Maya Warfare

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    HOME ANCIENT GUATEMALA GUA TE MA LA 'S MA YA SITE S MAY A CULTURE NATURE P RE SE NT DAY GUATEMALA

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    Maya WarfareMaya Warfare

    Archaeologists for a long time believed the ancient Maya to be gentle and peaceful people.

    We now know that Maya warfare was intense, chronic, and irresolvable, because

    limitations of food supply and transportation made it impossible for any Maya kingdom to

    unite the whole region in an empire. The archaeological record shows that wars became

    more intense and frequent toward the time of the Classic collapse. That evidence comes

    from discoveries of several types since the Second World War: Archaeological excavations

    of massive fortifications surrounding many Maya sites; vivid depictions of warfare and

    captives on stone monuments and on the ceramics and murals; and the decipherment of

    Maya writing, much of which proved to consist of royal inscriptions boasting of conquests.

    Maya kings fought to capture and torture one another.

    Warlord,Cotzumalguapa,

    in the Pacific

    Lowlands.

    Highland Guatemala ,mold made figure of a

    warrior with shield. He

    also wears a back rack

    made of feathers similar

    to the costume on an Ilk

    site vase.

    Yaxh,Lateclassic,

    Bronze Axe Head.

    Maya warfare involved well-documented types of violence: wars among separate kingdoms;

    Guatemala's Maya

    Sites

    Petn Lowlands Highlands

    Pacific Lowlands

    Maya Caves

    Maya Culture

    Maya Mythology Maya Astronomy Maya Cosmology

    Maya Calendar Maya Mathematics

    Maya Writing Maya Architecture

    Maya Ball Game

    http://www.authenticmaya.com/ancient_guatemala.htmhttp://www.authenticmaya.com/index.htm
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    attempts of cities within a kingdom to secede by revolting against the capital; and civil wars

    resulting from frequent violent attempts by would-be kings to usurp the throne. The

    affiliation of several cities changed with time, being the Naachtn case the most dramatic,

    the city's geographic location, between Tikal and Calakmul, served even for "Peace

    Talking" between these Classic "superpowers", All of these events were described or

    depicted on monuments, because they involved kings and nobles. Not considered worthy of

    description, but probably even more frequent, were fights between commoners over land, as

    overpopulation became excessive and land became scarce. The god Bolon Yookte' K'uh is

    associated with War and Xibalb, and is the one that will descend on the end of this 5Th.

    Maya Era, (Dec 21, 2012), he is depicted in the 7 and 11 gods Vases from Naranjo. Fordescription of the wars in the Petexbatn area. See Maya Collapse.

    A council of gods aiding in the setting of the jaguar throne. Here the main

    actor is God L, the commerce and trade god, while the Jaguar Paddler, who is

    named in the Quirigu Stela C, (see Cosmology for description of it's text),

    sits at the head of the upper row of god, this vase along with the eleven gods

    mention the war associated god Bolon Yookte' K'uh. The

    text narrates that on 4 Ahaw 8 Kumku it was set in

    order, Black-is-its- Center, (Chan Ahaw Waxak Kumku tzakhi Ek-

    u-Tan). The name of the location, Ek-u- Tan, refers to the state of the

    pre-creation universe as black because the sky had not yet been lifted

    away from the Primordial Sea or Xibalb.

    A "star war" is a full-scale war planned in accordance with specific astronomical events,

    usually the first appearance in the morning sky of the planet Venus. The heliacal rising of

    the brilliant "star" in the pre-dawn sky was considered by the Maya as a highly evil portent.

    As such it was an appropriate herald of warfare, at least on the part of the

    attacker. (Schelle). Nu-Balam-Chak, the "Watery Jaguar", with his head

    attached, is the image hovering over King Hasaw-Chan-K'awil on one of his

    lintels at Tikal. Two of the jaguarian divinities intimately associated with Maya

    warfare of the Classic period, Kin Balam "Jaguar Sun", and Nu-Balam-Chak,

    "Watery Jaguar", made their appearance in the Late Preclassic period. At the

    enormous Late Preclassic community of El Mirador in Petn, Guatemala, walls enclosed

    strategic sectors of the ceremonial center, so there is some evidence to suggest that war

    aimed at the attack of ceremonial centers concerned some lords in the Preclassic. However,these defensive works are still a rarity in early Maya centers. Indeed, fortifications do not

    become a commonplace until the Terminal Classic period, nearly a thousand years later.

    Pa' Chan (Probably YaxchilnorEl Zotz) Lord, Son of a

    Calakmul Lord, captured by

    Hasaw Chan K'awil in 695 AD.Bone atTikalmuseum

    Warfare seems to have played a part in the ultimate downfall of El Mirador (The Kan

    Kingdom), as a large wall surrounding the western portion of the site appears to have been

    built in the Early Classic. One of the only documented battlefields of the ancient Maya

    world was found atop the Tigre pyramid where dozens of green obsidian spear points were

    found scattered atop debris indicating that the battle occurred after the pyramid had

    already fallen into disrepair. This suggests that the forces of Siyah Kahk of Tikal

    Maya Art

    Maya Medicine Maya Jade

    Maya Chocolate Maya Warfare Maya Obsidian

    MayaCivilization-Collapse

    Maya Trade andEconomy

    Nature

    Guatemala's Nature Guatemala's

    Landscape

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    overran this area likely some time in the late fourth century AD.

    El Mirador has been only partly mapped, but the scale of its central public architecture is

    vast beyond anything undertaken by Hasaw- Chan-K'awil of Tikal or his contemporaries

    during the Classic apogee of the Maya civilization, although it has defensive walls that were

    made in a rushed manner, indicating that during the Preclassic, they too had their share of

    conflict. There are numerous other very large Preclassic centers in north central Petn,

    some of which are fairly close to El Mirador. While these are impressive concentrations of

    temples and plazas, they are dwarfed by El Mirador and probably were subordinate to that

    center. To put it simply, the settlement patterns around El Mirador are

    beginning to take on the appearance of large satellite communities near a

    dominant capitol, at least in Late Preclassic times. But if El

    Mirador indeed constituted some sort of primordial hegemonic

    state, it was the extraordinary exception and not the rule in

    early Maya civilization. In later Classic Maya history, it might have served as

    the half remembered glorious precedent for the imperial ambitions of Tikal,

    Dos Pilas, Naranjo and other Petn cities; but it did not divert Maya society from its

    principal political form, the relatively small polity ruled by a single major royal capitol.

    For the ancient Maya warfare, (Jub'uy) , "Star-Over-Shell" glyph, was a two-

    step process: warriors captured the enemy on the battlefield and thenbrought the victims back to the court for royal presentation. It is clearly

    seen in today's Kek'h drama The Rabinal Ach. The Maya also went to

    war by the sky, triggered by the planet Venus. Venus war regalia is seen

    on stelas and other carvings, and raids and captures were timed by

    appearances of Venus, particularly as an evening "star". Warfare related to the movements

    of Venus is, well established throughout the Maya world. The Maya timed certain military

    campaigns to coincide with celestial events. Werner Nahm, has recently proposed that

    Lunar Cycles can be linked to those of Venus to produce many more stations at which such

    war events might occur.

    Itz'am Ye, (Vucub Caquix) in the tree and Hunahp shoots at him with his blowgun

    "Texts were a medium through which kings asserted and displayed power, and thus they and

    the scribes who produced them were targeted during warfare for destruction." The fact that

    many of the captured scribes were kinsmen of the conquered king and suspected of

    continued loyalty might have contributed to their fate. But the methods of public torture

    suggest that the conquerors also intended to send an unambiguous message. "What captors

    chose to emphasize in public documents was not the physical elimination of the scribes

    through sacrifice but the destruction through finger mutilation of their capacity to produce

    for rivals politically persuasive texts," Johnston wrote. "Finger breaking was a significant

    political act because it produced and revealed the vulnerability of enemies and

    competitors." In the Dos Pilas hieroglyphic stairway a city's defeat is described as: Brought

    down were the flint(s) and the shield(s).

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    , .

    Also the triumph is glorified with several titles like: In August 5, 695 A.D., Mutul (Tikal)

    ruler Hasaw Chan Kawil brought down, (Ju-b'u-yi) the Tok Pakal or

    ("flint-shield", or war emblem, battle standard) of Yuknom Yichak Kak of

    Kanal (Calakmul), son of Yuknom Chen, as recorded in the text on the wooden Lintel 3 ofTemple I (Structure 5D-1-1st). Hasaw Chan Kawil was the son of Nun Uhol Chak (Burial

    116). In A.D. 711, some 32 years after the defeat of Nun Uhol Chak of Mutul (Tikal) and 16

    years after his triumph over Yuknom Yichak Kak of Kanal (Calakmul), on Stela 16,

    comissioned by his son, Yax k'in Ca'an Chak, the builder on the Temples IV and VI and the

    Acanaladuras Palace, Hasaw Chan Kawil proudly boasted the Tikal dynastic title

    (Unabnal Kinich. (By adding Kinich to their name, these kings not only wanted to evoke

    the protection of Kinich Ahau, but some may have also believed that by doing so they then

    became the terrestrial manifestation of the god himself). In the text on this stela he also was

    entitled Kuhul Mutal Ahaw God-like lord of Mutul (Tikal) and

    additionally he carried the title Hux Winikhab Kalomte Three Katun

    Kalomte, being kalomte one of the most prestigious and ancient titles

    linked to ultimate and supreme dynastic power.Kalomte Glyph

    Nebaj Vase showing a Tok Pakal or battle standard

    Archeologists find the aftermath of war and captive taking in the dismembered or

    decapitated remains of sacrificial victims buried under floors of public buildings and in

    stone images and inscriptions that refer to such practices (when the names of the victims

    indicate their origin, they are invariably from rival settlements). We don't know if the early

    Maya went to war mainly to acquire territory, take booty, control conquered groups for

    labor, take captives for sacrifice in sanctification rituals, or a combination of these.

    But the first war of which there is a readable record--fought some 1,600 years ago

    between Tikal and Uaxactn, two kingdoms in the center of Petn, the northern region of

    Guatemala--laid a pattern for those that followed. The epigrapher that break the code of the

    Maya texts, Tatiana Proskouriakoff and years later Peter Mathews, of

    the University of Calgary, were the first scholars to detect evidence of

    their great conflict. In a study of early inscriptions, she noticed that

    both Stela 5 at Uaxactn (right) and Stela 31 at Tikal (left), recorded

    the same date and action by a Tikal ahau, or "holy lord" , a very rarefinding in the Maya Culture, (Two exact texts in different sites). Mathews

    deduced that these texts recorded an important interaction between the two towns, that

    Tikal was the dominant partner, and that one of two political events was most likely

    involved--an alliance by marriage or a conquest. Stela 31, erected long after the conquest,

    describes Siyaj Kahk or Fire Is Born as Ochkin Kaloomt, or Warlord of the West. Some

    Maya experts have also suggested that Siyaj Kahk or "Fire Is Born"

    represented a faction that had fled to the westto Teotihuacnafter a coup

    d'tat by Great Jaguar Paw's father years earlier and had now returned to

    power. The military expedition most likely set out, on January 8, 378 AD, for

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    Tikal, from Waka', in war canoes, (it can hold up to 50 men and their

    weaponry), heading east, up the San Pedro River. Reaching the headwaters, the soldiers

    disembarked and marched either along the river or on the canyon rim overlooking it.

    Garrisons probably dotted the route. News of the advancing column must have reached

    Tikal, and somewhere along the stretch of riverbank and roadway, perhaps at a break in the

    cliffs about 16 miles (26 kilometers) from the city, Tikal's army tried to stop Fire Is Born's

    advance. Inscribed slabs, called stelas, later erected at Tikal suggest that the defenders

    were routed. Fire Is Born's forces continued their march on the city. By January 16, 378

    barely a week after his arrival in Waka'the conqueror was in Tikal, and Tikal's king , "

    Great Jaguar Paw I", whose Mayan name was Chak Tok Ich'aak, or "Great Burning Paw",died that very day, Structure 5D-46, the palace of Jaguar Paw, was preserved throughout

    the occupation of Tikal. Schele and Mathews see this as a sign that Chak Tok Ich'aak

    continued to be venerated down through the years. (Some scholars suggest that Siyaj Kahk

    came from Kaminaljuy, a site in the Central Highlands, with strong economic ties with

    Teotihuacan).

    Structure 5D-46, the palace ofChak Tok Ich'aak Jaguar Paw

    The three glyphs on this section of the lid ofthe inauguration of St 5D-46, cache potread "holy building, Chak Tok Ich'aak,

    Tikal Lord".

    The text on the back of the stela records the date of the commemorated event,8.17.1.4.12 11 Eb' 15 Mac, (see Calendar), or January 16, A.D. 378, and names

    Siyaj Kahk, a lord of Tikal, as the protagonist.

    11Eb' in Stela 31.

    The front of the stela 5, shows Siyaj Kahk holding an obsidian-edged club and a

    halab' spear-thrower (or throwing stick, used to launch darts [hul] with great

    impetus) and wearing a uniform that in later monuments epitomizes a war of conquest.

    Only in defeat could Uaxactn have accorded a lord of a rival city such recognition. Stela

    31 at Tikal, erected fifty years later, provides no pictorial representation of the conquest,

    but the inscription repeats the same date, actor, and event. It also registers that the

    reigning king of Tikal at the time was Great-Jaguar-Paw, and that he celebrated the victoryby an act of bloodletting from his genitals. From other inscriptions, we now know that

    Great-Jaguar- Paw was one of the most celebrated of Tikal's early rulers and that Siyaj

    Kahk was his brother, and, very probably, his war chief. Later events confirm this was a

    war of conquest. A year after his victory, Siyaj Kahk succeeded his brother, but he ruled

    not from Tikal but from Uaxactn. His empire now included both cities, and it was under

    his authority that a 'K'atun' lord (less than 20 year old), his nephew, the son of Great-

    Jaguar-Paw, Nun Yax Ayin was installed as the new lord of Tikal, that carried conquest as

    far as Palenque and in 426 AD, Tikal's ruler Siyah Chan K'awil II ("Stormy Sky"), the

    Grand son of the queen Lady Baby Jaguar, took over Copn, 170 miles (274 kilometers) to

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    the south in present-day Honduras, and crowned its own king, Kinich Yax Kuk Mo, (Shining

    Quetzal Macaw), who became the founder of a new dynasty. (Recently ADN test of his

    remains, prove that he came from Tikal)

    The name of "Spearthrowing Owl", is mentioned but scholars debate about his role,

    suggesting that he could be the King of Teotihuacan at this time, and

    that Siyaj Kahk acted in his name, others see this name as a War

    Title, no image of him is known to date. It is widely asserted that the

    Maya, independent and self-sufficient, had merely appropriatedsymbols of prestige and legitimacy from Teotihuacan.A few think that

    Siyaj Kahk came from Kaminal Juy, am important Central Highlands Maya site.

    The seeds of this war were apparently sown centuries earlier, when the Maya in this

    lowland region first built pyramids and formal public buildings in their towns. As

    archeologist Richard Hansen has reported, large public architecture, complete with the

    symbolism of political power, appeared at the site of Nakb in The Mirador Basin, between

    2,600 and 2,300 years ago (Natural History, May 1991). As it developed in the following

    two centuries, this symbolism came to include depictions of severed heads, apparently

    referring to the decapitation sacrifice that became so prominent in later Maya ritual.

    Images of kings have also been found from these early times, although by the large the

    rulers remain anonymous because so far we have found no readable texts.

    During the Classic period, warfare was conducted on a fairly limited, primarily ceremonial

    scale. Maya rulers, who were often depicted on stelas carrying weapons, attempted to

    capture and sacrifice one another for ritual and political purposes. The rulers often

    destroyed parts of some cities, but the destruction was directed mostly at temples in the

    ceremonial precincts; it had little or no impact on the economy or population of a city as a

    whole. Some city-states did occasionally conquer others, but this was not a common

    occurrence until very late in the Classic period when lowland civilization had begun to

    disintegrate. Until that time, the most common pattern of Maya warfare seems to have

    consisted of raids employing rapid attacks and retreats by relatively small numbers of

    warriors, most of whom were probably nobles.

    Mace or club head. Thedesign is one of the vision

    serpents.

    Club with skyband designincised. Drill hole for

    suspension cord.

    ObsidianSpear

    Point, 10cm.

    The wars of the eight and ninth century collapse were, as Culbert notes, not the precipitate

    of temporary crisis, but the culmination of a long, creative and destructive engagement ofMaya people with the forces of violence. Maya war neither began nor ended with the

    collapse, we can only know when the Maya are addressing warfare in their many of their

    texts and images--a rich source of Pre-Columbian evidence--if we understand their military

    concepts. The so called "Star Wars", Between Tikal and it's allies, and Calakmul and it's

    allies is the best documented long war of the Classic Maya. Iconography suggests that

    these two rival cities had a lot in common. They shared the same protector deity in the form

    of the Jaguar god and both cities had dynastic leaders with related lineage names, Jaguar

    Paw at Tikal and Fire Jaguar Paw at Calakmul. These convergences suggest an even closer

    affiliation, perhaps based on family ties that may have once connected the patrons of the

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    two cities. It would not be the only time that enmity between cities was based on an earlier

    family connection. Not enough information is available yet from Calakmul to point to a

    common dynastic origin for the two opposing politics. Even if deteriorated family ties had

    been a factor, the most likely explanation for a rivalry that escalated into bloody warfare

    lasting a couple of centuries is commercial: competition for control of trade routes. The

    jaguar was also connected to the warriors and hunters of the Maya, those who excelled in

    these areas were allowed to adorn themselves with pelts, teeth or claws and were

    considered to possess feline souls

    The woman's role as warlords is well documented by recent discoveries at The Hix Witz

    Polity, formed By la Joyanca, Zapote Bobal and Pajaral, Waka' and Dos Pilas. The famous

    Lady warrior Wac' Chanil Ahau or "Lady Six Sky" that regain the Power in Naranjo (Saal)

    to the east, and leading the wining wars against Ucanal and Caracol, was born in Dos

    Pilas.

    WEAPONS AND TACTICS

    War parade, showing shields and weapons

    The Maya did not maintain standing armies. Rather, they assembled militia of able-bodied

    adult men and boys. From centralized arsenals kept in public buildings,In The Classic, they

    armed them with shock (B'aj) weapons like: Stone clubs, with leather strings or wooden

    handle, short stabbing spears and wooden (hardened with fire) axes edged with Flint or

    Obsidian blades, and also with projectile (Jul) weapons like: blowguns, throwing sticks and

    javelins, slings, and, in the latest period, the Jatz'om or 'white heat' (spear thrower), bows

    and arrows. Maya soldiers typically carried long flexible shields of hide or smaller rigid

    round shields.

    As armor, many wore cotton vests stuffed with rock salt. Eleven hundred years later, the

    Spanish conquistadores shed their own metal armor in the sweltering rain forest in favor ofthese Maya "flak jackets.". The "Kohaw", was a war helmet made of stone as pyrite, wore

    only by Ajaws and Kaloonte's. An example was found in a Queen's tomb in Waka'.

    Armor and round shieldExample

    Spears, Shield and Halab' (Spearthrower)

    Petn. Clay. height 14.8 cm Seated figure withremovable helmet (Kohaw).

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    La Blanca, ObsidianPreclassic Celt, Pacific

    Lowlands

    Maze or club head. Thedesign is one of the

    vision serpents.

    Tortured Captive, his earflares, were replaced with

    paper or leather

    Military Titles, Examples from Piedras Negras

    "They surrounded the town, crying out loudly, armed with arrows and shields, beating

    drums, giving war whoops, whistling, shouting, inciting them to fight, when they

    arrived in front of the town"....."the four gourds which were at the edge of the

    town were opened and the bumblebees and the wasps came out of the

    gourds; like a great cloud of smoke they emerged from the gourds. And thus

    the warriors perished because of the insects which stung the pupils of theireyes 2 and fastened themselves to their noses, their mouths, their legs, and

    their arms...." Popol Vuh, Part 4, Chapter 4, p. 152.

    Militias from particular towns or provinces, or perhaps as recruited by particular lords,

    followed battle standards that consisted of tall spears with large square or round

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    shields attached to the tops. These shields carried various decorations and devicesand were usually edged with bright feather work. In addition to allowing someeffective coordination of maneuver on the battlefield, the battle standards werepowerful sacred objects housing or focusing terrifying supernatural beings. Theofficers in armies consisted of members of the ruling houses, the urban greater

    nobility and the lesser nobility from allied provinces and towns. These officers deckedthemselves out in glorious finery representing supernatural beings. In this way, they stoodout on the field to allow effective signaling of commands and to draw attention from theircounterparts in the enemy armies. Veterans of battle often wore more prosaic armor aswell, consisting of short cotton jackets packed with rock salt--the equivalent of the modern

    "flack jacket" and tight bindings of leather or cloth on forearms and legs. Cotton armor isso much more effective than any other protection

    Prisoners being presented to Ruler

    Pictured battles all look like free-for-alls in which principle lords and warriors are

    challenging each other in heroic duels. The Ceramic and Mural paintings give the

    impression that important individuals fought accompanied by one or more close

    companions protecting their rear and flanks. No doubt there was general slaughter on the

    Maya battlefields, but a clear object of engagement was the capture of enemies alive for

    later rituals of sacrifice.The warfare also was carried in lakes and rivers, the best

    documented example is Tayasal, the last conquered Maya city in 1697 AD, where Spaniards

    were attacked from canoes with spears and arrows.

    Vase showing a Canoe

    Strategically, Classic Maya battles apparently ended not simply when the enemy was drivenfrom the field, also in the event that the king or other principal people were captured bytheir counterparts. All this chaos and confusion was accompanied by wooden drums and

    trumpets, conch shell trumpets, whistles and frantic shouting.

    Pre-Columbian combat in Maya art, depicts Maya armies, witch were probably quite large

    during really important campaigns, that is, numbering in the thousands. But they were not

    maintained for long periods of time; and, as militia, they were logistically sustained

    through temporary appropriations of food and other materials from unhappy peasant

    villagers. Although, in the Highlands, all the main Post Classic sites, such as Iximch,Mixco Viejo, Gu'marc'aj and Zaculeu, were located in very well defensive positions,opposite to the Classic sites, perhaps influenced by the memories of the Classic MayaCollapse

    In sum, ancient Maya wars probably consisted of a series of brief and deadly encountersculminating in the decisive capture of principal leaders, their imprisonment and eventual

    sacrifice. Another probable form of victory consisted of the capture and destruction of

    strategically located border towns with the consequent loss of control over larger frontier

    regions. Given the enormously dense and widely scattered agrarian populations of the

    Classic period, warfare typically skirted direct attack of villagers, the destruction of crops

    on the ground, or other damage to the peasants upon whom all ultimately depended for

    prosperity. The rewards of victory sometimes included the opportunity to wreck havoc on

    the stelas portraits and temples of the enemy in their centers and the right to extract

    humiliating tribute according to Spanish Conquest period accounts. At the height of the

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    Classic period, wars of conquest allowed the temporary creation of wealthy and powerful, if

    rather small, imperial hegemonies.

    Classic Vase showing weaponry and shields

    The Maya did not perceive combat as a clash of people and weapons alone, but rather as acomplex confrontation of spiritual and material forces. When, for example, the Conquerorof Guatemala, Pedro de Alvarado, engaged the forces of the K'iche' Maya culture heroTecn Umn in 1524, the Maya lord and his companions flew at him in the guise of eaglesand lightening, according to native accounts, only to be defeated by the Spaniards superiorspiritual forces in the form of "footless birds", holy ghosts, and a "floating maiden", theVirgin.

    "At midnight the Indians went to Xel'juh, and the captain of

    the Indians who had transformed himself into an eagle

    became anxious to kill the Adelantado Tunathi [Alvarado]

    and he could not kill him because a very fair maidendefended him; they were anxious to enter, but as soon as

    they saw this maiden they fell to the earth and they could not

    get up from the ground, and then came many footless birds,

    and those birds had surrounded the maiden, and the Indians

    wanted to kill the maiden and those footless birds defended

    her and blinded them." The attackers were paralyzed and

    blinded by the "Way'ob" of the Spanish [the Virgin Mary

    and the Holy Spirit or perhaps angels who

    looked to them like footless birds]. The

    next day, February 22, 1524, 1 Q'anel in

    the Maya calendar, Tecn Umn himself

    came against the Spanish in his eagle"Way". "And then Captain Tecn flew up, he came like an

    eagle full of real feathers, which were not artificial; he wore

    wings which also sprang from his body and he wore three

    crowns, one was of gold, another of pearls and another of

    diamonds and emeralds." Tecn Umn went forward with

    the intention of killing Alvarado and thus defeating the

    battle beasts and the way of the Spanish. He struck at the

    great man-beast with all his power, hitting Alvarado's horse

    and taking its head off in a single blow. According to the

    K'iche, his lance was not made of metal, but of shiny stone

    which had a magic spell on it. When Tecn realized he had

    killed only the battle beast and not the man, he flew upward

    and came at Alvarado. The Spaniard was ready and impaledthe charging king on his lance. (Totonicapn Title)

    Included among realistic and detailed scenes of siege warfare, hand-to- hand fighting intowns, the capture of warriors and the flight of civilians, there is a battle in which the lordsare fighting in the sky, standing upon feathered and scaled war snakes, illuminated bybri ht red and blue doorwa s, their ortals to the Otherworld. There is no reason to doubt

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    that this scene was, for the Maya, just one more realistic view of combat.

    Vase showing Supernatural ("Way") clash of lords

    Understandably we often characterize Maya warfare in dire and fatalistic terms, so that a

    nobleman's "capture" as recorded in history quickly becomes, in our own analysis, a

    "capture and sacrifice." Yet it is important to keep in mind that the consequences of Maya

    warfare are never clearly spelled out in the inscriptions. Perhaps one's "capture" should be

    taken at face value when further elaboration is missing. Abducted nobles surely met violent

    and perhaps even prolonged deaths, but high kings, once captured, might have been more

    highly valuable alive as political hostages or vassals.

    Epigraphers have long known of the "star war" waged against Ceibal by Ruler 3 of Dos

    Pilas on 9.15.4.6.5 9 Chikchan 18 Muwan. This resulted in the capture and subsequent

    display of the Ceibal ruler Yich'aak B'alam six days later, at which time he is portrayed as a

    bound and altogether defeated figure on two Petexbatn (Akul), monuments. However, it is

    clear that Yich'ak B'alam did not die at the time of Ceibal's military defeat. Later records atCeibal make it clear that that he was alive as late as 9.15.15.0.0, at which time he witnessed

    a period-ending ritual involving Ruler 4 of Dos Pilas. Yich'ak B'alam had in fact outlived

    his captor, and he was actively ruling Ceibal for several years, though probably still under

    the political control of Dos Pilas. The portraits of the bound ruler at Dos Pilas and

    Aguateca are images of a living ajaw who would retain some degree of local power at

    Ceibal for many years to come. After a war, a monument prepared by a loyal scribe-

    painter soon went up in the victor's city. The triumphant king is shown standing heroically

    on the backs of prostrate captives -- the Mayan version of a photo op.

    The Ceibal ruler Yich'aak B'alam, shown postrated on lower fragments of Dos Pilas, Stela 2.

    The "quick death" view for the treatment of captured kings and there are not many cases

    to compare in Maya history has perhaps been heavily influenced by the history

    surrounding the defeat and beheading of Copan's Ruler 13, Waxaklahun Ubah K'awil or 18

    RabbitQuirigu ruler Butz' Tiliw or Cauac Sky. At Quirigu we do have clear records of the

    Copan ruler's sacrifice, but it is an almost unique case, significantly different from other

    Maya records of conquest.

    18 Rabbit Copans Ruler In the Mouth of a Jaguar, Representing Butz' Tiliw, Monument D in Quirigu

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