ROYAL ONTARIO MAYAN EXHIBIT: STONE, CALENDARS & THE POLITICS OF BLOOD

From the Yucatan Peninsula to the tip of Belize, the great cities slept for centuries in the embrace of the jungle. Temples made with stairs so steep one is forced to bow one's head in contrition as you ascended to where the priests awaited; office building with narrow corridors and notched doorways where clerks calculated the wealth of their city states; giant stellae that depicted warriors and kings and gods that were born from the bowels of animals. This is the world of the Maya, as presented in a current exhibit at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto.

The exhibit features artifacts and displays from the classical period of the Maya, roughly from 250 to 900 BC (which is the politically correct way of saying AD). This was the Mayan culture at its apex, represented by a series of independent city states some of which, like Tikal in present day Guatemala, boasted a population of around 92,000. It was a period of high art and commerce, pyramid building, commerce and war

The ROM exhibit features some 250 artifacts principally from sites in Mexico and Belize. As always there are mundane objects such as incense burners and clay vessels but the art work on these pieces is stunning, not only in artistic style but for the rich and deep mythology that they depict.

The vessel lid above depicts a jaguar but for the Mayas this was much more than just an animal; the power of this animal was so respected that it was believed that the Sun god took on this animal form as he journeyed across the night sky. The lid shows the sun god being born out of the belly of the jaguar. This is a constant theme in Mayan mythology; men and gods coming out of the natural world, as if trying to harness that energy in the temporal world.

Above, this monkey is holding cacao pods, used of course to make chocolate. The Mayans cultivated chocolate, perhaps the greatest indication of their advanced civilization.

Probably today the Mayan are best known for two aspects: Sacrifice and their calendar. Although the Mayans did indeed sacrifice humans and not just for religious reasons. These city states (the Mayans were never unified under one ruler which may one reason for their collapse) were constantly at war with each other; hostages were taken and sometimes sacrificed not just for religious reasons but for political ones.

Below is a stella from the city of Tonina (Mexico) depicting the capture of the King of Palenque, another Mexican city. This action seemed to plunge Palenque into disarray but this king, K'inich, reappears in that city years later

Of course, the Mayans did not spill blood in only the name of war. They believed in giving blood to their gods for their prosperity, to encourage the growth of crops, for all the reasons ancient cultures made sacrifices to their gods. It was the blood that seemed important so that blood letting was more frequently practised than actual sacrifice. This practise is known as autosacrifice; people from all social strata would pierce their eyes, thighs, arms, tongues and penis (allow me a deep deep shudder here) using a device as pictured below; a stingray spine, this one covered with text

One thing I always love about museum exhibits is learning something new, even about topic with which I have some familiarity. Artifacts have been discovered that focuses on the role of women in the ruling structure of Mayan cities. It's true that the vast majority of Mayan rulers were men but some women did enjoy a very elevated status and considerable power in the Classical culture. Generally if women ruled it was during times of turmoil, if a king died without an heir for instance. This panel below depicts a woman wearing the jade jewelry and head dress of a ruler; it is from the city of El Cayo, which was subordinate to the state of Piedras Negras. Likely this woman was the wife of El Cayo's govenor but she would have enjoyed an equal amount of power

Before I end this post I want to address a part of the exhibit that addresses one of the aspects of Mayan culture that has recently fascinated so many people: Their calendars. The Mayans, often credited with inventing the numerical concept of "zero" created very advanced and detailed calendars.

Their calendars were comprised of two parts: The Calendar Round and the Long Count. The Calendar Round recorded two cycles: a 260 day cycle that noted ritually significant days and a 365 day cycle that denoted more day to day events. These cycles were combined to provide an interpretation of days and events that covered a 52 year long cycle. The Long Count calendar tracked these 52 year long cycles from the date of August 13 3114 BCE, the date on which the Mayans believed that the earth was created ... These people had to have an precise date for when the earth was created; can we say anal retentive?

Since the Mayan recorded the date of the Earth's creation did they, as many believe, predict a date for when it would end? The last of the long count cycles is interpreted as being December 23, 2012. Were they predicting the end of the world? A stella indicates that something would indeed happen on that day, one of the gods of the underworld would appear. But the stella is incomplete, parts of it have been worn away, and gods are routinely associated with specific dates in the Long Count.

Much is made that the calendar ends on that date. But glyphs have been discovered that project dates beyond December 2012, it is the calendar that ends. A calendar that predicts the future but was, of course, written far in our past. Written during the period that saw the collapse of the Mayan culture; a time when cities were being abandoned, religion was dissolving and rulers were fading from importance. It seems likely that the reason the calendar ends on that date is simply because the Mayans were giving up on predicting the future; their world was collapsing and they were moving away from the cities to begin a new chapter in their culture.

Below is a stella incised with the last Long Count date.

The Mayan empire (a loose term because there was never a really unified empire) dissolved but the people are not. Mayans are alive today in the Americas, their culture has changed but their genetic heritage remains. Collette and I experienced that heritage many years ago when we visited Belize. One of our guides was a very proud Mayan, very much alive and kicking. He showed us several of the ruins of the Mayan cities including Altan Ha, one of the cities featured in the ROM exhibit.

A note about this video: This is very old footage, shot with an S-VHS-C camcorder (yes Virginnia, once upon a time we recorded video on tapes) and it's a fine example how much video technology has improved; it ain't that great. Still, I wanted to show a bit about these remarkable ruins, many of them excavated by Canadian archeologists; from the temples of Altan Ha to the royal office structures of Cahal Pech.