YAXCHILÁNElite women played an important role in Maya
society, and some surviving artworks document their high status. The
painted reliefs on the lintels of temple 23 at Yaxchilán represent a
woman as a central figure in Maya ritual. Lintel 24 (FIG. 14-1) depicts
the ruler Itzamna Balam II (r. 681–742 CE), known as Shield Jaguar,
and his principal wife, Lady Xoc. Lady Xoc is magnificently outfitted
in an elaborate woven garment, headdress, and jewels. She pierces her
tongue with a barbed cord in a bloodletting ceremony that, according
to accompanying inscriptions, celebrated the birth of a son to one of
the ruler’s other wives as well as an alignment between the planets Sat-
urn and Jupiter. The celebration must have been held in a dark cham-
ber or at night because Shield Jaguar provides illumination with a
blazing torch. The purpose of these ceremonies was to produce hallu-
cinations. (Lintel 25 depicts Lady Xoc and her vision of an ancestor
emerging from the mouth of a serpent.)Classic Veracruz
Although the Maya is the most famous Classic Mesoamerican cul-
ture today and its remains are the most abundant, other cultures also
flourished, and some of their surviving monuments rival those of
the Maya in size and sophistication. In the Veracruz plain, for exam-
ple, the heir to the Olmec culture was a civilization that archaeolo-
gists call Classic Veracruz. The name of the people that occupied the
area at the time is unknown.Mesoamerica 37514-12Presentation of captives to Lord Chan Muwan, Maya, room 2 of structure 1, Bonampak, Mexico, ca. 790 CE. Mural, 17 15 ; watercolor
copy by Antonio Tejeda. Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University, Cambridge.
The figures in this mural—a cross between fresco and tempera—may be standing on a pyramid’s steps. At the top, the richly attired Chan Muwan
reviews naked captives with mutilated hands awaiting their death.
1 ft.