Maya lords and the Recreation of mythical episodes on sculptural programs intergraded in architecture

Abstract

The progressive incorporation of royal potraits into sculptural programs integrated in architecture shows that rulers frequently adopted certain behavioral characteristics related to the gods by reenacting mythical/cosmological events. This study focuses on the Balamkú frieze (Campeche) and the stucco reliefs of the Great Central Acropolis in El Mirador (Petén, Guatemala). Both monuments provide important information about the compositional strategies employed in such scenes. The results suggest that in the absence of texts, the use of a visual code with a high degree of symbolic expression and the proper construction of the image are capable of conveying messages with a strong ideological backgrounds that reflect to the social functions of the Maya rulers.