On view
Lakamtuun (stela, literally “big stone”),
300–500 CE
More Context
Didactics
Stone slabs like this sculpture, known as stelae (sing., stela) among scholars and as lakamtuun, or "banner stones," among the ancient Maya, were erected to commemorate periods of time and the kings who ruled the city-states where they stood. This miniature stela (such monuments typically stand over six feet tall) masterfully integrates a variety of carving techniques, including flat relief, drilled indentations, three-dimensional modeling, and thin, calligraphic incisions. The relief presents a young prince who is performing his first bloodletting rite. His pose, with one foot in front of the other, is typical of early (before A.D. 550) stela compositions. He wears a deity mask, stressing his semi-divine kingly status and indicating that he impersonated this particular deity (Chahk, the rain god) on the ceremonial occasion commemorated by the stela. The large serpent winding its way around the upper edge of the composition symbolizes a conduit between the ruler and the supernatural realm established through his penitent act. From the gaping maw emerges the head of an ancestor. Four small deities cling to the serpent's body, adding a strong sense of animacy and supernatural potency. In front of the prince, three humans, or rather the upper halves of humans tumble downward with swirling blood emanating from their severed mid-sections. These figures seem to associate the penance performed by the young prince with the sacrifice of ancestral dynastic lineage founders. The hieroglyphic text opens with the date of the rite, correlated to A.D. 197, followed by "it was the first harvest/penance of holy substance [by] Chak [animal head], [an undeciphered title], Holy Lord of [an undeciphered place]." The remainder of the text, along the bottom edge of the relief, is much more difficult to read, but includes reference to this king's accession fifty-two days after the bloodletting event. Curiously, details of paleography and style strongly suggest this monument was carved significantly later that the inscribed dates. As such, it seems this monument was commissioned by a successor to the local throne, who sought to elaborate (or embellish) dynastic history.
More About This Object
Information
300–500 CE
North America, Belize, Guatemala, or Mexico, Maya area
Late 1960s, Edward H. Merrin (1928-2020), New York [1]. 1999, gift of John H. Hauberg (1916-2002) Class of 1939, Seattle, WA, to the Princeton University Art Museum.
Notes:
[1] According to a May 26, 2000 conversation with John Hauberg. Justin Kerr also photographed this piece in late 1960s.
- Elizabeth Easby and John Scott, Before Cortes: Sculpture of Middle America (New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1970)., p. 214
- Linda Schele, Maya Glyphs: The Verbs (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1982), p. 86
- Linda Schele and Mary E. Miller, The Blood of Kings: Dynasty and Ritual in Maya Art (New York and Fort Worth, George Braziller, Inc. and Kimbell Art Museum, 1986)., pl. 52, 153, 168 (illus.)
- David Stuart, "Blood Symbolism in Maya Iconography," in Maya Iconography, eds. Elizabeth P. Benson and Gillett G. Griffin (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1988): 175-221., fig. 5.48 (illus.)
- Linda Schele, "The Hauberg Stela: Bloodletting and the Mythos of Classic Maya Rulership," in Fifth Palenque Round Table, 1983, ed. Merle Greene Robertson (San Francisco: Pre-Columbian Art Research Institute, Fifth Palenque Round Table, vol. VII, 1985).
- Linda Schele and David Freidel, A Forest of Kings: The Untold Story of the Ancient Maya (New York: William Morrow, 1990)., fig. 2.13, 88 (illus.)
- Linda Schele, Peter Mathews, and Floyd Lounsbury, Redating the Hauberg Stela (Texas Notes on Precolumbian Art, Writing, and Culture, 1990)., no. 1
- Michael D. Coe and Justin Kerr, The Art of the Maya Scribe (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1997)., fig. 68, p. 103 (illus. detail)
- Jill Guthrie, ed., In celebration: works of art from the Collections of Princeton Alumni and Friends of The Art Museum, Princeton University, (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Art Museum, 1997)., cat. no. 65
- Flora Clancy, Sculpture in the Ancient Maya Plaza: The Early Classic Period (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1999)., p. 56–58 (illus.)
- Stephen D. Houston, "Into the Minds of Ancients: Advances in Maya Glyphs Studies", Journal of world prehistory 14, no. 2 (2000)., p. 121–201
- "Acquisitions of the Art Museum 1999," Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University 59, no. 1/2 (2000): p. 70-101., p. 96
- Allen Rosenbaum, "'Gillett and Me': How a Eurocentric Museum Director Learned to Love Pre-Columbian Art," Record of the Princeton University Art Museum 64 (2005): 8-19., fig. 11, p. 16
- Virginia M. Fields and Dorie Reents-Budet, with contributions by Ricardo Agurcia Fasquelle et al., Lords of Creation: The Origins of Sacred Maya Kingship (London: Scala; Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2005)., cat. no. 56, 157 (illus.)
- Stephen D. Houston, David Stuart, and Karl Taube, The Memory of Bones: Body, Being, and Experience among the Classic Maya (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2006)., fig. 1.53, pp. 49–50; fig. 7.2, p. 229
- Princeton University Art Museum: Handbook of the Collection (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2007), p. 263 (illus.)
- Ana García Barrios, "Chaahk, el Dios de la Lluvia, en el Periodo Clásico Maya: Aspectos Religiosos y Políticos" (PhD diss. unpublished, Universidad Compultense de Madrid, 2008)., fig. 1.79b (illus.)
- Princeton University Art Museum: Handbook of the Collections (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Art Museum, 2013), p. 315
-
Houston, Stephen D. Houston, The Gifted Passage: Young Men in Classic Maya Art and Text (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2018)
, frontispiece; p. 4, fig. 3 -
Nicholas Carter, Stephen D. Houston, and Franco D Rossi, eds. The Adorned Body: Mapping Ancient Maya Dress, (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2020)
, Figs. 2.8b, 11.10 (illus.)
-
Before Cortés: Sculpture of Middle America (September 30, 1970 - January 3, 1971)
-
The Blood of Kings: Dynasty and Ritual in Maya Art (May 17 - December 14, 1986)
-
In Celebration: Works of Art from the Collections of Princeton Alumni and Friends of the Art Museum (Saturday, February 22, 1997 - Sunday, June 08, 1997)
-
Unexpected Journey: Gillett G. Griffin and the Art of the Ancient Americas at Princeton (May 7–June 26, 2005)
-
An Educated Eye: The Princeton University Art Museum Collection (Friday, February 22, 2008 - Sunday, June 15, 2008)
