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HELD CAPTIVE BY SCRIPT: INTERPRETING “TAGGED” PRISONERS IN LATE CLASSIC MAYA SCULPTURE

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 June 2016

Catherine E. Burdick
Catherine E. Burdick*
Affiliation:
Facultad de Artes, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Avda. Jaime Guzmán Errázuriz 3300, Providencia, Santiago, Chile
*
E-mail Correspondence to: catherineel@yahoo.com
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Abstract

Although captive images have been examined for the Classic Maya, we lack a thorough understanding of depicted captives as a pictorial motif. Furthermore, the convention of “tagging” Late Classic Maya captive sculptures with identifying texts was understood a century ago, yet the ways in which these scripts functioned beyond the role of label are not well known. This layering of identifying texts onto captive figures presents interesting avenues of scholarly inquiry for understanding relationships among ancient Maya texts, figural images, and actual bodies. In this article I explore captive iconography and then suggest that the captive tagging convention is related to the tagging of possessed objects. The artistic tendency toward tagging the thigh with more frequency than other bodily regions suggests a secondary meaning for such markings, and I propose that these tags alluded to the post-sacrifice practice of removing the femur as a war trophy.

Type
Research Article
Information
Ancient Mesoamerica , Volume 27 , Issue 1 , Spring 2016 , pp. 31 - 48
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2016 

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