Battle Murals and the Struggle for Elite Legitimacy in Epiclassic Mesoamerica Andrew Finegold ...

397 Pages·2012·16.42 MB·English

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
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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

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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
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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

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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).

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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 Ruppert, et al. (1955).

Fig. 21 Drawing of Room 1 with individual figures numbered. Drawing by Alfonso
Arellano Hernández after Adams and Aldrich. From Arellano Hernández
(1998: Fig. 17).

Fig. 22 Battle scene from east, south, and west walls of Room 2, Structure 1,
Bonampak. Reconstruction painting by Heather Hurst and Leonard Ashby.
From Martin and Miller (2004: 164-165).

Fig. 23 Bonampak battle scene with figures numbered. Drawing by Alfonso Arellano
Hernández after Adams and Aldrich. From Arellano Hernández (1998: Fig.
18).

Fig. 24 Detail from south wall of Room 2, Bonampak. Reconstruction painting by
Heather Hurst and Leonard Ashby. From Martin and Miller (2004: 164-165).

Fig. 25 Detail from east vault of Room 2, Bonampak. Reconstruction painting by
Heather Hurst and Leonard Ashby. From Martin and Miller (2004: 164-165).

Fig. 26 Detail from south vault of Room 2, Bonampak. Reconstruction painting by
Heather Hurst and Leonard Ashby. From Martin and Miller (2004: 164-165).

Fig. 27 Detail from west vault of Room 2, Bonampak. Reconstruction painting by
Heather Hurst and Leonard Ashby. From Martin and Miller (2004: 164-165).

Fig. 28 North wall of Room 2, Bonampak. Reconstruction painting by Heather Hurst
and Leonard Ashby. From Martin and Miller (2004: 175).

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