Kin Tours

Art and Culture

The Mayans were artists who created exquisite artwork in stone, wood, paint, plaster, jade, ceramic and shell. Weavers created beautifully designed fabrics and metalsmiths made jewellery from jade, gold and shells. Artists did not always remain anonymous, and often “signed” their art. Many of the more prolific artists were members of the royal families.

Mayan pottery and ceramics were common forms of art. Everyday pottery was probably made by the women, because it was used for cooking and preserving food. Ceremonial pottery which was not intended for domestic use but was made to glorify the gods, was likely created by Mayan men. The potters used local clay to create their pieces, and did so without the use of a pottery wheel. Each piece was intended to be unique, so a range of patterns and subject matter were used.

Mayan art focused on a wide variety of subject matter; it often depicted the rulers, who were considered intermediaries between the people and the gods, or the deities themselves. Another popular subject was the powerful jaguar, who also featured prominently in Mayan religion and mythology. Ceramic plates, vases and other objects were often painted with scenes of court life, religious rituals and deities. Ceramics that were intended for burial often showed the lords of Xibalba, the underworld. Much of Mayan art was concerned with the natural portrayal of figures and events, although some artists used patterns that were purely decorative. The expressive nature of the Mayan art is shown through the painted ceramics, particularly plates and vases. For their paints, Mayans used vegetables and minerals to create a variety of colours.

Like their art, Mayan cities were vibrantly colourful, since the exteriors of their buildings (and some of their interiors) were painted in vivid hues. Common subjects for murals were the nobility and rulers. The majority of the Mayan murals have long since faded or been ruined, but in rare places such as Bonampak, some have survived intact. The murals at Bonampak depict a military raid, a triumphal procession and a sacrificial ritual.

The Mayans were not only talented artists, they were also master architects and builders; they constructed massive pyramids and palaces of stone without the benefit of wheels (which were useless in the jungle) or draft animals. As a result, the labour and effort put into the construction of the buildings was incredible. It is interesting to note that the Mayans built more pyramids than the ancient Egyptians.

Mayan cities were large, well-designed and the buildings were beautifully decorated. Mayans often produced intricately carved stone friezes that ran along the outer walls of buildings and which always contained a message. The interiors of many public Mayan buildings, on the other hand, were very plain, and had little or no decoration.

Certain main buildings and infrastructures could be found in virtually every Mayan city. For example, all cities had a system of roads and causeways, as well as a sweat baths, burial vaults, storage places, and underground cisterns for storing water. Most cities had observatories, used by the priests, and all cities had a temple and palace. Some cities also had aqueducts (that remaining standing to this day) that brought water into the city, while a separate drainage system carried off excess water.

Despite their building skill, the Mayans never learned how to construct a rounded arch. Instead, they developed a corbel arch, shaped like an arrow or an inverted “V.” The Mayans’ corbel arches were constructed by overlapping blocks, each moving closer inwards until they met at a single stone. This type of arch put a large amount of pressure on the walls, which consequently had to be very thick to support the weight. The later innovation of using smaller stones set in concrete allowed for more freedom in design and offered more structural stability. Because the later arches still required thick walls, and the corbel arch lacked the strength to cover large areas, Mayan building sites could not be larger than three metres wide; this is the reason Mayan palaces had small rooms and narrow hallways.

In addition to constructing and decorating buildings, the Mayans also carved colossal standing stones called stelae. The stelae ranged from one to ten metres tall. They were carved with hieroglyphs indicating important dates and events and were used as monuments to the kings and to the high-ranking nobility.

Mayan hieroglyphics were a largely phonetic writing system, although there were some logograms (symbols that represent words). Each hieroglyphic is a unique pictorial symbol that represents a different sound, whole word, number, day or month. The glyphs were arranged in double vertical columns read from top to bottom and from left to right. Glyphs were inscribed on walls, stelae, altars, panels, steps, pottery and even painted into Maya codices.

The Mayan codices were books that were stored in libraries. They consisted of long strips of folded paper made from the bark of a fig tree. Every page contained a mixture of hieroglyphics, numbers and pictures. The codices contained tables and calculations that were used to control the dates of rituals and keep track of agricultural and astronomical cycles. The codices were probably used most often by the priests for divination and for predicting the future; priests monitored seasonal changes, regulated activities such as hunting and travelling, and dictated at what times the Mayan people were to make offerings to their deities. When the Spanish invaded the Mayan cities, they destroyed almost all of the codices in an attempt to bring the European culture to the Mayan civilization and to convert them to Christianity. This was a devastating blow to the preservation of the history of the Mayan empire and today, only three codices remain intact.