Maya art and architecture were the centerpieces of the large verdant plazas sited at the center of their cities. The plazas were surrounded by prominent government buildings, palaces, temples, and universities. These architectural masterpieces were the palette on which Maya architects applied their most sophisticated style and complexity of design.
The most dramatic and easily recognized structure produced by the talents of Maya architecture was the Classic Period pyramid. The design of these towering structures relied on intricately worked sculptural stonework to create an upward stepping profile for the monolith. The top of the pyramids featured a platform supporting a vaulted temple structure. The temple was crowned by an elaborate roof comb soaring above the temple structure. The open latticework of the roof comb served as an armature that supported decorative figures and sound and light devices. The festooned roof comb included sculptural figures, reflecting mirrors, and wind chimes. The concept of a finely sculpted pyramid, with its dazzling roof comb towering high above the plaza, was intended to develop a sense of wonder in the eyes of the populace and enhance the power of the city-state.
The Sophistication of Maya Sculpture
The skilled stone-cutters and sculptors of the Maya construction industry worked as close-knit teams to create the unique artistic and architectural stonework that became the signatures of Maya cities. Talented sculptors were responsible for creating the complex architectural details that configured the structure of the buildings as well as the artful applications of regional style that adorned the facades of Maya structures. The intricate sophistication and detail of sculptural and carved stonework required hardened tools of varied size and geometry that met the high criteria for carving meticulous artwork.
Maya skill at sculptural art was unrivaled; experts in the world of art and architecture agree that the Maya mastered all the sculptural procedures and techniques that are accomplished by modern sculptors as well as the Old World artists. Artisans exhibited an extraordinary degree of sophistication in realism when representing the human figure. Three-dimensional facades of figures sculpted with poise and anatomically correct proportions became popular in the late Classic Period. Artistic expression in these works of art may represent supernatural figures participating in complex sequences in which they interact with human figures. The sculptures celebrated naturalistic styles.
Whereas their uncanny skill in realistic art was used for major works, bas-relief or low relief techniques were popular with Maya sculptors. Bas-relief is a sculptural technique wherein symbols or figures are raised above a flat background surface to give a three-dimensional effect to the work. Recessed relief, another carving technique, was used to provide a three-dimensional sculptural effect with the carved details recessed below the plane of the surface. In addition, a technique similar to intaglio was used. This technique creates an incised carving where images and symbology is finely engraved below the surface matrix of the stone.
Individual genius was encouraged and was clearly reflected in the artist’s work. Sculptors were permitted to sign their finished work. The high social standing of leading artists is made clear from their titles included in the signatures. Their titles show that they were members of the nobility. It is apparent that there was a lively industry in sculptural studios and stone workshops. The production of art and architecture components developed as a major industry and became a major part of the broad range of Maya commerce.
Based on artistic and technical analysis, it is apparent that the complex and sophisticated Maya sculptural repertoire required specialized tools. These tools would be fabricated from a hard material shaped for specific carving tasks. Maya sculptors used tools with functional shapes that varied with the level of sculptural detail and finesse of the carving to be accomplished. For delicate dressing of stonework and for final shaping of a sculptural work, chisels of various sizes were used. These specialized chisels were used in conjunction with drills, awls, gouges, and mallets to execute a fine work. Archaeologists suggest that this complex sculptural work was done with chert and wood tools; however, art experts agree that this sophisticated artwork could only have been accomplished with specialized tools fabricated from a hardened material.
Carving Stone in the Stone Age
During the 170 years since the rediscovery of the lost civilization by John Lloyd Stephens and Frederick Catherwood, erudite scholars, accomplished sculptors, recognized art experts, and Mayanist archaeologists have closely studied the art and architecture bequeathed to the world by the ancient Maya. Experts have admired the sophisticated style and exotic mastery of the skilled and concise stone carving of their art and the intricate artistry of architectural detailing. Sophisticated and advanced as the Maya art and architecture have appeared, archaeologists have taken their artistic achievements for granted and ignored the obvious application of advanced technical methodology and specialized tools that were employed by Maya stone cutters and artisans to create the unparalleled works displayed on Maya monuments.
As discussed in Chapter 4, archaeologists have classified the Maya as a Stone Age culture. With this archaic mindset, the archaeological discipline has taken for granted the world-class art mastery and sculptural techniques used to create the monuments and monumental structures. They have not properly investigated the technology that fabricated the tools required to execute these fine art works. Because evidence of metal tools has not been detected in situ, archaeologists have assumed that Maya sculptural art was executed with rudimentary tools. Archaeological textbooks and lectures declare that the finely executed art and architecture of the Maya were executed with Neolithic tools.
On the other hand, experts in the fields of sculpture, art history, and architecture have closely studied the artistic works of the Maya. They consider it incomprehensible that these magnificent cities, towering architectural wonders, and sculpted monuments could have been executed with primitive tools. Their opinion is that the works of art created by Maya stone-cutters and artisans rival the finest art of Old World civilization and the notion of using Stone Age tools is an archaeological fairy tale. They opine that the monumental works of Maya artisans exhibit a special talent and artistic technology that is impossible to replicate without the use of specialized, high-strength tools, including chisels, drills, files, and gouges.
Archaeological textbooks barely mention the existence of Maya tools. However, when tools are referenced in textbooks, they describe Maya tools as flaked stone implements of chert, but the descriptive drawings on many of the same pages show smoothly shaped tools that are obviously fabricated of jadeite. Many of these books were published before 1950 when, as we shall see later in this chapter, geologists and archaeologists did not believe that sources of jadeite were located in the Americas. They believed that jadeite found in pre-Columbian sites was imported from the Orient. Therefore, an archaeologist would be up the archaeological creek without a paddle if he postulated that Maya tools were made from a material that was not native to the Americas. He would be criticized by the academic world even if he was right.
The Geology of the Maya World
The geological nature of the Maya zone ranges from a stable deep platform of karstic limestone beneath the Yucatán Peninsula, to an active volcanic belt stretching along the Pacific Coast, to kinetic and subduction movement between adjacent tectonic plates extending in an east-west direction across the landmass of Guatemala. The raw materials produced from these diverse geologic features were exploited by Maya engineers, and their unique characteristics benefited the development of their technology.
The porous limestone shelf that comprises the majority of the 125,000-square-mile area of the region had a negative factor on the environment; the porosity of the matrix quickly absorbed storm water, which deprived the region of surface water. On the positive side, limestone also provided an unlimited supply of raw materials for construction of the cities. Maya engineers exploited the unique products of volcanic and tectonic activities to develop and fabr
icate tools that built the Maya civilization.
Obsidian: Blades Sharper Than Steel
The arc of active volcanoes extending along the Pacific Coast produces lava flows containing a blend of minerals, including obsidian, a naturally occurring glass formed as an extrusive igneous rock. This rock is produced when felsic lava is extruded from a volcano and cools without crystalline growth. Obsidian is classified as a mineraloid because of its lack of a crystal structure. The presence of impurities, including iron and magnesium, in the matrix of obsidian give the material a dark green to brown and black color. Obsidian is harder than iron, with a hardness of 5.0 to 5.5 on the Mohs scale of mineral hardness, whereas iron has a relative hardness of 4.0 to 5.0 on the same scale. The source of the material is found in the volcanic highlands of Guatemala and is collected several ways: mined at source sites, recovered as nodules from riverbeds, or taken from fractured lava outcroppings. Obsidian became a valuable commodity, and trading flourished during the late Classic Period. The unprocessed material was transported overland and by trading vessels plying jungle rivers and the Caribbean to overseas markets.
Maya technicians recognized the valuable and practical physical characteristics of obsidian, including its ability to be fractured to produce ultra-sharp blades for tools and its capacity to be knapped to make decorative objects. Obsidian tools were applied to technical and utilitarian tasks that required a keen cutting edge. Its hardness and prismatic workability enabled Maya creativity to produce fine carving blades, knives, lances, projectile points, and other bi-facial tools. In addition, the attraction and luminosity of obsidian colors enabled craftsmen to fabricate luxury artifacts including labrets, pendants, figurines, ear spools, mirrors, and vases. Hafted obsidian tools with keen cutting edges were used for carving artwork, medical procedures, food preparation, agriculture, hunting, and multiple industrial applications.
The mining, transportation, fabrication, and distribution of obsidian products developed into a prosperous industry that contributed to the wealth of Maya city-states. The tools and artifacts shaped from obsidian offered numerous technical, ritual, and domestic applications, creating a broad market among the Maya and their trading partners. The plentiful products crossed all social-economic lines, and obsidian tools found their way into Maya homes, both elite and commoners. Obsidian technology was inexpensive, while requiring only the raw material and the skill of a knapper; it required a minimum of steps to fabricate an ultra-sharp tool. Obsidian was actually an economic alternative to the expensive and intensive labor enterprise of processing metal ore for tools.
Maya technicians unknowingly produced the world’s sharpest blades from obsidian. The cutting edge of a well-crafted obsidian blade is much sharper than blades of modern, high-quality steel. The edges of obsidian blade approach molecular thickness with an edge honed to only 3 nanometers wide. When viewed through a microscope a steel blade has an irregular, jagged edge, an obsidian blade has a smooth, regular edge. The advanced cutting tools used by Maya technology have been adopted by modern surgical medicine. The unique cutting capabilities of obsidian blades are prized in surgical techniques where extremely fine cutting action is required or for scientific studies where trace metals from standard steel scalpels cannot be tolerated. Obsidian scalpels are so fine that they are preferred to steel scalpels in human surgical procedures where scar tissue might result from a coarse blade. Furthermore, healing time is reduced because of the finer incision by the use of obsidian. Plastic surgeons, cardiothoracic surgeons, and eye surgeons use scalpels and surgical knives made from obsidian. Obsidian blades can be 100 times sharper than traditional steel scalpels. The techniques for fabricating the modern obsidian blades use the same techniques developed by Maya technicians; a skilled knapper fabricates the scalpel blades using ancient techniques.
Jadeite: Tools Harder Than Iron
The Maya zone is divided into two tectonic plates: the North American and the Caribbean. These plates are part of the mosaic of interlocking crustal plates that constitute the earth’s surface crust. The edges of adjacent plates form a boundary or fault line. The Maya fault line constitutes a subduction zone that extends in an east-west direction through the Montagua Valley in present-day Guatemala. Jadeite is formed under high pressure and relatively low temperatures in metamorphic rocks located up to 15 miles deep in subduction zones. Jade is the generic term describing two distinct minerals: nephrite and jadeite. Though the two are visually similar, they have different mineral characteristics. Nephrite and jadeite are both white in their pure state with colors caused by inclusions of other minerals. Jadeite has a more brilliant range of colors, and it is the more precious of the two.
Jadeite is a pyroxene mineral found in quantity in only two locations throughout the world: the Union of Myanmar and Guatemala. Maya technicians recognized the physical properties of this mineral; long used as a gemstone, jadeite has proved to be harder than iron and its tough structure is difficult to fracture. It has the capability to be shaped into specialized tools for a variety of technical applications.
The popular green jadeite is sodium aluminum silicate of relatively great purity. It is a member of the pyroxene family of minerals (Na Ai Si2 O6). Black jadeite or chloromelonite, an iron rich black isomorph, is produced by a minor substitution of silicone (Si) by aluminum (Ai) as well as limited replacement of the aluminum (Al) by iron (Fe+3). Black jadeite has unique physical properties. On the Mohs Scale of mineral hardness, iron has a hardness of 4.5 to 5, jadeite has a hardness of 6.5 to 7.0, and diamond has the hardness of 10.0.
More important is jadeite’s toughness or resistance to breakage. The mineral has an equigranular intergrowth of prismatic crystals, which are 10 times more resistant to fracture than quartz. Because of its hardness and toughness jadeite required considerably more skill for shaping and artistic elaboration than other gemstones. For thousands of years, this hard and tough material had been worked and shaped by Mesoamerican artisans including the Olmec into beautiful jewelry, figures, masks, and other prestige goods, and the skills continued with the lapidary skills of Maya artisans.
Large quantities of jadeite in a rainbow of colors have been mined in Guatemala since the Olmec era, and it has been the source of all jadeite used and traded by Mesoamericans for 3,000 years. Quality jadeite was cut and polished by Olmec and Maya artisans to create finely carved jewelry and other exquisite valuables. The Olmec preferred the jadeite color known as Olmec Blue, whereas the Maya preferred the brighter green color of jadeite. The green color was associated with life, fertility, and power. The association of green jadeite with Maya elite indicated that they valued jadeite above all other materials, even gold. Maya elite and royalty possessed a wide range of green jadeite prestige goods including jadeite suits, rings, and necklaces. The living elite were adorned with jadeite ear spools, necklaces, pendants, and teeth inlaid with the gemstone. On the other hand, they considered jadeite in colors other then green to be of little value. Black jadeite, while possessing all the strong physical characteristics of green jadeite, was considered to be of little value. Therefore, by default, black jadeite became the preferred material for tool-making.
Maya artisans created finely carved jewelry and other exquisite jadeite valuables from green jadeite. Maya technicians made the transition of converting lapidary skills into techniques for shaping black jadeite into specialized tools for sculpture, construction, architectural details, woodworking, agriculture, and myriad other disciplines. It was a logical transfer of lapidary skills to create the industry for manufacture of a variety of specialized tools. Maya technicians took advantage of the characteristics of the tough material and combined their lapidary skills to produce tools for executing a variety of practical tasks.
Thousands of examples of specialized tools have been recovered in situ. These tools were not the province of the elite and were not included in the personal possessions or votive deposits that were placed in the tombs of the elite. Archaeologists have not discovered this blac
k jadeite artifacts in situ within the tombs of elite persons. The jadeite tools were, however, invaluable assets belonging to Maya artisans. The implements were passed down from father to son within families practicing the artistic and stoneworking trades.
During the Classic Period jadeite mining, transport, trading, and lapidary skills were big business, and demand for jadeite products was extensive. The jadeite industry that had flourished for 3,000 years fell from grace when the Maya civilization degraded in the 10th century. With the collapse of the civilization and the abandonment of the cities, construction, sculpture, and the lapidary industries ceased, and the demand for jadeite and its products was extinguished.
There is evidence that jadeite jewelry production had terminated with the Classic Period. Jadeite was not being mined and products were not produced during the Post-Classic Period. Jadeite artifacts excavated from Post-Classic sites were heirloom treasures apparently inherited from the Classic Period. As time passed the memories of the sources of jadeite, already a secret, as well as the lapidary skills of Maya artisans, disappeared into the mists of time. The location of jadeite mines was lost to the collective memory in Mesoamerica and the world from the Classic Period until the mid-20th century. The Spanish conquistadors, questing for gold, had little use for jadeite, dismissing the treasured stone as just green rocks. However, the name of this gemstone can be attributed to the Spanish. The name jade is derived from the Spanish piedra de ijada, meaning “loin stone.” Jadeite had been long recognized by the Maya as a cure for kidney ailments and the remedy was adopted by the Spanish. The word was absorbed into English as “jade.”
The Lost Secrets of Maya Technology Page 10
