiny as other Mayan civilizations where the jungle took control of the temples after the fall of the city. Years later, a famous explorer name John Galindo discovered the ruins and was amazed at what he had found.
John Galindo was born in 1802 in Dublin, Ireland with a father of Spaniard descent named Philemon Galindo and an Irish mother. Galindo became an explorer and army official. He was a very ambitious and intelligent man who was filled with curiosity and an urge for learning. In a way, Galindo was the inspiration for Stephen and Catherwood who were future explorers.
Galindo’s adventure began when he set out to the New World around the age of 20 and ended up in Guatemala in 1827. During the country´s first civil war in 1829, he was wounded in battle. After the battle, he was awarded Central American citizenship by the first liberal federal congress. As time passed, he became involved in military and government assignments. By getting more involved he became governor of El Peten, Guatemala, which gave him the power to control many landscapes, mostly where Lacandon Maya lived. Lacandon Maya was one of the civilizations that were nearly extinct in 1943 from the conquering of the Spaniards.
In 1831, Galindo was first sent to Palenque to explore some stone ruins. Three years later, Galindo was given orders to go explore stone ruins near the Guatemala/Honduras border. Galindo got to Copan in April 1834, five years before Stephen and Catherwood. When he arrived at Copan he stated that the ruins he saw were something magnificent. He said that these ruins had been before Christopher Columbus’ trip to the new world. He even went as far as to declare the Maya’s as an advanced civilization. Galindo was amazed of how each piece of ruins had something worthwhile to explore. He believed that he was the first explorer to visit the ruins.
Unfortunately, he was wrong. Many years after his time a report over Copan was found in the royal archives of Spain. The report was written by Diego Garcia de Palacio. He was a magistrate sent out in 1576 to investigate the conquered provinces on orders of King Phillip II of Spain. Palacio was very interested in traveling to Central America for work and personal reasons. He wanted to take control of the Philippines and become governor, but his dream wasn’t achieved. When he found the ruins, he was skeptical that Mayas could have built such incredible buildings. He wrote a letter to the king. Where he described the Mayas “as rude as the natives of the province” and making the Mayas sound like if they were incapable of building such places like Copan. He saw the Mayas as people with no class, education, or integrity, Palacio just saw them as savage people.
Even do Galindo was not the first explorer to explore Copan he was one of the first people who believed that the Maya could create these incredible sacred mountains in Copan. If he had never explored Copan Stephen and Catherwood would have probably not be motivated as they were. John Galindo was a man filled with curiosity and he lived for an adventure.
]]>During the Classic period, Palenque was one of the most important Maya cities. Archeologists have uncovered some of Palenque’s greatest secrets, including two sarcophagi, that contribute to Palenque's continued importance. A sarcophagus discovered in 1952 belonged to King Pakal, Palenque’s most significant ruler. The slab-crypt lid contains volumes of information on Palenque. Another surprise was the discovery of the sarcophagus in the neighboring temple, belonging to the mysterious Red Queen. Unlike Pakal’s encrypted funerary box, this one has no writing that would give archeologists an indication of who this noblewoman may have been. This discovery was the beginning of a still ongoing search of the her identity. When Pakal’s sarcophagus was found in the Temple of Inscriptions in 1952 it was a rare moment for Mesoamerican archeologists. Sarcophagi burials in the New World are very uncommon, and there have only been four discovered in the Mayan world to date.
What makes the sarcophagi discoveries even more valuable besides being rare is that they are also two of the richest burial chambers in Mesoamerica; one of them belonging to a female. Within her stone case were pieces of jade, pearl, shell, and obsidian jewelry and figurines, as well as an elaborate jade and malachite death mask. Trying to unearth who this honored woman was is difficult not only because of decomposition and lack of epigraphs, but because Palenque, as a part of its extraordinary history, has had several noteworthy heroines.
In 1994, inside Temple XIII, archeologists Fanny Lopez and Arnoldo Gonzalez, discovered passageways that lead to this sarcophagus. When opened, the entire contents was stained a bright red from the cinnabar matter that enlaced the whole box. Cinnabar was only used for the families of the highest social status. The bright red powder gave the Red Queen her nickname. Due to the proximity of Pakal’s sarcophagus, and the almost identical burial style, historians are certain this woman was of significance to the him. Scholars and researchers first narrowed the options to three exceptional females: Yohl ik Naal, true queen of Palenque and grandmother to Pakal; Sak K’uk, mother of Pakal and provisional ruler of Palenque; or Tz’akbu Ajaw, wife of Pakal and mother to his three sons (two of whom would become rulers). Yohl ik Naal lead Palenque in battle against Calakmul and began to rebuild her city to its former glory. Based on the ceramics within the sarcophagus and the age of two skeletons of the sacrificial victims (c. 650-700 AD), it is unlikely that the Red Queen is Pakal’s grandmother, who died in AD 604. Although her remains may have been reburied in this temple, the skeleton was too intact for this to be likely.
The next theory, Pakal’s mother, was also a likely answer, but DNA has proved otherwise. Biological archeologists, such as Vera Tiesler, were able to extract and compare the DNA of Pakal to the DNA of the Red Queen to prove the two were not related. That leaves the wife of Pakal, Lady Tz’akbu Ajaw. Dental analysis proves the Red Queen was not native to Palenque, like Pakal’s wife who was part of a marriage alliance. Osteoporosis was detected in the skeleton, which would have been caused from late childbirth; Tz’akbu Ajaw gave birth to her last son when she was thirty-eight years old. Facial reconstruction based on both the deformed skull and the funerary mask has allowed researchers to match the face of the Red queen to Pakal’s wife based on the realistic iconography Palenque Mayans left behind. The most obvious answer seems to be that the Red Queen was Pakal’s wife, Lady Tz’akbu Ajaw, mother to two royal heirs of Palenque. There is one determining piece of evidence missing: the DNA of one of her sons that archeologists are hoping to find in another sarcophagus.
]]>The Sak Nuk Naah, or “White Skin House,” in Palenque, is built on an artificial terrace that is part of the Palace complex. The Palace represented both a residential place, as documented by the discovery of tools of everyday life, and a political and administrative center. According to Simon Martin and Nikolai Grube’s "Chronicle of the Maya Kings and Queens: Deciphering the Dynasties of the Ancient Maya," the White House was built in 654 C.E., during the Late Classic, under the rule of Pakal I the Great from 615 to 683 C.E. (Martin and Grube, 162). The house is also named House E by archeologists. Although not different from traditional domestic buildings, it was the place where the ceremony of accession to the throne took place and, probably, where the Council House met. The main room opened in three large doorways to the Western side of the Towers Court and contained a stone functioning as a throne. The throne was decorated with a low-relief sculpted oval tablet representing Pakal I receiving the crown from his mother, Lady Sak K’uk’, successfully empowering him in spite of his non-royal descent.
The status of conservation of the structuire is poor; the wall paintings are almost vanished, and large patches of plaster are missing. The house was named “White Skin” because the stucco was uniformly white, a characteristic that is unusual in Maya art being red the traditional background color for architectural structures and low and high reliefs. Immediately under the roof line, a decorative motif continously repeats in a geometric pattern (see picture 2). On the walls, figures of different nature are arranged in vertical rows. Commonly interpreted as flowers, there are at least two still visible images that challenge this hypothesis: A well-defined figure of an animal (see picture 3), probably a bird, and a repeated decoration containing a single, well identifiable eye in the center (see pictures 4 and 5), possibly representing an insect. Although the arrangement of the figures in decorative frets allows speculating that they functioned as a delimitation of larger areas possibly decorated with scenes of warriors, gods, or rulers, there is evidence that the painting of isolated motifs was not unusual in Palenque.
When painting, the Maya obtained a smooth surface with a plaster of powdered limestone. It is debated if the drawings in Palenque were made on a dampened stucco (“fresco” technique) or the plaster was completely dried before tracing the images. The choice of the colors was probably an expression of the personality of the painter, but according to Diego De Landa’s "Relación de las Cosas de Yucatán" the use of color was correlated to the cardinal points. The color white, represented the North, black the West, yellow the South, and red the East (De Landa, 13). In Palenque, the color palette is particularly rich, including orange, purple, and green-blue that were obtained applying different colors on top of the others. The pigments derived from plants and minerals, with the rare “Maya blue” being a mixture of vegetable substances and white clay. Natural elements were added to the pigments for densification and stabilization with the purpose of improving the adherence to the support. The outlining of the images with a black line exalted the final result. Each time the decoration became obsolete, a new, thin layer of white stucco provided unlimited possibilities to new artistic expressions. The practice helped to preserve the oldest paintings. In fact, some of the images still visible on the facade of the White House emerge from the effacing effect of time on the subsequent layers of stucco that the Maya added for renewing the decoration.
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