Bonampak, Lacandon Forest:
Expalanatory plaque (1)
Bonampak: Explanatory plaque (2)
Bonampak: Tree with machete markings
Bonampak: Stela 3
Bonampak was occupied from about 100AD but reached its zenith in the late 7th-8th centuries and then quickly declined. The stela represents the ruler Chan Muan II (776-792AD) about to sacrifice a prisoner.
Bonampak: Stela 2
This stela portrays Chaan Maun II preparing for a ritual bloodletting ceremony to communicate with deceased ancestors. He is assisted by his mother [on the right] and his wife, the sister of Shield Jaguar of Yaxchilan. His mother is handing him a sting-ray spine and a bowl of paper strips. The eyes of all three have been defaced. This was probably done in ancient times in order to ritually kill the power of the stela.
Bonampak: Terraced pyramid
and temple complex from grand Plaza, with the Temple of the frescoes to the right
Boat trip to Yaxchilan on the Usumacinta
The river is the frontier boundary between Mexico and Guatemala
Boat trip to Yaxchilan: Abby
Boat trip to Yaxchilan: lancha coxswain
Boat trip to Yaxchilan: thatched house
House and rainforest
bordering the Usumacinta
Wooden hut/house
Another thatched dwelling
Yaxchilan: ant trail on path to ruins
Yaxchilan: another ant trail
Yaxchilan: plan of site
Yaxchilan: Terrace and temple
with lintelled doorways
Yaxchilan: Lintel decoration
Dappled sunlight in the jungle
Yaxchilan: jungle walk (Monika and Nick)
Yaxchilan: jungle walk (Eric and Clare)
Vines and creepers
Approaching the Acropolis from the rear
Howler monkey reclining on a branch
Yaxchilan: Temple 33,
section of relief carving of ball game player. The ruler, Bird Jaguar IV, dressed as a ball-player, is depicted about to strike his captive enemy, Jewel Skull, tied up inside a gigantic bounding ball, up the sloping steps. He appears to be offering his captive to the sun itself (the gigantic ball) as it rises to illuminate his royal palace. The Lacandones make pilgramages to the ruins of Yaxchilan (they call them Chixokla) to perform rituals in the buildings thought to be homes of various Lacandon gods. At least since the turn of the century, Lacandon god pots and clay bowls have been found abandoned among the buildings at this site. The imposing Temple 33 is thought to be the home of Hachakyum, "Our True Lord", principal solar deity and creator of human beings.
Building 21, Explanatory plaque
Yaxchilan: Building 21, Stele 35
Lady Ik-Skull, who Schele and Freidel refer to as "Lady Eveningstar", wears the skeletal-serpent-and-monkey-skull headdress and holds a bloodletting bowl, from which visions appear to ascend. On the interior wall behind are the remains of a frieze portraying a serpent-monster and five cross-legged figures.
Building 40, Explanatory plaque
Yaxchilan: Building 40, Stele 11
This stele depicts the celebration of a Flapstaff ritual in 746 A.D., where Bird-Jaguar, the son on the right, takes over the reins of power from his father, Shield Jaguar on the left. The flapstaff, or double-headed serpent bar, was a symbol of rulership, akin to a sceptre, and is depicted standing between the two figures. Shield-Jaguar had already been dead for four years when this event occurred and the son used the event retrospectively to legitimize his claim to the throne. Hieroglyphic texts around the scene, and in the panel at the bottom, record the event and the figures, and their time and place in the calendar and the cosmos. On the upper left in the lower panel, the first glyph with the long cigar-like shape is the place name of the city of Yaxchilan. Due to the great wealth of hieroglyphic inscriptions on its monuments, the site has been crucial in the discovery of historical information about the Maya, as well as the decipherment of their writing system.
Yaxchilan: View of the Great Acropolis
from the Grand Plaza
Yaxchilan: The Great Acropolis
sta 1135
sta 1137
stb 1138
stc 1139
std 1140
ste 1141