maíz y sangre.docx

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AN OLMEC VASE AND A MAYA PLATE: MAIZE AND BLOOD1

Brian Stross

University of Texas

INTRODUCTION

In the verdant tropics of Mesoamerica two different cultures, separated by more than 6OO

miles and by nearly a thousand years, produced two terra-cotta vessels with incised images that

betray sufficiently similar cosmological symbolism to posit an underlying Mesoamerican symbolsystem that endured through large segments of space and time with recognizable and quite limited

variation in form and thematic content.

This conclusion can be supported by a large body of Mesoamerican iconography, but these

two vessels exhibit such striking formal and thematic resemblances that their comparison in terms

of maize and blood symbolism in a cosmological context is particularly instructive. Among other

things the comparison supports a contention, now independently proposed by other researchers onother grounds, that both vessels contain bloodletting imagery (Grove 1987; Schele and Miller

1986), and that what might be termed the Mesoamerican cosmogram is a salient and enduring

component of Mesoamerican iconography that can be identified on both vessels. Furthermore itpermits the inference that several symbols later known as Maya glyphs, as well as elements of the

Classic Maya "quadripartite badge", have descended from earlier forms having structural

analogues that can be specifically identified on an Olmec vessel.

Linear, sparse, and angular, the Olmec iconography herein considered stands in sharpcontrast to the more rounded, flowing, curvilinear, iconography of the Maya, with its tendency to

fill all available space. Yet it is obvious that both vessels are focally concerned with a centrally

located, leftward facing disembodied head having vegetal accouterments and resting on a pedestalwithin a quadripartite iconographic frame. Furthermore it is almost certain that both vessels

depict not only a bloodletting theme, but also a maize theme, the centrally placed disembodied

head representing the harvested ear of maize. Moreover both share terrestrial symbolism on thebottom, a torch on the left side, shell elements on the right, and top compositional elements having

common formal and symbolic attributes. And finally, a similar sort of internal structural and

conceptual replication can be observed on both vessels.

Following a brief introduction to the vessels and their individual pictorial themes, formal

analysis of the iconography is performed, beginning with a tabular inventory comparing the four

peripheral design element groups in structurally corresponding positions on the two vessels. The

tabular comparison is amplified and explained in the text that follows (see Table 1). Next,elements of the interior iconography of the Maya vessel (i.e. excluding the surrounding glyphs) are

compared with corresponding ones on the Olmec one (see Table 2), and then discussed. A special

feature of the Maya vessel, a trio of bloodletting implements, is discussed and presented separately


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in tabular form (Table 3), and then a table inventories Classic Maya glyphs that have possible

iconographic ancestry on either of the vessels (Table 4). Following the formal analysis, the

cosmogram and other organizing principles are discussed (e.g. elaboration, replication, doublemeaning, multiple viewpoints, maize, blood) in the context of maize agriculture. And finally a

conclusion reviews implications of this essay.

THE VESSELS

One of the vessels to be compared was unearthed in the central highlands of Mexico and the

other derives from the Peten region of Guatemala. The former is an Olmec vase or urn fromChalcatzingo (Morelos, Mexico), now in the hands of a private collector. The latter is the lid of a

Maya cache vessel consisting of two large plates set lip-to-lip that was excavated in the Tikal

region of the Guatemalan Peten and is currently in the Art Museum of Princeton University.

Chalcatzingo Vase

Figure 1 illustrates the incised scene extending fully from bottom to top on the roundedsurface of a large urn-shaped Olmec ceramic vessel from Chalcatzingo (henceforth the CV).

With a bottom diameter of some 22cm, and approximately 15 at the top, its height is approximately

45 cm. Stylistic evidence indicates that it was manufactured during the late Middle Formative

period, around 6OO B.C. (Grove 1987:61-2). Its central figure is a disembodied--perhapsdecapitated--head, enclosed in a frame of two posts and two knotted ribbons, and surrounded in the

four directions by four isolable images. The two images on the sides are separate from the frame

while the top and bottom images are in contact with it. A torch image decorates the left side, andon the right there is a "knuckle duster" (cf. Grove 1987). On top a "crossed bands" motif is

surmounted by a "maize crown" complex, and on the bottom is an "earth" pedestal.

An interesting pattern of structural (position and form) and conceptual (meaning or function)replication occurs within the iconography of the Chalcatzingo vase. The top image complex, for

example, shares its groove or "cleft" and sprouting maize features with the top part of the central

figure, the disembodied head. The torch on the left side shares general form and, I suspect,components of meaning with the forehead ornament to the left of the disembodied head, while the

sharpened "bloodletter elements" at the torch's tip and on the cuff behind the torch's hand, share

conceptual 'sharpness' with the "bird-beak/shark-tooth" and "recurving fangs" in the mouth of theleftward facing disembodied head. On the right, the "knuckleduster" image formally resembles

the outline of the knotted cloth behind the head (i.e. to the right of it), scalloping like that on the

knuckleduster can be found on the back of the head, and the curved line in the hand holding the

knuckleduster seems to mimic the one in the central knot behind the head. And finally on thebottom section of the CV a dimly perceivable "foot" (under the crossed bands flanked by triple

pendants on which the head rests) can be compared with the earth panel that comprises the bottom

element of the scene.

Princeton Plate

Figure 2 illustrates the incised scene on the flat bottom of the terra-cotta Princeton Plate


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(henceforth PP), which served as the lid to a cache vessel composed of two large plates placed lip

to lip. The glyphs on the periphery occur on the plate's short side. Inferentially dated to the

Early Classic (A.D. 35O - 5OO) and stylistically identified with the Maya Tikal region of theGuatemalan Peten, this ceramic plate is 35.9 centimeters in diameter and 5.7 centimeters in height

(Schele and Miller 1986:195). "Known in particular from Late Preclassic and Early Classic

buildings, these caches were placed under floors during dedication rites, and contained offeringssuch as decapitated heads, flint blades, stingray spines, thorns of various types, and sea fans, coral,sponges and other material imported from the sea..."(Schele and Miller 1986:195). The

central icon on this plate is the disembodied head of the young Maize God, resting from one point

of view, in a kin ('sun') bowl such as may be seen as the forehead of the Quadripartite Monster."Here, it has a square-nosed dragon drawn across the kin sign, and it rests atop the head of Bolon

Mayel, a little-understood god who appears mostly in glyphic form" (Schele and Miller 1986:195).

In front of the Maize God's face are depicted "the three primary blood-letting lancets--an obsidian

blade, a stingray spine, and a flint knife. Kan-cross and bone-bead signs qualify the water patternin the background as blood, indicating that the entire image floats in blood" (Schele and Miller

1986:195).

Although the four glyphs (properly, glyph collocations) surrounding this vessel suggest four

different orientations for the PP because their tops all face the center of the vessel, only two

possible orientations for the vessel produce an iconographic whole. First, the bowl on the

zoomorphic head, with the triad of bloodletting implements taken as an entity resembling theQuadripartite badge can be placed be on a vertical axis. Alternatively, the disembodied head

resting on a zoomorph head, itself on a bar-and-dot number 9, below which is a double Caban

glyph, constitutes a different vertical axis with the maize headdress of the disembodied headpointing up. For purposes of comparison with the Chalcatzingo Vase, we will adopt this latter

orientation for up, down, left, and right.

As with the Chalcatzingo vase, the Princeton Plate has a pattern of internal structural andconceptual replication relating the four outer elements (here glyphs) to similarly placed

iconographic features in the central area (see Figure 2). Starting at the top, the Ix glyph and the

possible maize leaf above it resemble both by name and concept (maize leaf) the maize (bothkernel and ear are Maya ix-im) that is so clearly represented on top of the disembodied head. The

glyph for the day Ix (Jaguar) refers to an animal more commonly named balan or a cognate in

Mayan languages, relevant here because in contemporary Yucatec the balam is a "guardian of themilpa", a "protecting spirit of the cornfield" (Redfield and Villa Rojas 1962:112-13). In the Maya

divinatory veintena of 2O named days, the day Kan is in paired opposition to Ix and shares some

components of meaning with it (Stross 1983:246-9), and the glyph for Kan (Maize Kernel) adorns

the headdress on the PP while the glyph for Ix (Jaguar) is in the top glyph collocation.

The two Caban glyphs (Earth) in the bottom glyph collocation together enclose two pairs of

(darkened) circlets, which can be compared in form and position to the two pairs of (blood) circlets

just below the disembodied head. More interesting is the fact that these two pairs of circletscombine with the bar above it to form the number nine in Maya notation, and nine is the number of

the earth lord and of the underworld, appropriately replicated in concept by the Caban (Earth)

glyphs.


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The curve of the torch in the left-hand glyph collocation mirrors the curve of the flint blade to

the left of the central head. Torch and flint are more readily seen as comparable when it isrecalled that in Mesoamerican thought flint is the "fire-stone" from which sparks are struck to

produce fire. The darkened jaguar spots also in the left-hand glyph collocation, seen below to

represent the west and sundown, are easily relatable conceptually to the Akbal (Night) glyphicinfix on the obsidian bloodletter also located to the left of the head.

And finally, the only zoomorphic head to be found among the four glyph collocations is on

the right-hand side. It is conceptually replicated by a zoomorphic head (of Bolon Mayel) placedto the right of (i.e. behind) the central disembodied head.

We have seen so far that the Olmec vase and the Maya plate, while distant from eachother in

space and time, each portray internal formal and thematic replication by means of the placement oficonographic elements. One purpose for such replication would seem to be reinforcement

through duplication. Another reason for replication might be to allow for elaboration without

dissipating the structural meaning of the format presented.

COMPARISONS: PERIPHERAL GLYPHS AND IMAGES

Discussed separately, the CV and PP are only indirectly compared. They can also beprofitably placed side by side and compared point for point (see Figure 3). This is best done by

first considering the peripheral elements separately; glyphs on the PP and structurally comparable

images on the CV. Table 1 starkly summarizes these comparisons, which are then taken up oneby one in more explanatory detail.

TABLE 1. Peripheral Glyphs and Images

TOP Princeton Plate brush over three circlets

Chalcatzingo Vase brush over three circlets

BOTTOM Princeton Plate terrestrial glyph

Chalcatzingo Vase terrestrial symbol


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LEFT Princeton Plate Torch (bound bundle of 5 sticks with two

bands on upper section)

Chalcatzingo Vase Torch (bound bundle of 5 sticks with two

bands on uppersection)

RIGHT Princeton Plate "oyster shell" ear with scalloping at the rear.

Chalcatzingo Vase shell knuckle-duster with scalloping atrear.

Top

The PP's top glyph collocation has a small brush of "hairs" over three almost horizontal

circlets, a combination known as the Ix glyph (T821). It is matched on the CV by a brush of"hairs" and three horizontally positioned circlets, though on the CV the hairs and the circlets are

separated by a unitary feature of crossed bands with flanking triple horizontal pendants.2

The brush of "hairs" on the CV's top image has within it a three branched element resembling

the "tripartite maize" that is Joralemon's motif number 89 (1971:13) and that emerges from clefts

in Olmec figures. It appears to correspond, in combination with the 3 circlets below it, to the

"personified trees" found on Kaminaljuyu Stela 11 (Figure 4) and on the Dumbarton Oaks JadeCelt (Figure 4). These "personified trees" in turn resemble the right-hand element of the triadic

portion of the Quadripartite Badge (Figure 5), a point to be recalled below. A PP homologue

bearing conceptual but not formal resemblance might be found in the elongated element betweenthe Ix glyph and the Ahpo glyph in the top glyph collocation. This may represent a maize leaf, an

identification reinforced by its resemblance to a 3/4 view of the top central element of the

Quadripartite Badge, which is often a stingray spine bloodletter (see Figure 5). In short, maizeimagery as well as sky imagery can be found in the top elements of both the CV and PP.

The top glyph collocation on the PP is read by Schele and Miller as Ahpo-Ix "Lord Jaguar"

(1986:195), because the Ix glyph represents the day Ix (Jaguar) of the 2O divinatory day names.The three circlets and the brush of hairs composing this Ix glyph greatly resemble a significant

portion of the Maya Sky glyph, T561c (Figure 6). Mindful of the present-day Tzotzil belief

(Guiteras-Holmes 1961:292) that the 13 sky gods are personified in the jaguar, and the Yucatec

belief in balam ('jaguar') as "guardian of the milpa", as well as other arguments that the Ix jaguarcan be related both to the sky and to maize in Classic Maya thought (Stross 1983:248-9), I

infer that the top glyph collocation including the Ahpo variant suggests the epithets "Lord of

Heaven" (Ix) or "Lord of the Milpa (Ix/Balam), and that the two epithets would address the same


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deity, perhaps also equivalent to the Sun at Zenith.

The "crossed bands and flanking triple pendants" image is another part of the CV's top image.Taube has called attention to this motif on a "dynastic" bundle in conjunction with a spotted Kan

glyph (1985:178, Fig 7 d). He argues that such bundles depict maize within, but maize "used as a

metaphor for other valued substances, such as jade and blood" (1985:178). In accord with thisidentification, the triple pendants under a brush of "hairs" as on the CV clearly suggests maizekernels on a maize ear with cornsilk flowing from the top end. It is notable, moreover, that on

Izapa Stela 25 (a late Preclassic non-Mayan monument) triple pendants almost like those flanking

the crossed bands on the Humboldt celt (Figure 7) represent blood flowing from the stump of anamputated arm.

Bottom

The bottom image on the CV is a single unit resembling feet and corresponding positionally

to both the double Caban (Earth) glyphs on the PP and to the bar with four dots just above it on the

PP. This bottom image is a terrestrial panel, representing earth and corresponding precisely to"mask panels" (basically "jaws" with inward turning "canines") found both at Kaminaljuyu (eg.

Stela 11, Figure 8) and at Izapa (e.g. Stela 4, Figure 9) (cf. Stross and Reilly n.d.). The simple

difference is that on the CV the "incisors" of the Kaminaljuyu and Izapa terrestrial "jaws" appear

to have migrated away from the central position).

Left Side

The element group on the left side of the CV is composed of a disembodied right hand

holding a bundle of five tied sticks with a triangular brush-like top that may represent the flames of

a torch.3This bundle of sticks corresponds both in position and form--five sticks with two bands

on the upper section--to the bound bundle of sticks that is the torch in the glyph collocation on theleft side of the PP.

Schele and Miller identify the glyph collocation on the PP rim to the left of the disembodiedhead facing it as "Tah-Balam-Ahau (a torch in front of an ahau sign half covered with jaguar

skin), one of the names of GIII from his birth passage on the Tablet of the Sun at Palenque"

(1986:195). A recent re-interpretation of the half-covered ahau attributes to it a logographic valueof way 'animal spirit companion' (Houston and Stuart 1989), and when the quincunx is infixed as

on the PP, the reading, approximately wayeb, refers to 'bed' or some other 'sleeping place'

(Houston and Stuart 1989:11). Prefixed by the torch, read tah by Schele and Miller, we can read

the full collocation on the left side of the PP as alternatively glossable as 'to bed',ta WAY-eb

'torch bed', or 'arrive at bed', all three of which in a cosmological context would seem to makereference to the western resting place of the sun as it descends at sunset. The torch itself is

symbolically appropriate here, for in the dark underworld it is a necessity.4

Right Side

The image on the CV's right side is a left hand holding what has been called the Olmec


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"knuckle-duster" (cf. Grove 1987), identified by Will Andrews as a conch shell (private

communication 1986). It may function in this case as a baton. This knuckle-duster corresponds to

the glyph collocation on the right side of the PP, which Schele and Miller identify asChac-Xib-Chac (1986:195), either closely related to or an aspect of GI (Schele and Miller

1986:6O). GI, a Classic Maya deity that can be equated with Hunahpu of the Quiche Popol Vuh,

is associated with Venus and also the Sun (Schele and Miller 1986:48), and perhaps the sun atsunrise (Marvin Cohodas p.c. 1989).5

The seven scallops suggest a shell referent for the CV's right side image, and Andrews'

identification of it as such appears to corroborate this conclusion. The PP's deity head(Chac-Xib-Chac) in the corresponding position is wearing an "oyster shell ear" with something

that resembles scalloping at the rear.6

The seven scallops on the CV's right side, if they have numerological significance can betaken to suggest the eastern direction. Cohodas associates the Maya "7 deity", sometimes known

as Uc-Ek-Kan (Schele and Miller 1986:52), with the reborn sun deity of the east (1976:169). If we

can extend this directional symbolism of the number '7', whether related to east or to west, backinto Olmec times, something that must be done with proper caution, it gives the disembodied

hands of the CV an east-west orientation, leaving the top as the zenith direction (the heavens) and

the bottom as nadir (the earth).

Given the likelihood that an East - West axis can be established from the iconography, in

addition to the readily confirmed Zenith - Nadir axis, it is then clear that the four peripheral images

on both the CV and the PP contain directional significance (see Figure 1O). This stronglysuggests that in the CV and PP iconography we have cosmograms, the cosmogram being an

iconographic manifestation of the cosmology of a people employing a small number of carefully

selected significant and multivalent symbols. Cosmological implications are pursued in more

detail below, following additional structural comparisons.

COMPARISONS: ELEMENTS OF CENTRAL IMAGES

So far the two vessels are seen to have similar and corresponding and similar structure with

respect to peripheral images. In a general way, then, the formal structure of four directions

emanating from a central head has been established. Further structural analysis, comparingelements of the central images on the CV and PP, both reinforces the conclusion of structural

comparability, and establishes the great degree of detail with respect to the iconography shared by

the two vessels. Table 2 inventories comparable elements of the central images of the CV and PP,

which are then considered in more explanatory detail.

TABLE 2

Chalcatzingo Vase and Princeton Plate Central Elements

Crayfish


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Chalcatzingo Vase "Crayfish" forehead ornament, suggested

ancestral form of Ti glyph (T59)andsimilarMayaglyphs (Stross 1989). (Figure 3b; Figure 11a)

Princeton Plate Ti variant (T59). (Top of scene, on central

verticalaxis). (Figure 3b)

Maize atop head

Chalcatzingo Vase Cleft with sprouting maize vegetation.

(Figure 3d; Figure 11f, g)

Princeton Plate Maize kernel with ear of maize sprouting

from cleft in it. (Figure 3d, e; Figure 11f, g)

Pointed incisor

Chalcatzingo Vase shark tooth (or bird beak) as top front

"tooth" (Figure 11b)

Princeton Plate Pointed fanglike top front "tooth".

Figure 11b)

Rear fangs in mouth

Chalcatzingo Vase back pointing curved serpent type

fangs at back of mouth. (Figure 11e)

Princeton Plate back pointing curved fanglike

"emanations" at back of mouth. (Figure 11e)

Y element

Chalcatzingo Vase four "Y" shaped elements within squared

cartouches. (Figure 3 l)


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Princeton Plate two pairs of "Ahpo" glyph collocations,

possible structural equivalents. (Figure 3 l)

Functional equivalence to the Kan ('maize kernel') of PP

Circlets

Chalcatzingo Vase two circlet pairs, one on outer

edge of each side element cluster. (Figure 3 k)

Princeton Plate two circlet pairs, either side of central

stingray spine bloodletter; represent 'blood'.

Pedestal for disembodied head.

Chalcatzingo Vase Crossed bands with flanking triple pendants

as pedestal for disembodied head, on top of "foot shaped"

element. (Figure 2m; Figure 11c)

Princeton Plate Mirror glyph (T617) as pedestal for disembodied

head, on top of "foot shaped" zoomorph snout. (Figure 11c)

Bottom knotted band

Chalcatzingo Vase Knotted Ribbon w/ Central Diagonal

(Figure 3c)

Princeton Plate Bar w/ Central Diagonal (Figure 3c)

The disembodied head

The central feature of both the CV and the PP is a disembodied head (Figure 11), in each case

surely representing a supernatural being in its anthropomorphic manifestation or guise. These

heads have structural elements in common, such as (1) a sharpened top front tooth (bird beak orshark's tooth on CV; Tau or shark's tooth on PP), (2) recurved "fangs" at back of mouth (backward

projecting fangs on CV; back projecting fang or emanation on PP), (3) doubly outlined mouth area,

(4) maize symbols at top of head, (5) forehead ornament, (6) hair at rear of head, (7) a "heavenly"


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pedestal below the head (crossed bands "sky mirror" on CV; mirror on PP)7 (8) resting on a very

similar "foot-shaped" motif ("foot" on CV; zoomorph snout on PP). They both almost certainly

represent the Maize God.

The CV head is cloven at the top with a V shaped maize sprout emerging from the cleft.

Four circlets are lined up in a vertical column on the cleft in the head, and through the column is ahorizontal crescent where the head's eye should be. A similar crescent represents the bottom edgeof the Maize God's eye on the PP. Figure 12 depicts an Olmec celt of unknown provenience, on

which a profile view of a disembodied head quite similar to that of the CV has a more elaborated

crescent where the eye should be. This crescent, found below the cleft in the head from whichvegetation emerges, is the bowl part of a "crossed bands in a bowl" motif (Joralemon's motif No.

1O2) that resembles the Kin bowl of the PP. The presence of the "bowl" suggests possible Olmec

antecedents for the Kin bowl, and provides structural analogical evidence suggesting that Olmec

crossed bands may have represented the sun. This provides additional evidence of the structuraland conceptual replication obtaining between the outer element groups and features on the

disembodied head itself.

The CV head has a forehead ornament identified as the edible portion of a crayfish (Stross

1989), corresponding on the PP to a similarly shaped variant of the Maya Ti glyph (T59) found at

the top of the head (Figure 11 a).

At the back of the CV head is a knotted cloth or hairdo with three "thatched" layers on thebasal section. This corresponds positionally to the Kin bowl of the PP, but only vaguely

resembles it in form. It is much more likely to be a homologue of the maize kernel and ear of

maize sprouting from the top of the Maize God's head on the PP. The PP's kernel corresponds tothe CV's knot, the PP's maize ear corresponds to the top end of the CV's knotted cloth, and the PP's

three vegetal volutes around the maize ear correspond to the three "thatched" layers on the basal

section of the knotted cloth on the CV.

The knuckle-duster on the right side of the CV formally resembles the Kin bowl variant on

the PP, with its "Ik" or Tau shape, but functionally, the Kin bowl as a receptacle for the

disembodied head has its analogue in the CV's frame of two verticals joined by top and bottomknotted ribbons. Kent Reilly has suggested that the knot of the CV's middle knotted ribbon is not

visible because it is untied in order to display the contents of an Olmec ritual "bundle" portrayed on

the CV (private communication 1989). This interpretation would see an Olmec "bundle"corresponding to an Early Classic Maya Kin bowl.

Maize headdress

The maize vegetation emerging from the cleft at the top of the CV head is comparable

positionally and functionally to the elaborate maize headdress emerging as maize seed kernel,

foliage, and ear from the top of the disembodied head of the PP's maize deity.8 Figure 14

illustrates, in a detail from a Late Postclassic mural, a cleft head, presumably of a Maize Deity,with just the maize kernel in the form of the Kan glyph wedged within the cleft.

Free Floating


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Four free-floating Y shaped design motifs are found on the CV, but not on the PP. Given

their placement and their relative complexity of form compared to circlets, they appear to

correspond best on the PP to the four glyphs comprising the two Ahpo glyph collocations (T168)on the PP, which occur at the top and at the bottom of the scene on the PP (Figure 3 l). The Ahpo

glyphs, and particularly the elements of them, have been identified by various Mayanists aspo

representations of eyes and/or seeds.Whether or not the Ahpo glyphs represent seeds, additional evidence indicates that at least the

Y shaped elements on the CV represent seeds. Their structural placement and form are similar to

four sprouting clefts on an Olmec jade celt from Arroyo Pesquero which seem to representsprouting maize kernels and which have a sprouting counterpart on top of the head of the depicted

individual (Figure 15). They also correspond in position to the four similar elements surrounding

the central (maize) plant on the Dallas Plaque (Figure 16), and to four offerings similarly placed

around the head of the Maize God on page 34 the Dresden Codex (Figure 17), three of whichinclude the Kan ('maize kernel') glyph.

Because they are four, because they surround the "houselike" container on the CV in which

the disembodied head is resting, and because of their Y shape, it is possible that the Y elementssecondarily represent the four housepoles located in the four corners of Maya houses. Notably,

these housepoles are said to be sown like seeds in some Mayan languages (with the same word

used for planting seeds, e.g. Tzeltal tz'un).9

Four free-floating circlets also adorn the CV, and these correspond to the two pairs of

free-floating circlets on the PP, and perhaps like them symbolize blood.

Knotted Ribbons

There are three knotted ribbons on the CV. Two of them form the top and bottom portions of

the frame within which rests the disembodied head; the head substitutes for the knot of the middleribbon (or the knot is behind the head, hidden by the frame itself, or untied). It is these ribbons

that most obviously suggest the bloodletting iconography of the Chalcatzingo vase and that mostclearly suggest the case for continuity of form and meaning in an iconographic component across a

span of hundreds of miles, hundreds of years, and a different language family. Oddly, although

the three knotted ribbons are a prime symbol for bloodletting in Classic and Postclassic Maya

iconography, and although the Princeton Plate is brimming with bloodletting symbolism, tri-knotelements appear to be absent from its iconographic inventory. The knotted ribbons of the CV are

supplanted on the PP by the triad of bloodletter representations, which seem to have no structural

analogue and no other homologue on the CV.

Bloodletter Triad

The triad of bloodletting implements emerging from the Maize God's nose ornament,although having no direct structural analogue on the CV, participates in another level of

iconographic generalization and replication, its three elements from bottom to middle to top

corresponding to the three images on the CV from right to top/middle to left, and of course to the


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glyphs on the PP corresponding to these images (Figure 1O). Specifically, the CV's

knuckle-duster on the right is a counterpart of the Akbal infixed Pseudo Inverted Fist of the PP, i.e.

the bottom bloodletter. The central stingray spine of the PP corresponds to CV's top elementgroup, not precisely in form, but positionally and conceptually.

1O The eccentric flint bloodletter

of the PP has the same upward curving shape as the torch element group on the left of the CV

design, and the Mixe word hAn tsaa 'flint (literally "fire stone")' aptly encompasses both the flintand the torch. A Kan cross, perhaps symbolizing blood, touches the tip of the flint next to threedotted circlets,

11and may be considered a part of this bloodletter in the same way that the three

teardrop shaped elements at the end of the CV's torch may be considered part of it. Table 3

catalogs structural correspondences involving the bloodletter triad in a more systematic way.

TABLE 3

Triad of bloodletters on Princeton Plate

Eccentric Flint Bloodletter

Princeton Plate eccentric shape, flint because of Cauac markings.

Curved and pointing upward. Tip has three dotted circlets.

Counterpart in Quadripartite badge usually has crossed bands.Shape of bent finger; three dotted circlets at tip, where

nails should be [fingernails of Chol lak mam 'lightning

deity' are of flint; long variety of maize originated fromfingernails of Aztec maize deity Centeotl (Nicholson 1971:

4O1). (Figure 1Oa)

Chalcatzingo Vase torch element grouping on the left, facing

the disembodied head. Basic form is curved and pointing

upward. Tip of it has three teardrop shaped "maize" pendants

projecting from it. (Figure 1Oa)

Stingray Spine Bloodletter

Princeton Plate - central parallel lined element here called astingray spine. Relationship between maize ear and stingray

spine is suggested by 1) A green jade lancet, carved and

incised to resemble the stingray spine bloodletter (Schele and

Miller 1986: 197), 2) maize symbolism of jade (and blood),


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variant conceptual replication of the Classic Maya Quadripartite Badge (cf. Schele 1976), a

symbol complex that is primally found on on the rear head of the Maya Celestial Monster.

Seen by Robertson (1974) as a badge of rulership, Schele's elaboration on this theme with

respect to the meaning of the Quadripartite Badge stresses the three realms of the cosmos:

Taken as a whole, the badge presents symbols involving the

Underworld, the Heavens, and... the Middle World. The god

who is identified by this badge must participate in all three

levels (Schele 1976:18)

Triad

The main elements of the Quadripartite badge can be dissected in the following manner. A

triad of elements surmount a Kin bowl on top of the head of a zoomorph (or quadripartite monster).

The triad consists of:

1. A cross section of a shell, sometimes resembling that of a thorny oyster (Spondylus), at other

times more like that of a conch. The outer edge is often scalloped, and the outer section usuallyhas three circlets. It is usually located to the left of the central "stingray spine", but not always.

Said to be indicative of the underworld (Schele 1976:18), which in Maya iconography frequently

has shells. Shells are also likely, as in Aztec iconography, to be a sign of water and/or the ocean,

the primordial substance. This element of the triad corresponds to the Akbal infixed obsidianbloodletter on the bloodletting trio on the PP.

2. A three part element with Crossed bands or Cimi (Death) and trifoliate outer segment.

Sometimes three circlets are present in the middle. The Crossed bands is "a sign which is generallyaccepted as a symbol of the heavens (Lounsbury suggests that it is the zenith of the sun crossing

the Milky Way)" (Schele 1976:18). The Venus glyph can apparently substitute for the crossed

bands, as in House E at Palenque (Robertson 1985).

Figure 4 illustrates two variants of what may well represent earlier forms of this three part

element, and shows clearly a vegetation component that fits well with inferences that the crossed

bands (of the CV at least) may indicate maize both directly and by means of representing the sun(cf. Footnote 5).

3. A central element currently viewed as a stingray-spine (bloodletter), is usually pointing

vertically either up or down. In the past it has been identified as a leaf which it greatly resembles,or a thorn, or a feather. Schele accepts the stingray spine identification and proposes to reconcile

this with other identifications by observing that linguistic evidence links the feather with the

thorn (Yucatec k'iix 'thorn', Quiche kiix 'feather'), and leaf with ancestry (Yucatec le 'leaf',


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disembodied head, as a seeming nose ornament on a being that has also the large eye and

thumblike snout of the Bolon Mayel zoomorph supporting the Kin bowl, but that lacks both the

"2O/Smiling-Ahau head" and the "9" component of that zoomorph; (5) The dots surrounding thePP that have been identified as blood droplets are found also on the Bolon Mayel emblem.

A consideration of Bolon Mayel, whose counterpart on the CV is the knuckleduster to theright and the terrestrial panel below, suggests an intimate association of this underworld deity bothwith blood and with maize; an association related to the Maya association between blood and

maize, including their symbolic equivalence in certain contexts. Bolon Mayel is also seen here to

be associated with the Maize God who is conceptually linked with the sun in Maya tradition andiconography.

13 These associations and linkages are explored below as preface to a more general

consideration of Mesoamerican cosmology related to the CV and PP.

DISEMBODIED HEAD, MAIZE, BLOOD, AND THE SUN

It is clear that the disembodied head on the PP is the Maya Maize deity himself

(corresponding to the Maize deity Centeotl of the Aztecs, whose birth day, 1 Flower, is equivalentto that of both the Maya G1's father and GII of Palenque, and to the name Hunahpu). The maize

symbolism of his headdress is too explicit for any other conclusion. The youthful face of this

deity, with its attendant markings (except that it lacks an "oyster shell ear"), recall the physical

appearance of GI, a god first identified and named at Palenque but found through much of theClassic Maya region, having a possible homologue in Hunahpu of the Popol Vuh, who is assumed

by many to have been the "Hero Twin" who became the sun or, by some interpretations, Venus (cf.

Schele 1986:48).

Taube, in a valuable reconsideration of the Classic Maya Maize Deity and depictions of him

as a severed or disembodied head in Maya iconography, concluded that "The foliated severed

heads clearly symbolize the cob [ie. the ear of maize] cut from the stalk. It is probable that thedisembodied, tonsured head also represents the harvested maize" (1985:171).14

Identifying the disembodied heads as maize deities symbolizing a link between the harvestand Maya kingship and aesthetics, he suggested also that the elongated heads of Maya nobility,

artificially induced in real life, and clearly depicted in art, may represent (or emulate in form and

perhaps meaning) the maize ear, and proposed that the well known and highly important Mayabloodletting implement resembles, and in some sense may represent, a maize husking tool (Taube

1985:18O).

Maize is not only "the most basic and most sacred of all... Mayan foods" (Gossen 1972:143);it is the substance from which humans were fashioned--according to Mayan accounts--when

mixed with the blood of a god or gods. The Maize God, linked to Maya bloodletting ritual and

kingship, dies with each harvest, and is reborn with each sowing. "The quintessential Classic

Maya expression of the intimate relationship between kingship, maize, and the ritual act ofbloodletting is found on the tablet from the Temple of the Foliated Cross at Palenque" (Fields

1989:41), the iconography of which has been interpreted to represent the birth of humans from

maize (Schele 1976:24).


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Several other features in Maya depictions of disembodied heads, noted by Taube (1985), are

especially relevant to the bloodletting iconography herein discussed.

1) their frequent association with a necklace (perhaps representing

maizekernels);

2)theirassociation with a bellshapednoseornament (perhaps

representing a maize kernel in the present context);

3) their association with the Kan cross (representing blood,

maize,or both);

4) their association with blood, and the symbolic equation of blood

with seed and lineage.

Necklace

The necklace association with the disembodied heads noted by Taube (1985:171), is ofconsiderable interest here. Although the PP displays a mirror in the position of a necklace,

considering the Tzotzil ritual term (xohobal) for maize foods, meaning 'radiance' or 'halo of the

sun', and the relationship between the sun and the mirror (Carlson 1983), it seems that the mirror

reflects not only the sun, but also a maize metaphor. A sun reference does not exclude a maizereference for the same symbol. An attested Tzotzil belief derives maize from the sun's groin

(Gossen 1972).15

Moreover multiple visual referents for the same icon is a practice well

documented in Mesoamerica as early as Formative times (Stross in press). The necklace found onother Maize God images is thus by implication also a string of maize kernels around the neck.

16

As noted above, the CV has crossed bands, instead of a mirror, where the Maize Godnecklace might otherwise be. The crossed bands are flanked by a double row of triple pendants,

possibly representing maize kernels. The pendants are line darkened in their centers. Similar

lined centers occur occasionally on Maya representations of maize kernels (e.g. Chenes capstone

from Nucbec, after Taube 1985:177, fig. 6 b, c).

Nose ornament

"Terming it the Disembodied head, Coe (1978:83) notes that the Classic entity usually has anecklace at the base of the neck and a bell-shaped nose ornament" (Taube 1985:177). The PP's

disembodied head has a bell-shaped nose ornament, and in this case it resembles a maize kernel.

This ornament in front of the nose has three parts; a darkened outer part, a main interior, and a


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central outlined interior. This suggests a maize kernel. Because it is the maize kernel that in

contemporary times represents the spirit of maize,17

and because the human spirit or life principle

is seen by Mayans to be in the breath, prototypically related to the nose, it is thus quite appropriatefor a maize kernel to be in front of the nose (cf. Guiteras-Holmes 1961:3O1). Noting that maize

and blood are somehow symbolically interchangeable, and that the blood is also a locus of the

human spirit (and indicator of health) for the Mayans of today (cf. Guiteras-Holmes 1961:212), itis also appropriate that the Pedrano Tzotzil Maize mother, "soul of our sustenance" (x?ob) anddaughter of the Lightning deity (Guiteras-Holmes 1961:291) is recognized by the blood seen on

her nose (Guiteras-Holmes 1961:218).

Kan Cross

Taube suggests that the Kan cross, frequently associated with maize and with bloodletters,

refers to maize (1985:18O). Footnote 11 contains evidence for seeing the Kan cross as a

reference to blood. There is an association between maize and blood for the Maya, minimally asprecious elements, but actually in a much more basic and pervasive way. The Kan cross as

found on the PP is completely consistent with both maize and blood symbolic interpretations.

Moreover, the Kan cross has the shape of a quatrefoil, a design element well known to

Mesoamericanists as a representation in plan of the portal separating this world from the

otherworld, a representation alternatively depicted in elevation as the great mouth or maw of the

earth monster, and glyphically represented at Yaxchilan for example as the "black hole". It issacrificial blood that opens this portal, and it is maize that once issued from the portal when the

lightning deity opened a cleft / portal in sustenance mountain according to Mesoamerican lore.

Each year since, maize springs forth anew from a hole in the ground where it was planted byhumans. Maize, blood, and the Kan cross are thus inextricably bound together.

Blood, Maize Kernels, and Lineage

Seeds, perhaps including beans and other types, but centrally maize kernels, have an integralassociation with blood for the Maya--the soul or spirit resides in both--and blood of course implies

descent and lineage, among the most important considerations in kingship (cf. Stuart 1984). It is

not surprising then to find bloodletting and agriculture symbolically and perhaps irrevocablylinked for the Maya, as is formally quite evident on the PP. Evidence for the maize seed - blood

linkage is both iconographic and ethnographic. For example, the Madrid Codex (at 35b) depicts a

disembodied head of God E (the Maize lord) surrounded by a red pool of blood, shown as lined upUUU's (T136), which by their shape are likely also to represent kernels of maize.

Taube cites several ethnographic examples supporting his contention that among Mayans

maize is commonly identified with blood. Most of these examples prominently feature birth, asin the Chenalho Tzotzil use of a corn ear bloodied from the cutting of a newborn child's

umbilical cord to seed a special maize field called the "child's blood" (1985:178: Thompson

197O:283); or rebirth, as when the Chorti refer to maize as the blood of Jesus Christ (1985:18O).

He suspects that for the Classic Maya "blood was considered as dynastic seed, the vital materialwhich linked the generations of the living and the dead" (1985:18O).

In sum we can see the disembodied head of the Maize God, related to the sun and to kingship,


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as the center and focus of the iconographic images compared and discussed on the CV and PP.

Iconographic elements symbolizing blood and maize as a kind of cosmic glue and receptacle for

cosmic essence have been isolated, and include the Maize God's necklace and nose ornament, aswell as the Kan cross, Y elements, and circlets. These constitute some of the primary

cosmological symbols to be found on the cosmograms represented by the incised images on the

CV and PP.

COSMOLOGY AND COSMOGRAMS

Maize and blood symbolism not only coexist on the two vessels and elsewhere inMesoamerican iconography; they intermingle to the extent that the two concepts are metaphorical

equivalents, the one implying and sometimes even substituting for the other. This should come as

no surprise to Mesoamericanists. The domestication of plants, and particularly of maize was of

utmost significance in the lives of Prehispanic Mesoamericans that had previously depended inlarge part upon hunting, and Indian societies remaining in Mesoamerica still depend to an

extraordinary degree on maize as food and on maize as a cosmic metaphor. Hunting symbolism

seems to have carried over into the cosmological metaphors of agricultural peoples, and the twofood getting activities (hunting and agriculture) were in some ways metaphorically equated. The

hunting arrow could thus be equated with the digging stick; the blood and flesh of the deer with the

ear of maize; and harvesting of both game and maize was accomplished in metaphorically

identical terms. Maize and blood were thus conceptually united a long time ago in Mesoamerica,and they remain so today. And they remain among the most powerful essences of the

Mesoamerican cosmogram.

Cosmologies deal with the measurement and boundaries of matter, space and time; with the

forces of nature and the place of humans within nature; with the nature of power (divinity) and

with the power to manipulate the cosmos (divination). They "explain" the sky above and the mud

below, and that which separates them.

Cosmograms are the iconographic manifestation of cosmologies, selecting a small number of

significant symbols relating to the cosmology of a people, for iconic or purely symbolic depiction.These symbols, because of their power--implicit in their imitation of the powerful forces of nature

among other sources--are frequently employed by humans to explain and manipulated to maintain

social and natural harmony.18

Cosmograms in Mesoamerica are associated with cache offerings which are to be integral

components of ritual actions including bloodletting ritual, house and milpa ritual, altar ritual,

bewitchment and curing ritual. They are associated in Mesoamerica with power display byrulers and other power brokers (in the costume and accompanying accouterments depicted

surrounding the individual, among other things), with building facades in the form of masks, and

with the measurement of time and activities coordinated by cyclic time conceptions.

Cosmograms maintain the balance and harmony of the world, essentially by restating it inschematic form. In Mesoamerica the cosmogram with the ruler properly located and identified

within it comprises the main charter of rulership.


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The human body, its parts and their locations on the body, and its stages of growth, provide an

excellent cosmological model that was employed in Europe as well as independently in

Mesoamerica. In Mesoamerica Reilly has shown also that Olmecs encoded the three cosmiclevels (upper world, middle world, and lower world) as well as right and left symbolism into the

Olmec ruler figure of Slim (1987). He has demonstrated right and left symbolism at Chalcatzingo

as well, referencing bloodletting and vegetation (1989), which I interpret to stem from east - westsymbolism and cosmological notions of birth and death that can be generalized even more tocreation and destruction.

The fact that both the Chalcatzingo Vase and the Princeton Plate are organized around a

theme of a central deity built in the image of human body parts and surrounded by four equidistantsubsidiary elements implies that mythico-cosmological conceptualizations are represented on both

(directly or symbolically). These appear to involve at least the following; a) the center and the

four cardinal directions, b) deities of earth, sky, east and west and/or Moon, Sun, Venus and

Night Sun c) the sky being separated from the earth by a mediating maize deity with solar andbloodletting characteristics constituting some of the regal insignia of office d) the vital principle of

maize/blood in the cosmic center balancing and mediating the cosmic components and

maintaining and supporting both cosmos and microcosmic structure.

A directional interpretation extrapolated to the Olmec CV on the basis of reading the Maya

glyph T539 with infixed quincunx as wayeb 'sleeping place, bed' implies that the knuckleduster on

the CV's right side may represent the eastern day sun (rising), and the left side torch could be thewestern night sun (setting). This fits in part with the recent discovery at Rio Azul of a Maya

Tomb 12 where the directional glyphs (matching the real directions east, north, west, and south)

are found in association with other glyphs representing "mythical cosmic association with" variousentities. East - sun, North - moon, West - night sun ("darkness" - Akbal glyph), and

South - Venus (Adams 1986:442). The cosmological interpretation herein preferred for both CV

and PP retains the notions of east and west, but substitutes zenith for north and nadir for south on

the assumption that the central Maize God functions as the Axis Mundi to link the Underworld,Middle World, and Upper World, and to represent the place of transformation, mediation and

balance.

Two non-ceramic items of similar cosmological significance can be compared to the CV and

PP. First, and perhaps even earlier in time than the Chalcatzingo Vase is a small greenstone

Olmec plaque from Guerrero, now in the Dallas Museum (Figure 21). It contains, within aquatrefoil outline (cave / mouth of crocodilian earth monster), the depiction of a miniature cosmos.

At the top is pictured a sky element (crossed bands surrounded by 13 pendants). The bottom has a

terrestrial panel surmounted by a three tiered temple/pyramid. The center has a "world tree" or

"cornstalk" depiction whose branches/arms and trunk separate four seed elements clearlycorresponding to the four Y elements on the CV. Additional elements on this plaque are possible

raindrop symbols within the pyramid and the terrestrial panel, and three circlets placed

horizontally below the terrestrial panel.

Second, and much later in time even than the Princeton Plate is page 34 of the Dresden

Codex, in the top register, where a disembodied head, with maize headdress and tripartite (maize

spirit) nose ornament is placed on a Caban glyph atop a three tiered pyramid/temple. The


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centrally located maize head is surrounded by four deities--structurally corresponding to the four

Y elements on the CV--playing music . Additional elements in the composition include a burning

brazier and two animal heads apparently with Kan glyphs (maize kernels), as well as a ladder.

Cosmos in a Cache Vessel

In view of the representation of the Maize deity on the PP, and the fact that the PP was the tophalf of a lip-to-lip cache vessel deposited below floor level in a Maya temple, possibly for

dedication purposes, it may be pertinent to recall in the Popol Vuh the planting of a maize plant (or

ear) by each of the Hero Twins in the floor of their grandmother's house--in the attic according toTedlock (1985). The fate of the maize was to represent the fate of the twins:

Because the stalks of maize sown by the twins are their

alter egos...they will suffer an identic fate. If the twinsdie the stalks will die, but if they live then the stalks will

sprout and grow. This explains why they were sown in dry soil

and in the middle of the house-floor, for they represent theMaize god in the central point of the cosmos, here symbolized

by the house, where the plants will remain as the image of the

divine youths (Girard 1979:173).

Thepicturesqueallegoryof the Popol Vuh is explained intermsof Chortitheologyby the category of brother gods (with the

meaningofan alterego)suchasthe Maize and young Solargod,

functionsthatare acquired by the twins...This intimaterelationship is also expressed by a common denominator, since both

the Maize god and Solar god are numeral gods whose number is five

(Girard (1979:174).

The positioning of the maize sprouts in the center of the

house, coinciding with the descent of the twins into theunderworld, expresses another custom of the time, consisting of

burial of the dead within the house (Girard 1979:174).

We should mention the custom preserved by Quiche Indians

of sowing two maize stalks in the middle of the plaza in front of

their house, in remembrance of the stalks left behind by

Hunahpu and Ixbalamque as a memento for their grandmother as they left for Xibalba (Girard1979:175)

Tedlock agrees that the maize represents the twins' fate, but points out that it is maize ears thatare "planted" and emphasizes that the twins are demonstrating:

a harvest ritual that Quiches follow to this day. They "plant"


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ears of corn in the center of her house, in the attic; these

ears are neither to be eaten nor used as seed corn but are to be

keptasasign that corn remains alivethroughouttheyear,evenbetweenthe drying out of the plants at harvest time and the

sprouting ofnew ones after planting (1985:42).

This use of certain maize ears as a living sign of immortality recalls an analogous ethnographic

fact that sacrificial blood and victims have been used in Mesoamerica to provide a "soul" or "vital

spirit" for such man-made works as bridges, temples, and so on, to animate them in order to ensuretheir successful functioning. Maize and the maize deity, symbols of sacrifice and resurrection

epitomize the immortal vital essence that would seem to be completely appropriate for dedicating

an important building, because this essence is what brings to life (animates) the manmadeconstruction in an animate natural world, all parts of which are alive in an important sense. This

essence, a heart/soul/spirit makes the building live and operate as a part of nature.

Eliade helps us to understand in a broader context why the blood and head of the Maize deitymight be found in the floor of a newly constructed Maya edifice. The symbolism of the center (of

the world or universe or cosmos) is expressed in the notion of microcosmic replication and

involves three interconnected and complementary propositions:

1. The"sacred mountain" where heaven and earth meet,stands at

the centre of the world;

2. Every temple or palace, and by extension, every sacred town

and royal residence, is assimilated to a "sacred mountain"and thus becomes a "centre";

3. The temple or sacred city, in turn, as the place throughwhich the Axis Mundi passes, is held to be a point of

junction between heaven, earth, and hell (1958:375).

Any new human establishment of any sort is in a sense, a

reconstruction of the world. If it is to last, if it is to

be real, the new dwelling or town must be projected by means

of the construction ritual into the "centre of the universe".According to many traditions, the creation of the world was

begun in a centre and for this reason the building of towns

must also develop round a centre. Romulus dug a deep trench


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(fossa), filled it with fruit, covered it again with earth, and

having set up an altar (ara) over it, traced a rampart round it

with his plough... The trench was a mundus ['world'] (1958:373).

To Christians, Golgotha was the centre of the world; it was

both the topmost point of the cosmic mountain and the spot whereAdamwas created and buried. The Savior's blood was thereforesprinkled over Adam'sskull buried at the very foot of the cross,

and thusredeemed him (1958:375).

If the creation of the world is the prototype for all human constructions, symbolically

expressed in particular detail for "sacred space", and if the center is of the ritual and symbolic

importance ascribed to it by Eliade, then one might speculate that the Princeton Plate as a cachevessel was located in the sacral "center" of whatever building went up over it, that the cache

projected the whole building into the center of sacred space, that the cache was placed near or after

completion of such construction, and that some sort of sacred "altar" may at one time have beenerected on top of it. As a centerpoint linking by means of the Axis Mundi the Underworld, the

Middle World, and the Upper World, it would represent a place of transformation, where the maize

seeds and the blood and the symbolic extensions of these were unified in conception, and where

these would have possessed their greatest power.

An apt metaphor for the caching of such a vessel in a building would be the implantation of a

"heart" which could be excised when the building was to be symbolically killed beforeabandonment (Annabeth Headrick, p.c. 1989).

CONCLUSION

Numerous similarities in form and iconographic function between the CV and the PP add up

to persuasive evidence that these terra-cotta vessels--separated by up to a thousand years and

created presumably by persons from different language families--represent the same themes instructurally similar ways with several homologous (as well as analogous) elements. The vessel

comparisons can be further utilized for identifying formally different elements in the same

structural positions. One can deduce that either of two possibilities has occurred: (a) a givenelement has changed in form through the years, the one later in time having developed from the

earlier either by depicting essentially the same thing in a somewhat different way while serving the

same functions, or (b) the given element developed different functions in the course of time,

serving different ends, and therefore requiring different formal manifestations. Sometimes, ofcourse, iconographic homologues change positions, being identifiable as such only by formal

resemblances.

To the extent that the proposed homologous forms are in fact so, it is possible to point tospecific Maya glyphs, referenced by T number (Thompson 1962), and to show what forms they

reflect from the iconography (and glyphs) on the Princeton Plate, and then to suggest what they

may reflect of earlier forms from a different culture; that of the Olmecs, which through their Late


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Formative descendants, strongly influenced the symbol system of the Maya. The Appendix

performs precisely that task in tabular form.

That the Chalcatzingo Vase could have served as a cache vessel as did the Princeton Plate,

providing the animating power to an Olmec temple, is suggested by the multiple iconographic

similarities between these two vessels. Despite the very different shapes of the vessels and thedifferent artistic styles employed, differences explicable by the gulf of time, space, and cultureseparating their manufacturers, the function of the later one can be attributed to the other. This

conclusion is additionally supported by the architectonic image of the post-and-lintel shaped frame

containing the disembodied head sprouting maize and surrounded by four housepole/seeds. Thisarchitectonic image, although apparently absent on the Princeton Plate, occurs also on the Dallas

Plaque and in the Dresden Codex on p. 34, as well as in the Popol Vuh and even in current Quiche

Maya custom.

APPENDIX

Maya Glyphs and their Iconographic Counterparts on the Princeton

Plate and the Chalcatzingo Vessel

Maya glyph Princeton Plate Chalcatzingo vessel

T712 Pseudo inverted fist on rightwith

fist-hand with knuckle-duster

akbal(T5O4) infix akbal infix two circlets (possibly

obsidian bloodletter representserpent

(spondylus shell markings, recallbloodletter) Chicchan glyph T5O8)

T524 Ix Ix in glyph collocation brush & 3 circletson top on top (excluding

crossed bands element)

T561c Sky glyph w/ upside-down sky brush and three

elements (brush and three circlets (including


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mirror supporting head triplependants,

VIII (Number 9) The number nine knotted band plus

terrestrial symbol

T5O6 Kan on top of head cleft w/ crescent

T281 Kancross Kan cross Not on CV as such

T585a Quincunx part of left glyph Not on CV

T539 Half Spotted Ahau part of left glyph Not on CV

T188 Le prefix in glyph colloc. Not on CV

on right.

T552 Crossed Bands or Not on PP as such top element &

T83O CB w/ triple head support

pendant

T6O Knotted cloth Not on PP as such Knotted "hair" in

back of Disembodied

head

Tri-knot bloodletter Not on PP 3 knotted ribbons on

glyph (Naranjo St.8) frame

NOTES

1This paper has benefited from comments and criticisms of Becky Brimacombe.


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2 This form and that represented on the Humboldt Celt (see figure 7) are almost identical to the

Maya glyph known as T563 (Fire) and but for the bending to the glyph known as the "sky elbow"

(T187) that is currently understood to represent a phonetic spelling of the k'aba 'name'.

3 This "torch / bloodletter" was later to become, I suspect, the hand held fringed atlatl ('dart

thrower') symbolizing power (and lightning) on late and Postclassic Maya and Toltec politicaliconography.4 The element group on the left side in the CV, in addition to having a structural correspondence

with the glyph collocation on the left side of the PP, also corresponds formally and positionally in

its elements to the three bloodletting instruments in front of the nose of the disembodied head onthe PP, the bottom corresponding to the left and representing the dark side. This structural

correspondence follows from the fact as noted that the bloodletters also correspond within the PP

to the glyph on the left.

The Akbal infixed Pseudo Inverted Fist (T712 (5O4)) located on the bottom of the PP's groupof three bloodletters (cf. Figure 1Oc) is identifiable as an obsidian lancet. Its Olmec homologue

can be found in the CV's hand with its two infixed circlets on the left side element group. The

central stingray spine of the PP can be seen in analogy on the cuff on the left side element group ofthe CV. The right element of the PP's bloodletter triad, the eccentric flint shaped like a "finger"

corresponds in general shape, relative size and some element detail (e.g. triplicity of circlets on end

of one, triple pendants on the end of the other) to the CV torch on the CV.

5 The PP's glyph collocation on the right side includes a T188 "Le" prefix, analogous to the

"torch" prefix of the glyph on the left side, possibly indicating a title, as interpreted by Schele and

Miller (1986:195). For example, this T188 prefix precedes an Ahau half covered by jaguar skinas a name or title of Palenque's ruler Chan Bahlum on the Tablet of the Sun (at position K1).

6 The scallops on the cuff of the CV's knuckle-duster suggest the conchoidal fractures resulting

from pressure flaking of an obsidian knife blade and thereby recall the T188 "Le" glyph, prefix tothe deity depicted on the right side of the PP. I have proposed that this glyph may derive from a

representation of a pressure flaked stone knife blade (Stross 1982:93-95), although the glyph is

generally identified by others as a leaf.

7 Stross and Reilly have demonstrated the inter-substitutability in Maya epigraphy and in

Formative iconography between the crossed bands and the single diagonal band (curved orstraight) often referred to as a mirror (in press:8-1O, 14).

8 The maize ear, foliage, and kernel image corresponds both to the CV's knotted cloth on the

Maize God's head (as homologue), and to the maize vegetation emerging from the cleft at the topof the CV Maize God's head (as positional and functional analogue). It is also argued that the PP's

Kan maize kernel can be seen as a conflation of four Y elements on the CV (functional analogues).

Thus a situation is implied in which one element on the PP corresponds to three on the CV,

representing thus a conflation rather than a proliferation over time. This is particularlyunexpected in that the Olmec CV represents the sparse composition as opposed to the more

elaborate composition on the Maya PP.


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9 The suggestion that the Y elements on the CV could simultaneously represent both maize

kernels and houseposts well illustrates the multiple values that can be reflected in a single visual

symbol in Mesoamerican iconography (cf. Stross in press).

1O The suggestion of a conceptual correspondence is based on an argument relating maize

symbolism to both, and to the PP's top glyph collocation. The centrally located leaf-like glyphicelement of this glyph collocation, possibly representing a maize leaf, resembles a semi-frontalview of the stingray spine bloodletter that is also part of the Quadripartite badge, such as is

exemplified in House E of the Palace at Palenque (Figure 5b). The central "stingray spine"

symbolizes jade, which in turn symbolizes maize (Thompson 197O:284), recalling the fact thatYucatec tun 'precious stone, jade' also means 'maize (leaves)'. In this connection a late Preclassic

figurine from El Sitio, exhibits the positioning as well as the shape of the "stingray spine"

bloodletter on an individual's head, but the "spine" is an unmistakable maize ear flanked by leaves

is centrally positioned on the individual's head, . As such it also coincides in position with thetop element complex of the CV, which has a brush of hairs (possible corn silk) in which can be

seen Joralemon's (1971:13) motif No. 89 (Tripartite maize), and crossed bands flanked by triple

horizontal pendants (perhaps maize kernels on a cob), recalling the Tzotzil reference to maize as"the sun's rays", and the Mesoamerican myth of the sun's conversion into maize (Pazstory

1983:57).

11 Vincent Sassi has brought to my attention the fact that on Tikal Altar 5, the flint trident

"bloodletter" has a Kan cross on its blade near the tip suggesting that it may represent blood.

Taube (1985:176) notes an association between depictions on plates of severed or disembodied

heads and Kan crosses, also relating the Kan cross to blood. A Kan cross is in front of the noseof the bottom head of a two headed Tlaloc-masked "vision serpent" on Stela 24 at Yaxchilan,

apparently representing blood. Outside the Maya realm, blood red (Kan) crosses decorate the

brim of a Huichol shaman's hat, and these must represent the bloody central quatrefoil portal

linking this world to the other.

Although on the Princeton plate the Kan cross is right in front of the flint, a Kan cross on the

Humboldt celt (Figure 7) is located just below the crossed bands, and essentially central to thepiece, such that it appears to be replacing the disembodied head of the Chalcatzingo vase itself.

This makes sense when we remember that blood opens the portal linking the different worlds of

the cosmos; that it dissolves the boundary between worlds.

12 Numbers for the ancient Maya had cosmological significance, and even today among Mayans,

numerology figures prominently in divination, prayers, dream interpretation, and other areas of

magic and religion. Minimally, the numbers nine for the underworld, and thirteen for the sky areknown to be important for both the Classic Maya and Mayans today.

The PP has one number on it clearly intended to be such; the number 9, attached to the Bolon

Mayel zoomorph. Although The CV has no numbers that are clearly intended to be such, it shares

3 circlets on top (with the PP), and it also has three circlets on the "mouth mask", three scallops andthree "thatch" layers at the back of the head, and triple-pendant motifs, in addition to the

triple-knot motif that helps establish this as a bloodletting bowl. Five sticks make up the torch on

the left (shared with the PP). Finally, there are the 7 scallops on the knuckleduster to the right of


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the vertical axis.

There are, then, two numbers that could be said to be shared by both vessels in similar

positions, 3 (various places) and 5 (left side). It appears that the number three is very importantin Maya and in Olmec iconography, symbolizing both blood and maize, possibly derived from an

underlying meaning of 'soul', 'spirit', or 'life force' as with contemporary Tzotzil Mayans

(Guiteras-Holmes 1961:296). The number 5 could symbolize the cosmos with its center fromwhich radiate the four directions. It occurs on the left side of both the CV and the PP, and mayrelate specifically to that direction. There is also some evidence--in addition to Girard's

assertion that the Maya Maize god and Solar god are numeral gods whose number is five

(1979:174)--that the number 5 can be connected with maize, both for Mayans and for Olmecs(Stross 1985:17-19), including the fact that among Tzotzil Mayans, five ears of maize are used in

curing and five kernels of maize per hole for sowing (Guiteras-Holmes 1961:218).13

Bolon Mayel is named on the basis of a documented Yucatec deity of the same name, and

identified with this deity because may means '2O' in some Mayan languages (e.g. Kekchi). OtherYucatec deity names with "Nine" in them, where their meanings are analyzable in Yucatec, would

be fitting epithets for a single deity related to divination and fertility (and thus to blood). One of

these, Nine Stick-leg, calls to mind the "digging stick" or coa with which maize is planted, theword coa likely deriving from Nahuatl coatl 'snake'. God K in his Classic Maya manifestation is

sometimes shown with one leg held like a stick, and terminating in a serpent. Kowalski (1983)

has argued that God K is a deity of agricultural abundance and fertility (as well as of lightning).

God K also has a strong association with smoking and tobacco for the Classic Maya, relatingperhaps to the fact that may in many Mayan languages is 'tobacco',

God K (always shown zoomorphically) in his classic manifestation as the bloodletting deity

whose glyph is prefixed by a 9, and as the earthly arbiter of lineage (thus related to the ancestorsresiding in the underworld) could have a zoomorphic companion relating both to maize/blood and

to the serpent (recall the T114 (Chicchan) "nostrils" of Bolon Mayel, and the serpent foot of

Classic God K), and could be the deity responsible for the transformation of blood into water and

maize.

14 Digby echoes a similar sentiment concerning the Classic Maya maize deity, but for a different

reason. Noting that the crossed bands on the pendant of the maize god and the skull pendant onthe bust of the maize god are in complementary distribution, and remarking on the presence of

crossed bands (and bones) on the "completion" glyph, he suggests an association of crossed bands

with death, suggesting that "the youthful maize god of the Maya may well carry the signs of deathto symbolize the idea of the cutting of the maize, and of rejuvenation with the young seed. The

idea is the same as that found in the worship of Attis and Adonis in the Old World" (1972:26).

15 Note that the Aztec deity Piltzintecuhtli, a youthful manifestation of the sun god Tonatiuh and

equivalent to the Maya Lord of the number seven according to Klein (1977:174), fathered

Centeotl, the Maize God.

16 Some insight into the meaning of the necklace may proceed from an Aztec metaphor by which

a baby is referred to as the "precious necklace" or "the quetzal feather within the womb" (Berdan

1985:82). A small monument from in another part of Mesoamerica--Zaachila in the Valley of

Oaxaca--contains what has been interpreted as a genealogical register (Marcus 198O), an upper


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panel of which is said to record a royal couple's marriage. A deity is evidently emerging

downward through the "jaws of the sky", holding out a string of "beads", a necklace, to what are

evidently supplicants. A "baby" or "birth" interpretation for the necklace is possible here also.The "birth" symbolism of the necklace might refer in Maya iconography to maize kernels

being sown and thus reborn as plants, which are in turn responsible for the birth and development

of humankind? A necklace of maize kernels reborn to provide sustenance and life to man, mighteasily be seen to symbolically represent birth (or rebirth). Analogously, a necklace is transferredfrom the outgoing officeholder to the incoming one on the New Years day change of office

ceremony among the Tzeltal and Tzotzil Mayans, and among these same Mayans the grandchild is

called the "replacement" (helol) of the grandparents because the soul of the latter is reincarnated inthe former.

17 Petrich reports that for the Mocho and the Tzeltal Mayans at least, the vital center or "spirit" of

maize is located in the kernels, as they represent the divinity sacrificed and buried by men. "Eachkernel is the Maize lord, reborn in order to give sustenance and life to man" (1985:138).

18

Cosmograms figure in important human rituals, themselves individual or communalmanifestations of the cosmological principles of a people, that are employed in order to facilitate

the movement of people in groups or as individuals from one place to another in time, space,

and/or social position (e.g. in birth ceremonies, pilgrimages, death ritual). They function also to

bind people together as the components of the cosmos are bound together, if not in permanentharmony, then at least in some form of dynamic equilibrium (marriage ceremonies), balancing the

forces for change by the forces of tradition (inertia). They serve to manifest and to propagate

ideology. They figure in the process of vitalizing or animating projects initiated by humans thathave the potential for upsetting the harmony of nature (e.g. the construction of houses and

temples). They figure in the demarcation of boundaries, whether these be the boundaries of

stages in the life cycles of natural phenomena (including humans), or boundaries in space (the

milpa, measured out so carefully with the digging stick/spear and the four directions), or theboundaries of time (period ending and renewal ceremonies). They figure in the replication of the

world order and its creation, so important for world renewal ceremonies.

REFERENCES CITED

Adams, Richard E.W. 1986. "Rio Azul." National Geographic 169:42O-451.

Berdan, Frances F. 1982. The Aztecs of Central Mexico. New York: Holt Rinehart and

Winston.

Carlson, John 1981. "Olmec concave iron-ore mirrors." in E.P. Benson (ed.) The Olmec

and their Neighbors Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks.


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Coe, Michael 1978. Lords of the Unederworld. Princeton: Princeton Univ Press.

Cohodas, Marvin. 1976. The iconography of the Panels of the Sun, Cross, and theFoliated Cross at Palenque: part III. in M.G. Robertson (ed.), The Art, Iconography & Dynastic

History of Palenque Part III. Pebble Beach: The Robert Louis Stevenson School, pp 155-176.

Covarrubias, Miguel 1957. Indian Art of Mexico and Central America. New York:Alfred A. Knopf.Cortez, Constance 1986. The Principal Bird Deity in Preclassic and Early Classic Maya

Art. Unpublished M.A. Thesis, Department of Art, University of Texas.

Digby, Adrian 1972. Maya Jades. London: British Museum Publications Ltd.

Eliade, Mircea. 1958. Patterns in Comparative Religion. New York: The New American

Library, Inc.

Fields, Virginia M. 1989. The Origins of Divine Kingship Among the Lowland Classic

Maya. Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation, The University of Texas.

Gay, Carlo T.E. 1971. Chalcacingo. Akademische Druck-u: Verlagsanstalt, Graz.

Girard, Raphael 1979. Esotericism of the Popol Vuh. Pasadena: TheosophicalUniversity Press.

Gossen, Gary H. 1972. Temporal and spatial equivalents in Chamula Ritual Symbolismin W. Lessa & E.Z. Vogt, eds, A Reader in Comparative religion. New York: Harper and Row.

Grove, David. 1987. "Torches", "knuckledusters" and the legitimization of Formative

period rulership. Mexicon. 89:6O-65.

Guiteras Holmes, Calixta 1961. Perils of the Soul. Glencoe: The Free Press.

Houston, Stephen and David Stuart 1989. The Way glyph: evidence for "co-essences"

among the Classic Maya. Center for Maya Research, Report 3O, pp. 1-16.

Joralemon, David 1971. A study of Olmec iconography. Studies in Pre-Columbian Art and

Archaeology, no. 7. Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks.

_________, 1976. The Olmec dragon: a study in Pre-Columbian iconography. in H.B.

Nicholson (ed.). Origins of Religious Art and Iconography in Pre-Classic Mesoamerica. LosAngeles: University of California at Los Angeles Latin American Center Publications, pp. 27-71.

Klein, Cecelia F. The identity of the central deity on the Aztec calendar stone. in A.

Cordy-Collins and J. Stern, Precolumbian Art History. Palo Alto, Calif.: Peek Publications, pp.167-19O.

Kowalski, Jeff Karl 1983. Glyphic, linguistic, ethnographic and iconographic clues to the


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identity of God K. (paper read at fifth Palenque Round Table Conference, Palenque, Chiapas,

mexico, June 12-13, 1983.)

Marcus, Joyce 198O. Zapotec writing. Scientific American. 242-5O-64.

Nicholson, Henry B. 1971. Religion in pre-Hispanic Central Mexico. in R. Wauchope(ed.) Handbook of Middle American Indians, Vol. 1O. Austin: Univ. of Texas Press. pp.395-446.

Pazstory, Esther 1983. Aztec Art. New York: Harry Abrams.

Petrich, Perla. 1985. La Alimentacion Mocho. San Cristobal de las Casas: Universidad

Autonoma de Chiapas, Centro de Estudios Indigenas, Serie Monografias 1.

Redfield, Robert and Alfonso Villa Rojas. 1962. Chan Kom: A Maya Village. Chicago:

The University of Chicago Press.

Reilly, Frank Kent. 1987. The Ecological Origins of Olmec Symbols of Rulership.

Unpublished M.A. Thesis, University of Texas at Austin.

______, 1989. Olmec iconographic influences on the symbols of Maya rulership: anexamination of possible sources. (unpublished manuscript in possession of author).

Robertson, Merle Greene 1974. The Quadripartite Badge--a badge of rulership. in M.G.Robertson ed., Primera Mesa Redonda de Palenque, Part I. Pebble Beach, Calif: Robt. L.

Stevenson School, pp. 77-94.

_________, 1985. The Sculpture of Palenque: Vol. II. Princeton: Princeton UniversityPress.

Schele, Linda. 1976. Accession iconography of Chan-Bahlum in the group of the Cross atPalenque. in M.G. Robertson, ed., The Art, Iconography and Dynastic History of Palenque, Part

III. Robt. L. Stevenson School, Pebble Beach, Calif., pp. 9-34.

_______, and Mary Ellen Miller 1986. The Blood of Kings. Fort Worth: Kimbell Art

Museum.

Morley, Sylvanus G., Brainerd, George W. and Robert Sharer. 1983. The Ancient Maya.Stanford: Stanford University Press.

Stone, Andrea Joyce. 1983. The Zoomorphgs of Quirigua, Guatemala. Unpublished

Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Texas at Austin.

Stross, Brian 1982. Maya hieroglyphic writing and Mixe-Zoquean. Anthropological

Linguistics 24:73-134


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______, 1983. Oppositional pairing in Mesoamerican divinatory day names.

Anthropological Linguistics 25:211-273.

_______, 1985. Maya head variant numerals: the Olmec case Anthropological

Linguistics 27:1-45.

______, 1989. Olmec vessel with a crayfish icon: an early rebus. in W.F. Hanks and D.S.

Rice (eds.), Word and Image in Maya Culture. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, pp.

143-164._______, n.d. Mesoamerican writing at the crossroads: the late Formative. Visible

Language. In Press.

_______, and Kent Reilly n.d. "Sky and earth: from icon to glyph."Mesoamerica. In Press.

Stuart, David. 1984. Royal auto-sacrifice among the Maya: a study in image and meaning.Res 7-8:6-2O.

Taube, Karl 1985. The Classic Maya Maize God: A Reappraisal. in V.M.

Fields and M.G. Robertson (eds.), Fifth Palenque Round Table, 1983, VOL. VII. San Francisco:Pre-Columbian Art Research Institute, pp. 171-182.

Tedlock, Dennis. 1985. Popol Vuh. New York: Simon and Schuster.

Thompson, J.E.S. 1962. A Catalogue of Maya Hieroglyphs. Norman: Univ. of

Oklahoma Press.

________, 197O. Maya History and Religion. Norman: Univ. of Oklahoma Press

FIGURES

Figure 1. Chalcatzingo Vase, after Gay (1971: Plate 23; Figure 4)

Figure 2. Princeton Plate, after Schele and Miller (1986:2O7, Plate 75)

Figure 3. Chalcatzingo Vase and Princeton Plate.

Chalcatzingo Vase with some parts labeled.

a. torch b. forehead ornament c. terrestrial symbol

d. sprouting maize e. maize/vegetation f. crossed bands


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g. horizontal pendants h. knot i. knuckleduster

j. 7 scallops k. floating circlet l. floating Y element

m. crossed bands with horizontal pendants.

Princeton Plate with some parts labeled.

a. torch b. T59 (Ti) glyph c1. 9 (terrestrial symbol)

c2. Caban glyph (terrestrial symbol) d. sprouting maize

e. maize ear f. Ix ('Jaguar') glyph

g. maize leaf/stingray spine h. T188 (Le) glyph

i. Bolon Mayel zoomorph j. Kin bowl

k. nose ornament/maize kernel l. T168 (Ahpo) glyph

m. dot from "bar & 4 dot" number 9 n. Quincunx o. Kan Cross

Figure4 Personified world trees, afterSchele 1986:119.

Figure 5 Quadripartite badge in House E at Palenque (after Robertson

1985:fig 89), compared with "leaf" on top glyph collocation on

Princeton Plate.

Figure 6. Maya "Sky" glyph, T561c.

Figure 7. Humboldt Celt with Kan Cross, Crossed Bands, knotted headdress,

and forehead ornament labeled.

Figure 8 Kaminaljuyu Stela 11, after Cortez 1986, Figure 75

Figure 9 Izapa Stela 4, after Cortez 1986, Figure 71.

Figure1O. Chalcatzingo Vase and Princeton Plate comparing triad of

bloodletting implements to elements on both vessels.

Figure 11. Disembodied heads of Chalcatzingo Vase and Princeton Plate with

major features labeled. a. forehead ornament b. incisor


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c. "heavenly" pedestal d. "shoe shaped" motif

e. back recurved fangs/emanations f. maize kernel g. maize

sprouts h. hair/cornsilk at back of head (n.b. 3 layers on CV)

Figure 12. Olmec celt of unknown provenience, after Covarrubias 1957,

fig. 33.Figure 13. GI of the Palenque Triad, profile (Palenque) and frontal (Copan,

Stela 1) views, after Schele 1986:48)

Figure14. Detail from Late Postclassic mural in Structure 44, Tancah,

Quintana Roo, After Sharer, Morley, et al. 1983, fig. 13.33.

Figure 15. Arroyo Pesquero Celt After Joralemon 1976; fig. 8f.

Figure 16. Dallas Plaque (from Guerrero) (courtesy Carolyn Tate)

(3 1/2 inches square, DMA 1968.33)

Figure 17. Dresden Codex page 34, top register

Figure18. Metropolitan Vase, GI on left with stone axe in hand. (after

Stone 1983, fig. 83). a. crossed bands element b. maize

ear c. shell earflare

Figure 19. Palenque Creation Tablet - detail (after Stone 1983, fig. 81)

a. crossed bands element b. maize ear c. shell earflare

Figure 2O. Dumbarton Oaks Relief Panel 2 - detail (after Stone 1983,

fig. 79) a. crossed bands element b. maize ear

c. shell earflare

Figure 21. Bolon Mayel 19a. example from the Early Classic in the Tikal

area, actual provenience unknown. 19b. example from

Palenque, Tablet of the Sun. a. variant of glyph for 2O


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b. ear of maize c. three-part ear plug assemblage d. nose

ornament e. 9 in bar and dots f. thumblike snout

Figure 22. Bolon Mayel components compared between Early Classic emblem andthe Princeton Plate. a. 9 in bar and dots

b. variant of glyph for 2O c. eye

d. nose ornament (or incisor) e. thumblike snout

f. maize ear g. emergent "sprouts"

maíz y sangre.docx

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