Battle Murals and the Struggle for Elite Legitimacy in Epiclassic Mesoamerica
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Dramatic Renditions: Battle Murals and the Struggle for Elite Legitimacy in Epiclassic Mesoamerica Andrew Finegold Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 2012 © 2012 Andrew Finegold All rights reserved ABSTRACT DRAMATIC RENDITIONS: BATTLE MURALS AND THE STRUGGLE FOR ELITE LEGITIMACY IN EPICLASSIC MESOAMERICA Andrew Finegold Martial and bellicose imagery, as it commonly occurred in Mesoamerican monumental art, was almost universally reductive and allusive. It can be divided into a few major categories that are notable for their stability over two millennia and across the distinct, yet interrelated cultures of the region: emblematic motifs, solitary or processional warrior figures, individual debased captive figures, and captor-captive pairs. Depictions of actual battles, however, were notably rare. The handful of surviving examples – murals from the sites of Bonampak, Cacaxtla, Chichén Itzá, and Mulchic – are among the masterpieces of Precolumbian painting. The unprecedented dramatic complexity and heightened narrativity of these battle scenes – qualities produced by the presence of pictorial elements including action, specificity, variation, integration, and naturalism – contribute to a marked difference in their implicit content compared with other, more iconic artworks referencing warfare and militarism. Although these paintings are found at geographically distant sites and are stylistically unrelated, their approximate contemporaneity suggests that the brief, unprecedented appearance of battle murals in Mesoamerica was directly related to the widespread socio-political upheavals associated with the decline of Teotihuacan and the Classic Maya collapse during the Epiclassic period (c. 650 - 1050 A.D.), the time at which they were created. Their direct showcasing of feats of bravery and military prowess – both those of the rulers themselves and of their numerous allies and supporters – indicates a significant shift in the way legitimized authority was conceived during this period. Additionally, the radically different conception of temporality underlying these images points to an erosion in the unique status claimed by rulers with regard to the marking, and perhaps even the production of time. The fact that such violent tableaus were no longer produced during the documentedly militaristic Postclassic period reaffirms that, rather than directly reflecting social realities, monumental art projects a constructed image of legitimized authority. Nevertheless, an analysis of the functional characteristics of these artworks and the reconstruction of their implicit messages provide evidence with regard to the bases upon which rulership was conceived to be established during the Epiclassic. TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Illustrations…………………………………………………………………………….v Acknowledgements…………………...………………………………………………...…xviii Chapter One: Introduction……………………….……………………………………………1 Warfare and the Study of Mesoamerican Art…………………...…………………….3 The Battle Murals and the Epiclassic Period………………………………………….6 Chapter Two: The Battle Murals – Description and Context………………………………..10 Cacaxtla……………………………………………………….………………….….10 Site Description and Background…………………………………..………..10 The Murals…………………………………………………………………...11 The Battle Mural…………………………...………………………...11 The Structure A Murals………………………………...……………15 The Red Temple and Temple of Venus Murals……………………...18 Style and Ethnicity…………………………………………………………...20 Dating………………………………………………………………………...23 Bonampak…………………………………………………………………..………..25 Site Description and Background……………………………..……………..25 The Paintings………………………………………….……………………..26 Room 1…………………………………..…………………………...28 Room 2 – The Battle Mural and Presentation of Captives…………..30 Room 3…………………………………………..…………………...34 Chichén Itzá……………………………………………...…………………………..36 Site Description and Background………………………………..…………..36 i The “Toltec” Problem…………………………….………………………….39 The Battle Murals………………………………..…………………………..41 The Upper Temple of the Jaguars…………………….……………...41 The Temple of the Warriors………………………………..………...53 The Monjas…………………………………………………………..56 Dating………………………………………………………………………...59 Mulchic……………………………………………………………..………………..63 Other Sites………………………………………………………………….………...65 Chacmultun…………………………………………………………...……...65 Ichmac……………………………………………………...………………...66 Chapter Three: Evidence of Warfare in Ancient Mesoamerica……….……...……………...68 Early Colonial Accounts of Warfare……………………………………...………….68 Early Colonial Accounts of Aztec Warfare………………………………….70 Early Colonial Accounts of Maya Warfare………………………………….73 Archaeological Evidence of Warfare………………………………………………...75 Defensive Site Placement and Fortifications………………………………...75 Weapons……………………………………………………………………...78 Human Remains……………………………………………………………...80 Termination Events…………………………………………………...……...82 Epigraphic Evidence of Warfare…………………………………………...………...84 Classic Maya Textual Evidence……………………………………………...84 Other Textual Evidence………………….…………………………………..89 ii Martial Iconography – Allusions to Warfare in Mesoamerican Monumental Art………………………………………………………………..…………………..92 Symbolic and Emblematic Imagery……………………..…………………...93 Warrior Figures…………………………………………………………......100 Captive / Debased Figures…………………………………….….………...107 Multi-Figural Compositions…………………………….……….…………115 Discussion…………………………………………………….…………………….127 Chapter Four: The Battle Murals – Experiments in Representation………….…………….130 General Considerations…………………………….……………………………….131 Problems of Comparative Interpretation………...………………………….131 Narrativity Versus Iconicity……………………………..………………….134 Factors Contributing to Pictorial Narrativity……………………………….138 Action……………………………………………………………….141 Specificity………………………………..…………………………143 Variation……………………………………………………………145 Integration.………………………………………………………….146 Naturalism……………………………….………………………….147 Narrativity and the Battle Murals…………………………..………………………149 Cacaxtla…………………………………….……………………………….149 Bonampak…………………………………………………………..………163 Chichén Itzá……………………………………...…………………………176 Mulchic…………………………..…………………………………………192 Discussion………………………….……………………………………………….197 iii Chapter Five: The Battle Murals and the Context of the Epiclassic Period………………..202 The Epiclassic Period…………………………………………………………….....202 Problematizing Mesoamerican Periodization………………………….…...202 The Concept of the Epiclassic………………………………...…………….207 The Battle Murals and Strategies of Elite Self-Representation………………….....212 The Role of Monumental Art in Elite Self-Legitimization…………...…….212 The Contexts and Intended Audiences of the Murals…………...………….213 Cacaxtla…………………….……………………………………….214 Bonampak…………..………………………………………………217 Chichén Itzá………………………...………………………………220 Mulchic……..………………………………………………………224 Narrativity and the Implicit Messages of the Murals…………………...…..225 The Discontinuation of Dramatic Representation and The Triumph of the Iconic…………………………………………….………………………………….233 Chapter Six: Conclusions and Further Avenues of Inquiry……………………..………….237 Bibliography………………………………………………………..………………………242 Illustrations…………………………………………………………………………………277 iv LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Fig. 1 Map of Mesoamerica featuring the sites mentioned in the text. Fig. 2 Plan of Cacaxtla with location of the murals indicated. After Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (1990: 11). Fig. 3 Structure B, Cacaxtla, seen from across the main plaza. Photograph by the author. Fig. 4 Battle Mural, Structure B, Cacaxtla. Reconstruction paintings by Francisco Villaseñor Bello, from Foncerrada de Molina (1993). a) west talus b) east talus Fig. 5 Detail of Battle Mural from east talus of Structure B, Cacaxtla. Photograph by Enrico Ferorelli. From G. Stuart (1992: 127-128). Fig. 6 Detail of Bird Captain from Battle Mural, east talus, Structure B, Cacaxtla. Photograph by Enrico Ferorelli. From G. Stuart (1992: 126). Fig. 7 Detail of 3 Deer from Battle Mural, east talus, Structure B, Cacaxtla. Photograph by Enrico Ferorelli. From G. Stuart (1992: 125-126). Fig. 8 Drawing of the three-part glyphic element repeated on the Cacaxtla Battle Mural. After Baird (1989: 117). Fig. 9 Detail of figure E5 from the Cacaxtla Battle Mural. Photograph by Enrico Ferorelli. From G. Stuart (1992: 126). Fig. 10 North mural from the portico of Structure A, Cacaxtla. Photograph by Enrico Ferorelli. From G. Stuart (1992: 124). Fig. 11 South mural from the portico of Structure A, Cacaxtla. Photograph by Enrico Ferorelli. From G. Stuart (1992: 129). Fig. 12 Painting on north jamb of Structure A, Cacaxtla. Photograph from de la Fuente (1999: Plate 58). Fig. 13 Painting on south jamb of Structure A, Cacaxtla. Photograph from de la Fuente (1999: Plate 57). Fig. 14 Paintings from the Temple of Venus, Cacaxtla. a) South pillar. Photograph by Enrico Ferorelli. From G. Stuart (1992: 132). b) North pillar. Photograph by Enrico Ferorelli. From G. Stuart (1992: 133). v Fig. 15 Paintings from the Red Temple, Cacaxtla. a) West wall. Photograph by Enrico Ferorelli, from G. Stuart (1992: 134-135). b) East wall. Photograph by Enrico Ferorelli, from G. Stuart (1992: 136). Fig. 16 Plan of Bonampak with Structure 1 marked. After M. Miller (1986: Fig. 4). Fig. 17 Lintel 1, Bonampak. Photograph by the author. Fig. 18 Remnants of stucco frieze, Structure 1, Bonampak. Photograph by the author. Fig. 19 Floor plan, elevation, and cross-section of Structure 1, Bonampak, with location of the battle scene marked. After M. Miller (1986: Fig. 5). Fig. 20 Room 1, Structure 1, Bonampak. Reconstruction painting by Antonio Tejada Fonseca. From