Memory and Oracle
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chapter 4 Memory and Oracle What is most striking in the configuration of Tomb 7 is the huge quantity of precious items deposited in it: the shining pectorals, rings, earrings, necklaces, bracelets and other ornaments of gold, silver, jade, turquoise, obsidian, crystal, shell, pearls and coral. But if the Tomb 7 was not primarily a place of burial, but an ossuary or ‘bone yard’, or rather a shrine for communication with the dead ancestors, how are we to explain the presence of all these jewels? If they were not part of the attire of someone buried here, but were placed in front or on top of sacred bundles, what was their function? To answer this question it is important to keep in mind the one historical event that we have identified (the marital alliance of Lady 6 Water) and to focus more precisely on the sanctuar- ies referred to in the pictorial texts of the tomb itself. We note that Bone 124 features in the centre of the scene a Temple of Jewels situated above a cave or underground space. We explore here the hypothesis that the scene on this bone is directly related to the place where it was found and that, therefore, the cave is precisely Tomb 7 itself. Tomb 7 would then have been the subterranean part of a ceremonial centre that was called the Temple of Jewels. The temple emits volutes, probably speech scrolls, which we inter- pret as a reference to counsels given by the sacred bundles as a kind of oracle. The visit by Lord 5 Flower can be read as a consultation of the ancestors in or- der to receive guidance and advice from them about the marriage of his grand- daughter. This was probably part of a prolonged ritual activity at the site: in all likelihood there were multiple entries into Tomb 7 to perform such acts (cf. Middleton et al., 1998). 1 Chalcatzingo: The Preclassic Template A key example of a representation of a sanctuary from which volutes emanate is a famous relief with a ritual scene in Chalcatzingo (State of Morelos), an archaeological site that goes back to the Preclassic period (Olmec horizon).1 1 See the publications by Guzmán (1934), Gay and Pratt (1971), Angulo (in Grove 1987); Grove (1999), and from a comparative perspective: Tsukamoto and Inomata (2014). © koninklijke brill nv, leiden, ���7 | doi �0.��63/97890043405Maarten Jansen and�7_006 Gabina Aurora Pérez Jiménez - 9789004340527 Downloaded from Brill.com10/07/2021 09:04:41AM via free access <UN> 224 chapter 4 Illustration 4.01 The temple of jewels on bone 124 Illustration 4.02 The Temple of Jewels on Bone 215 The religious heart of the place is an impressive mountain, rising from the valley and visually connected with the Popocatepetl volcano in the distance. Particularly impressive are the rock reliefs on this mountain. Where the foot of the mountain connects with the steep cliff there is an abri with a gallery of rock carvings. In the rainy season water comes down from the rocks: we immediately recognise the site as a House of Rain (Tlalocan). This identifica- tion is confirmed by the reliefs, which represent growing plants (squash) and several animals (lizards/iguanas?) singing or speaking to heaven, from where Maarten Jansen and Gabina Aurora Pérez Jiménez - 9789004340527 Downloaded from Brill.com10/07/2021 09:04:41AM via free access <UN> Memory And Oracle 225 the raindrops fall. Lizards, frogs and similar animals are known as the children or servants of the rain god.2 Our attention is drawn towards a relief at the end of the abri gallery, carved on a rock slab that is sticking out to the side from the surface of the slope and facing Popocatepetl (East). This carved masterpiece (Monument 1), called ‘the king’ (el rey), contains a profile view of a niche or cave, animated with an eye as if it were the head of a serpent or alligator with open jaws. Plants grow from it, making clear that this is an image of the earth as a living and life-giving entity.3 Within the cave a person is seated on a throne or altar, which is decorated with an S-shaped motif. A large and elaborate headdress containing quetzal birds, jade beads and flowers identifies him as a ruler, priest or other important pub- lic official. He holds a rectangular bar-like object in his hands, decorated with the same S-shaped geometric pattern. This bar has been compared to bars or staffs held by Maya rulers (Angulo in Grove 1987), and indeed it may be, like those, a symbol of rulership, which would suggest that this is an enthronement scene. But as the form and geometric patterning are very similar to the Post- classic representations of a painted manuscript, the rectangular bar-like object may also be an early representation of a codex.4 Bar or codex, the religious official seems to be exhibiting or reading a sym- bolic figure as part of carrying out a ritual within the cave. His act of being seated is indicative of a ritual that is dealing with authority, such as confirm- ing the rulership of the protagonist. The content of the text is synthesised by the geometric motif, which actually consists of a combination of volutes go- ing in opposite directions. Angulo describes the visual impression this symbol causes: This symbol, with its winding and unwinding, visually expresses two as- pects of the same movement, but in opposition. In the double scroll we find the dual principle of the giving of life and taking back through death, the dryness and later the humidity that cyclically cover the surface of the 2 Cf. Codex Mictlan (Laud), p. 23. Representations of lizards or frogs appear in temples of the rain god, most clearly in the Aztec Templo Mayor, and in Huamelulpan. Team members Ivette Jiménez Osorio and Emmanuel Posselt Santoyo investigate this image further in their dissertation. 3 Monument 9 of the Chalcatzingo site is a frontal image of the entrance to such a serpent- cave, with an actual opening. There are also important parallels between Monument 1 of Chalcatzingo and the large stela of Yucu Ita, which is interpreted in-depth by A. Iván Rivera Guzmán in his doctoral dissertation. 4 Cf. Codex Yuta Tnoho (Vindobonensis), p. 48, and Telleriano Remensis, p. 30r. Maarten Jansen and Gabina Aurora Pérez Jiménez - 9789004340527 Downloaded from Brill.com10/07/2021 09:04:41AM via free access <UN> 226 chapter 4 earth…. it forms an inseparable unit as a dual principle of contrary forces that compose the order of the universe, the essence that maintains all of the elements of creation in permanent equilibrium. The scroll is a clearly explicit visual form of the principle of equilibrium of contrary forces, the eternal duality of oppositions found in all philosophical theories, the same principle or scientific premise that explores the eternal dynamics which maintain active and alive all the components affecting the con- stant rhythm of transformation of life in nature. These eternal opposi- tions, notable in the contrast between night and day, heat and cold, rain and drought, life and death, express the concepts of duality that have been manifested in Mesoamerica from the Early Formative period to the Spanish conquest. in: grove 1987: 138 The ‘opposite scroll’ motif appears in Chalcatzingo reliefs occasionally in a ce- lestial position: raindrops fall down from it. In similar scenes a cloud takes its place. On the other hand, there are also cases in Chalcatzingo reliefs in which this sign appears precisely under a zoomorphic figure. The same sign appears in Maya hieroglyphic texts associated with heaven and with the rain god (Chac). As a Maya hieroglyph (T632) the S-shaped sign has been deciphered as muyal, ‘cloud’ (Houston and Stuart 1990). A similar S-shaped sign also occurs in Aztec-Mixtec Postclassic pictography, where it is known as xonecuilli (‘dis- torted or bent foot’). This term is given to (a constellation in) the Milky Way.5 The S-shaped sign itself is associated with the goddess who is the guardian of the ancestors (Lady 9 Grass ‘Cihuacoatl’). Andrea Stone has argued that this sign in the Maya texts may refer to a specific celestial realm, one of the levels of the cosmos, associated not only with rain but also with the ancestors (Stone 1993; Reilly 1996).6 Monument 1 (el Rey) includes this sign both on the object in the hands of the seated lord and on his throne, which suggests that it is an emblem of 5 According to Tezozomoc’s Crónica Mexicana (1975: Ch. 82): la encomienda de Santiago por parte del Sur. Painted in white on black, the xonecuilli sign is part of the attributes of the goddess Cihuacoatl, who is indeed called the deity of the Milky Way: Citlallinicue (see Chapter 6). 6 This idea is supported by the description of the layered cosmos in Codex Vaticanus A ff. 1v and 2r, where the heavens (ilhuicatl) are associated with the rain god and moon, the sun and the Milky Way, thunder and lightning, different colours and where the superior (13th) heaven is the place of bones (Omiyocan), i.e. of the ancestors. Maarten Jansen and Gabina Aurora Pérez Jiménez - 9789004340527 Downloaded from Brill.com10/07/2021 09:04:41AM via free access <UN> Memory And Oracle 227 power and ritual action. Combining the visual impression of movement (as observed by Angulo) with the more specific iconographical and hieroglyphic analysis, we may understand the meaning of the sign as referring to clouds, but probably connoting a special name of a celestial or symbolic realm, per- haps in line with the Nahuatl expression mixtitlan ayauhtitlan, ‘in the clouds and the mists’, which connotes an atmosphere of mystery and secrecy.