San Bartolo is a mid-sized
Pre-Classic site (Km2.), located in Petén, Guatemala, to
the Northeast of
Uaxactún,
in the western border of
The Mirador Basin, that was occupied around 600 BC in
the middle Pre-classic and abandoned in the late
Pre-Classic
Collapse,
This
Maya site's
architecture includes an 95 foot tall triadic pyramid, "Las Ventanas", that has stucco masks,
this is the oldest structure being dated at 800 BC n its first
platform its name is due to rich masonry doors in its top, "Las Pinturas" Pyramid a
75 feet high structure, with is impressive Mural room, an 8 m. tall Palace,
with several rooms and masonry located at the western edge of the
Central Plaza, (Tigrillo
complex, one of the oldest known Maya Palace), an ancient stone
workshop, several plazas, in the Jabalí
group some 500 mt. to the east, from the central Plaza a triadic complex similar to the H
group in Uaxactún and
Tikal's
North Acrópolis, (see the
map above), and a royal tomb. At the eastern edge of the Central
Plaza is a Ball Court, also dated at 600
BC.
The pyramid was constructed from
600 BC (base
rooms) and was completed 60 AD. A team uncover the room in 2001
in the base of the pyramid. excavation began in March 2003.
These murals were carbon-dated as from 100 BC, which
makes them the oldest Maya murals
discovered. These provide evidence that the Maya had
full-fledged monarchies centuries earlier than previously
thought. Tunneling deeper into the Las Pinturas structure
has since led to the discovery of other buildings with remains of
painted decoration that are significantly older than the Room 1
murals.
The Murals found
in a room build specifically to be painted, now named "Cuarto
de las Pinturas", beneath the "Las Ventanas" Pyramid are the equivalent of
the Sixtine Chapel, a true Masterpiece of the
Maya Art, according to Harvard's Team leader Saturno.
The room was on a platform, and had one step to enter from the
Plaza, the mural was painted at 1.4 mt, to allow a pleasant view,
painted mainly in red and black, on a white surface illuminated by
the sunlight and designed to permit a walk trough the paintings.
The stucco was prepared with an
organic adhesive from the local tree named
Holol, mixed with burned
limestone and sascab, a natural
occurring mineral that does not need to be
burned, and in the outer layer a finer Limestone with Barita, that
is finer that the sascab. This mixture provided a
long durability to the paintings, an important finding, that support
the recent discoveries in the
Mirador Basin,
that the Preclassic Maya had fully developed the Maya culture, a
millennium earlier. This technique was thought, to be
developed in the late Classic, in murals such as those from
Tikal and
Río Azul, a thousand years later. The
archaeologist think that this masterpiece was made at least by two or three
artist. With this finding they also say that painting was the finest
artistic expression during the Pre Classic.
See Video
here
One mural on the west wall shows the birth of
the Maya Cosmos, with successive images of lords or,
Ajaws, sacrifices and
one tree for each scene, (The Ceiba Tree of
Creation
in the 4
cardinal points and the center). The first four
Ajaws are shown
piercing their penis, spilling sacrificial blood,
then offering a sacrifice. The
sacrifices are carried by the Ajaws represented as
hunters, the first carries a fish that he presented to a tree,
(representing the watery underworld or
Xibalbá), the second carries a deer
that he presented to the second tree, (earth),
the third one carries two birds, (sky),
and the fourth is presenting fragrant blossoms (food of the
gods), the same flowers are in the north mural alongside with
the feathered serpent. The fifth Ajaw is the resurrected
Maize
god. A Big Bicephalus Bird is on top of each tree, an early
representation of Vucub
Caquix, The underworld monster, defeated
by the Hero Twins, Iconographers, indicates these same
sacrifices appear in
K'iché's-Mayan
text from the 16th century, the
Popol
Vuh, thus indicating a long continuity of religious symbolism.
The next part of the mural depicts the coronation of a king,
showing divine right to rule coming
from the gods., in the same way that the known Classic rituals.
The tomb of an early Maya king with a
carved Jade
pectoral, was found 1.6
km. away to the West. It was
uncovered beneath a small pyramid in 2005. This is from 159 BC,
and thus, is the oldest known Maya royal tomb. A recent finding
in Wakna',
a larger Preclassic site in the
Mirador Basin, of a Mural
very similar to this one, will shred more light about this
Maya Culture period.
The San Bartolo Room 1 paintings date centuries before the first
fully legible Maya writing from around 250-300 AD, and the signs of
the Sub-V block are older still, containing archaic forms. In the
pre-Classic era, writing systems were firmly established by about
400 BC among complex cultures in what is now Oaxaca and perhaps in
the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, although the dating of its evidence
remains debated and controversial. It now appears that the Maya also
participated in the Pre-classic cultures of literacy, and at a
significantly earlier date than previously believed.
William A. Saturno,
David Stuart,
Boris Beltrán.
2006
