Stone sculptures on old Cossack mounds - “Polovtsian stone women”. Ten most famous monuments of the ancient Mayan civilization Mayan stone sculptures

22.02.2022

The largest of the cities of pre-Columbian America, Teotihuacan, was located on the central plateau 40 km from Mexico City. The name of the city translates as “homeland of the gods.” It was believed that the Sun and Moon were born here. Teotihuacan became the standard for other Mayan and Aztec cities. It is still unknown who built this city, most likely the Aztecs. It is also unclear by whom and why Teotihuacan was destroyed and burned in the 7th century AD. Situated on an area of 21 sq. km, with a population of about 100,000 inhabitants, the city had a very rigid regular layout, oriented to the cardinal points. The streets in the city were straight, like an arrow, and intersected at right angles, for which it was even necessary to change the course of the river using a bypass canal. The central axis of the city was an absolutely straight street 40 meters wide and more than 2 km long, which was called the “Road of the Dead”. On its sides there were numerous temples and palaces.

The most important temples of Teotihuacan are the Pyramid of the Sun and the Pyramid of the Moon. The Pyramid of the Sun was once the most important temple of the city. Its height was originally 65 meters. This is a five-stage pyramid with a base of 667 x 685 meters, the total volume of which is about 1 million cubic meters of earth, stones and mud bricks. Unlike other Central American pyramids, it was built very quickly. At the very top of the pyramid there was a small temple, which, like the Greeks, was considered the dwelling of the deity. A steep staircase led to it, along which ritual processions ascended to perform the ritual of bloody human sacrifice. And a huge crowd watched the procession from below. At the northern end of the "Road of the Dead" was the six-step Pyramid of the Moon. It was slightly lower than the Pyramid of the Sun. Its height was 46 meters, the top was also crowned by a temple, to which wide staircases for processions led. The ancient Aztecs attached great ritual meaning to the very process of climbing the pyramid. The steps to the temple were considered steps to heaven. In the center of the city there was a whole complex of temple buildings of the already familiar shape of a stepped pyramid with famous temple- Pyramid of Quetzalcoatl.

Decorated with numerous relief images of the god - the Feathered Serpent with sparkling eyes made of obsidian, the pyramid makes an eerie impression even on a modern person, despite its relatively small height - only about 21 meters. Previously, the temple, like probably other temples, was plastered and painted with bright colors. great city The Aztecs died in the 7th century under the attacks of unknown invaders, and were completely plundered and burned. The capital of another Indian tribe - the Toltecs (perhaps it was they who destroyed Teotihuacan) - was the city of Tula. The Toltecs ruled Mexico from the 10th to the 12th centuries, after which their civilization also perished. The main deity in Tula was Quetzalcoatl. The image of this Feathered Serpent - a symbol of the Morning Star, which once left Mexico, is constantly found in the buildings of Tula: it wraps around the columns, looking gloomily and sternly at us from the reliefs. In Tula, the 40-meter Wall of Snakes has been preserved, which depicts terrible snakes swallowing human skeletons. Dedicated to Quetzalcoatl main temple of the city, on the top step of which stand stone giants - warriors with the sign of the Feathered Serpent on their chests, wearing feather headdresses, once frozen under the weight of the temple ceiling. They are 4.6 meters high and are a symbolic representation of Quetzalcoatl as the Morning Star. A gloomy impression is born from other similarly detached images on the reliefs of various buildings in Tula. At the foot of the temple, also worthy of attention is the “hall of columns” - a covered room for public meetings. And, of course, in Tula there were grounds for playing rubber balls, which was part of the Toltec religious ritual.

Similar buildings can be found in another Toltec center - the city of Chichen Itza, which until the 10th century was one of the most important centers of Mayan culture, and then it was captured by the Toltecs. The most famous building of Chichen Itza is the pyramid dedicated to Kukulcan, also known as Great Temple or "Castillo". On the edges of this nine-step pyramid, symbolizing the seasons, there are huge steep staircases, numbering 91 steps each. The steps of the stairs symbolize the calendar: seasons, months and days. The stairs are very precisely oriented to the cardinal points, which was of particular importance on astronomical holidays. On the days of the spring and autumn equinox, the rays of the sun illuminate the stone reliefs of the temple so much that it seems as if the Feathered Serpent comes to life, begins to wriggle and crawl out of its hiding place. Chichen Itza also had a ball court, the largest in all of Mexico. Its dimensions are 83 x 27 meters. It was closed on two sides by walls, and on two more sides by temples. It is possible that the object of the game was to hit the stone ring at the top of the wall with the ball. The game of ball was not just a sporting competition. Many archaeological discoveries indicate that it was clearly associated with human sacrifice. On the walls enclosing the site, beheaded people are depicted in relief. There are 3 platforms around the site: the Venus (Quetzalcoatl) platform with the tomb of Chac-Mool, the Eagle and Jaguar platform with the Jaguar Temple, and the Skulls platform. Huge statues of Chak Mool depict him reclining, with a sacrificial dish on his stomach. On the platform of the Skulls there were stakes on which the severed heads of the victims were strung.

Mayan sculpture

General information

If architecture gives us enough information about the structure of the society in which it originated and developed, then the plastic arts, especially sculpture, allow us to understand more clearly and penetrate more deeply into the various spheres of Mayan society. The plastic arts give us a series of reliable images through which a panorama of the life of that society is revealed.

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The civilizations of pre-Columbian America reached their peak among the Mayans, Incas and Aztecs. A number of generalities allow scientists to conclude that the heiress cultural tradition The Olmec became the Mayan civilization.

The cultural history of this people is usually divided into three periods. First period(from antiquity to 317) - the time of the emergence of city-states, primitive shifting agriculture, the production of cotton fabrics, etc. Second period(317-987) - the ancient kingdom, or classical period, - the time of the growth of cities (Palenque, Chichen Itza, Tulum) and at the same time the mysterious exodus of the population from them at the beginning of the 10th century. Third period(987-16th century) - a new kingdom, or postclassical period - the time of the arrival of European conquistadors, the adoption of new laws, styles in life and art, mixing of cultures, fratricidal wars, etc.

Around 300 BC V geographical area, covering part of modern Mexico, Guatemala, Belize and Honduras, the Mayan civilization began to form. In this territory, the Maya people built several majestic ritual centers, the ruins of which have survived to this day. These centers consisted of a few large buildings, and their population was small - mainly priests, their servants and artisans. Large religious holidays were held in the centers, to which large crowds of people flocked.

It formed the spiritual basis of Mayan culture, as in many ancient civilizations. In Mayan ideas, the world was a complex formation, filled with various sacred forces. Therefore, the pantheon of gods was very large. Dozens of gods are known, which, depending on their functions, are divided into groups: gods of fertility, water, hunting, fire, stars, death, war, etc. The main ones were the god of fruitful rain and deadly lightning with a head like a tapir, the god of the Sun and the night sky, the god of corn - the patron of life and death. All of them had a human appearance, thanks to which they can be easily recognized in hieroglyphic inscriptions.

The religious views of the Mayans were based on the connection between life and death, the eternal cycle of dying and rebirth. Therefore, all Mayan deities are dual and combine two opposite principles - life and death, love and hate, earth and sky. The Mayans depicted their main gods as a feathered snake: feathers are a symbol of the sky, the snake is a symbol of the earth. They believed that, depending on a person’s actions after death, the person’s soul remains either in a state of serene bliss or in eternal torment. Eternal bliss awaits those who deserve it, and sinners go to Metnal - the underworld, an eternally cold region inhabited by demons.

The religious rituals of the ancient Mayans were very complex, especially sacrifices of various types, among which the most common were human ones, since the gods were believed to feed only on human blood. Like the Volmec civilization, the Mayans sacrificed the most beautiful girls to the gods, receiving eternal happy life for this, and the best boys were winners in the ball game.

It was believed that each of the gods took turns ruling the world at certain intervals, such as a year or several years. By the time the reign of a certain god began, the Mayans displayed his statues in temples and squares, and they stood until his reign ended. The reign of the evil deity brought troubles and suffering to people, and the good one brought prosperity and prosperity. The Universe, according to Mayan beliefs, is complex: it was divided into 13 spaces, each of them was in charge of some god. The sky was supported by four deities, and each had its own color: red belonged to the god of the east, white to the god of the north, black to the god of the west, yellow to the god of the south; At the center of the universe was the color green. Thus, the Mayan number four had special magical knowledge. This probably explains the existence of four capital cities among the Mayans: Copan, Calakmul, Tikal, Palenque.

Mayan architecture

Architecture received its greatest development in the material culture of the Maya. There were two types architectural structures- residential buildings and monumental ceremonial buildings. Ordinary residential buildings were often built on platforms, had rectangular outlines, stone walls, peaked, thatched, gable roofs; A fireplace made of stones was built in the center of the house. The type of ceremonial buildings included pyramids, which served as the foundation of the temple, raising it as high as possible to the sky; Most often, temples were located on the tops of the pyramids. They were square in plan, had a cramped interior space (due to thick walls), were decorated with inscriptions, ornaments, and served as sanctuaries. An example of this type of architecture is the “Temple of the Inscriptions” in Palenque. Mayan buildings were built at certain intervals - 5, 20 and 50 years. Archaeological evidence suggests that the Mayans re-lined their pyramids every 52 years and erected steles (altars) every five years. The records on the altars reported on any events. Such a subordination of artistic culture to the calendar and time did not exist anywhere in the world.

Mayan sculpture and painting

Sculpture and painting harmoniously complemented Mayan architecture. Their images represent a panorama of the life of society. The main themes of the images are deities, rulers, and everyday life. Altars and steles were decorated with multi-figure compositions combining various sculptural genres. The Mayans used all sculptural genres - carving, bas-relief, high relief, round and modeled volume. The materials used were obsidian, flint, jade, shells, bone and wood. The Mayans also knew how to make religious objects from clay, covering them with painting. Many sculptures were painted. The sculptors paid great attention to facial expressions and clothing details.

The Mayan sculptural tradition is distinguished by realism, brilliance and energy. On steles and in temple reliefs, sculptural images of people are made both realistically and artificially motionless. A mandatory requirement for sculptural figures was an S-shaped spread: the feet and head of the figure were depicted in profile, and the torso and shoulders were depicted from the front. In ritual centers, sculptural monuments-steles were erected with hieroglyphic inscriptions relating to the ruler-priest, whose image was present on the monument, containing a description of some historical event or the pedigree of the person to whom the monument was dedicated. The date of death of this person or his rise to power was often indicated. The face itself was depicted wearing full ritual regalia, including ear and nose ornaments, bracelets, necklaces, a feathered headdress, and a ceremonial staff.

Mayan customs and traditions

Customs and traditions played a special role in the life of the Mayans, primarily associated with the birth of a child, the achievement of puberty, and marriage. The birth of a person was considered a manifestation of the favor of the gods, especially the moon goddess Ish-Chel. The priests gave the baby a child's name and drew up a horoscope for him, predicting which deity would patronize or harm the child throughout his life.

Strabismus was considered one of the main signs of beauty among the Mayans. To develop it, a rubber ball or small bead was attached to the child's hair and hung between the eyes. A wooden plank was tightly bandaged to the front of the baby's head so that the skull became flatter and the forehead line lengthened, which was considered a sign of beauty and high social status.

In the life of every representative of the Mayan people, the rite of puberty was important. The day for it was chosen especially carefully. On the appointed day, all participants in the celebration gathered in the courtyard of the patron's house. The priest performed a ritual of cleansing the home and expelled the evil spirit, the yard was swept and mats were spread on the ground. The ceremony ended with a feast and general drunkenness. After this, marriage was allowed. Fathers chose future wives for their sons, observing the ban on marriage between persons related by blood.

A special activity in Mayan culture was playing ball, which was of a religious and ceremonial nature. Preparation for the game was accompanied by a complex ritual, since it was believed that certain deities entered into the fight in the game.

The death of the Mayan civilization dates back to the 11th century. This historical fact is still a mystery, since a huge empire suddenly died for no apparent reason. At the same time, the cities remained untouched - without traces of destruction, as if their inhabitants had left for a short time and were soon going to return.

Art and architecture

Painting

The ancient Mayans left a wonderful legacy of art and architecture. And although painting was probably not the type of art in which they particularly succeeded, developing the thoughts expressed in the previous chapter, it deserves special mention. The Mayans used painting mainly in their books. “Paper” for them was made from fig tree bark, which was crushed, pounded and given the necessary density. Then they made long canvases from it, the width of which reached 8-12 inches. They were folded to make pages 3 or 4 inches wide, and these pages had designs on both sides. To make the surface smooth, the paper was covered with lime whitewash. The drawings in the surviving manuscripts were apparently made with a thin brush, the predominant colors being black and red, although green, yellow and brown are also found. In the Dresden Codex the quality of the drawings is excellent, but in other books they are not so carefully executed.

Examples of Mayan painting are found on pottery, stone works, and even jade jewelry. However most of paintings, apparently, were subjected to the destructive effects of the humid tropical climate of Central America and were not preserved. Therefore, the examples of wall paintings in Bonampak that have miraculously reached us are all the more valuable. They are located in three halls, discovered only in 1946. These rooms are located in a building which is forty-four feet long and nearly thirteen feet wide, its walls tapering upward to form a cone-shaped ceiling, located above the floor at a height of sixteen and a half feet. All the walls are covered with superb frescoes depicting vivid scenes from Mayan life, in particular those associated with military campaigns. They depict scenes of battles and the subsequent triumph of the victors, the torture of prisoners, dancing to music, council meetings and sharply contrasting scenes from home life. There is an opinion that the frescoes represent a kind of record about one of the victorious military campaigns or about the events of the reign of some warlike leader.

The frescoes in Bonampak are very colorful, the figures of people on them look realistic, and the level of artistic skill of the work as a whole is very high. They resemble the picturesque images on Egyptian tombs, but the figures of people on them are more natural, and the artistic images are less conventional. Possessing undoubted artistic merit, the drawings also provide the opportunity to glean a lot of valuable information about clothing, customs and other aspects of Mayan life.

The frescoes were painted directly on the plaster, which is approximately two inches thick. According to von Hagen, plasterers and artists worked together, with the artist applying designs to the plaster while it was still wet. “All three rooms were apparently booked out within 48 hours,” he wrote. The hieroglyphs accompanying the drawings have not yet been deciphered, but someday, perhaps, they will tell us about what is depicted on them.

Of all the paintings discovered to date, the painting at Bonampak is an example of the highest achievements of Mayan art, but there are others worthy of attention examples in many places, the earliest of which are in the city of Washaktun. It is likely that most Mayan sculpture, especially the numerous relief images, was originally painted.

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Maya will not leave anyone indifferent. While European countries were experiencing the Dark Ages, Indian culture developed and flourished. An exciting journey through the most famous cities and the sights and monuments of the ancient Mayans are unlikely to seem boring to anyone.

1. Chichen Itza

The ancient Mayan city of Chichen Itza in Mexico amazes with majestic and mesmerizing objects, this is one of largest cities highly developed ancient civilization. The most incredible architectural styles intertwined and merged here, testifying to the diversity of the population of this city. If you decide to go to Chichen Itza, be sure to visit the Sacred Cenote and Temple of the Warriors.

2. Tikal

Tikal in Guatemala is today considered the largest city of the ancient Mayans; about 3,000 very interesting objects have been discovered on its territory. Once in ancient Tikal, you will feel like you are in a completely different world, unfamiliar to you. Perhaps it is no coincidence that Mel Gibson chose this place to film his acclaimed film Apocalypse. Before you go to Tikal, be sure to take care of a map and compass; maps can be purchased right at the entrance. The most impressive sites of this amazing place are the ancient pyramids and the Temple of the Two-Headed Snake.

3. Cahal Pech

Cahal Pech is probably the most prominent ancient Mayan city territory of the small state of Belize. Cahal Pech is located in a very interesting place: the high hill on which the city is located looks directly at two large Belizean cities, Santa Elena and San Ignacio. The ruined Mayan city today contains just over thirty sites, but the nature and atmosphere of this two-acre site is worth seeing and feeling.

4. Altun Ha

Altun Ha is one of the most famous ancient Mayan cities. The diversity of flora and fauna here is simply amazing. This place, hidden in the depths of Belize, is quite difficult to reach, but what you see there will undoubtedly amaze you. Altun Ha is an area inhabited by 250 species of birds; huge crocodiles live there today in large pools built by the ancient Mayans - this is worthy of admiration. One of the most striking attractions of Altun Ha is the Jade Head. The head represents the most large object, carved by the Maya from this stone, and symbolizes one of the supreme Mayan deities, Kinich Ahua or the Sun God.

5. Palenque

Palenque is a place that is definitely worth visiting when in Mexico. Hidden in the dense wild jungle is an ancient city, striking with its bizarre architecture and mass of evidence of a rich and interesting story Mayan Indians. Palenque will not leave anyone indifferent, its unique location in the middle of the jungle and the fact that only 10% of it has been discovered so far ancient city, will undoubtedly arouse the interest of history and travel lovers. However, despite the fact that scientists still have a lot to discover here, this amazing place It is definitely worth looking at the ancient buildings that are already accessible to our eyes, for example, the tomb of the Supreme Leader Pakal, the Temple of the Foliated Cross or the Temple of the Inscriptions.

6. Kabakh or Kaba

This Mexican monument to the ancient Mayan civilization is definitely not impressive in size, but it is there that you can see one of the most stunning palaces built by the ancient Mayans. In addition to the clearly visible influence of the Puuc architectural style, the distinctive feature of this place is its unique decoration - the vaults and surfaces of the walls are simply dotted with numerous images and masks of the Mayan rain god Chak. The Palace of Masks is another building that is striking in its originality, reflecting the high level of development of the ancient Mayan civilization.

7. Uxmal

A few miles from Caba is Uxmal, another ancient Mayan site, where the unique architectural Puuc is on display in all its glory. It is noteworthy that Kaba and Uxmal are directly connected by a road along which ritual processions walked. These roads were called sakba. Puuc architecture is a true embodiment high level development and unique artistic style ancient Mayan culture.

8. Lubaantun

Lubaantun or the Place of Fallen Stones is another place in Belize that is worth visiting while traveling through Central America. The intricate architecture of this ancient ceremonial center is strikingly different from other ancient Mayan sites in Belize. An inquisitive traveler will be interested in many things here, but the ancient pyramids deserve special attention. Unfortunately, their peaks have been seriously damaged by time and this moment almost destroyed, but the true secret of the pyramids lies in the uniqueness of their design. The pyramids are made of stones that simply lie on top of each other, but at the same time retain the shape of the structure and do not crumble, but in the construction of the Mayans they did not use cement mortar or any other fastening material.

9. Shunantunich

This historical landmark of Belize is famous for the interesting history associated with it. It is said to be home to the Stone Woman, a white-robed apparition with eyes like flames. Most often, this woman appears at the main building of Xunantunich, the infamous El Castillo, then, following up the steps, she disappears behind the walls ancient building. In addition to the mystical appearance of a mysterious ghost, everyone can enjoy unforgettable views of the Mopan River or, as it is commonly called in Belize, Rio Mopan.

10. Karakol

The ancient Mayan city of Caracol in the wild jungles of Belize was discovered relatively recently, more precisely in 1938. However, at the moment he is the most big city Maya in Belize, where you can get acquainted not only with mysterious architectural structures, but also with a rich collection of unique works of art of that era. Archaeologists definitely have a lot more to do in Karakol interesting discoveries, but now we have the opportunity to see there the largest tomb built by the Mayans. It was built only for one “inhabitant”, a certain woman. While in Caracol, be sure to visit Kaana, one of the most exquisite and interesting architectural complexes in the southern regions of the ancient Mayan empire.