The Classic Maya period was an age of profound intellectual and
artistic achievements, when the Maya built monumental
pyramids and magnificent urban centers in homage to their
gods. At a time when the Western world languished after the fall
of the Roman Empire, the New World experienced an age of
imperial grandeur, when great city-states like Tikal and Copán
proclaimed Mayan hegemony over the emerald forests of Mexico
and Guatemala. Theirs was a sophisticated but startlingly brutal
civilization— wars were waged not for land or prestige, but for
blood, for slaves sacrificed atop the great pyramids to appease
the god’s insatiable lust for human flesh. The Mayan world was
an arcane realm where the earth was contiguous with the
heavens and the underworld. It was a society infused with
spiritualism, a society that reflected both the majesty and
savagery of the rain forests. Like the ancient societies of the
Mediterranean, ceramic forms were vital to the Mayan economy
and traded alongside coveted resources such as Jade, obsidian,
flint, and shells.
The Maya believed the universe was divided into three parts: the
Over world (heaven), the Middle world (the world of humankind),
and the Underworld (hell). All three were considered
interconnected and accessible through "doorways", or through
Shamanic ritual. It was believed the Underworld could be
entered through a cave or through bodies of standing water,
such as a lake or ocean. To comprehend the nature of these
three worlds and the beings that inhabit them was important to
daily life of Maya society.
Mayan art was composed of a complex symbolic language with
deeply important social functions. Mainly commissioned by
kings and other elite figures, works of Mayan art fulfilled both
political and social purposes. Because the art functioned as a
type of language, to be understood by the entire population, a
certain consistency in subject matter and its portrayal was
necessary. Whether on a cylinder vessel or a great mural, Maya
art essentially depicts ritual. The impressive Maya ceremonies,
recorded for posterity in their art, were crucial events in the
lives of the kings, and consequently important to society as a
whole. In Maya believe, an actual ritual ceremony is directly
connected with the art which represents it; both conceived of as
a power process that transformed spiritual beings into corporeal
beings on the human level, and allowed people and objects to
become the sacred beings they represented.
In the 9th and 10th centuries AD, the productivity of the
southern regions went into decline for reasons that are still
uncertain (although ecological causes are the likeliest option),
although the northern areas continued to flourish on a reduced
scale until the arrival of European forces and the subsequent
decimation of Native American cultures across both continents.
What is left, however – particularly dating to the Classic Period –
includes art and other achievements that many consider to be
the most refined and beautiful of the ancient New World. Stucco,
mural painting (notably with the use of “Maya Blue”, the secret
of which has been lost since the 16th century) and sculpture
were all of an astounding quality and naturalism, with some
sophisticated expressionistic tendencies.
Carved out of hardened lava, this powerful sculpture depicts a
skull.
