WARFARE, SACRIFICE, AND THE CAPTIVE BODY IN LATE CLASSIC MAYA SCULPTURE

Traditional interpretations of Maya warfare have focused on the ritual aspects of war, including the necessity of taking captives for sacrifice. Captives are a common theme on carved stone monuments in the Late Classic period, and images like the murals at Bonampak suggest that captives taken in bat...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Ancient Mesoamerica 2023-01, Vol.34 (1), p.249-265
Main Author: Earley, Caitlin C.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Archaeology
Art galleries & museums
Elites
Hieroglyphics
Human remains
Iconography
Imagery
Memorials & monuments
Monuments
Prisoners of war & missing in action
Rituals
Sculpture
Social identity
Special Section: The Practice of Maya Warfare
Stone
Viewers
War
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Summary:Traditional interpretations of Maya warfare have focused on the ritual aspects of war, including the necessity of taking captives for sacrifice. Captives are a common theme on carved stone monuments in the Late Classic period, and images like the murals at Bonampak suggest that captives taken in battle were ultimately sacrificed. Textual information from hieroglyphs and historical records, however, suggests a variety of fates for prisoners of war. Considering this information, the iconography of carved stone monuments is a poor indicator of historical outcomes for captives. What, then, was the function of captive imagery? In this article, I suggest that images of captives on carved stone monuments worked to prepare elite viewers for warfare by creating embodied social identities for warriors. Sculptures constructed a warrior identity that encompassed both victor and victim and emphasized the importance of elite bodies in the maintenance of political and ritual power. Understanding the ways in which images of captives were communicating allows a more robust view of how the practice of warfare differed from polity to polity and suggests that context is key to using art to learn about war.
ISSN:0956-5361
1469-1787
DOI:10.1017/S0956536121000110