archaeogoth

[archaeogoth]

The Tiger Poem in Classical Maya!

The Tiger He has destroyed his cage Yes Yes The tiger is out By Nael, Age 6

Literal translation:

he-destroyed his-captive-place the-jaguar yes-yes he-came.out the-jaguar his-writing master-Na'el man[of]-6-years

Transliteration:

ʔu-jomow ʔu-baaknal ʔu-balahm xt xt Joyoy ʔu-balahm ʔu-tz'ibaal Aj-Naʔel Aj-6-habiy

Character Transliteration (ALL CAPS are characters that stand for full words, lower case are syllabic):

ʔu-jo-mo-wa ʔu-ba-ki-NAL ʔu-BALAM-la-ma xa-ta-xa-ta jo-JOY-yi ʔu-BALAM-ma ʔu-tz'i-ba-li AJ-na-ʔe-le AJ-6-HAB-bi-ya

[Image shows the poem written in 2 columns of Maya glyph blocks. A diagram shows the reading order (which is complex). All the posts text is also included on the image.

End ID.]

[archaeogoth]

To kick off this blog I wanted to create a post about my favorite Mesoamerican Artifact. “The Shaman in Transformation Pose” Culture: Olmec 800 B.C. in polished gray stone. Discovered in Teopantecuanitlan, current day Guerrero.  

Something that truly stands out on the first figure is the carving of a smiling toad on its forehead, which Scholars (such as the ones in the source listed below) believe could be the cane toad (Rhinella marina) formerly assigned to the genus Bufo.

But now who is this very inquisitive gentleman? The cane toad is a frog that would have induced hallucinations into the ancient olmecs and although some scholars believe that this motif displays the shaman transforming into a frog i am more inclined to agree with Dr Reilly, that this motif is merely a symbol for transformation.

The second artifact i wanna discuss is the Hauberg-Dumbarton Oaks kneeling were-jaguar, Culture: Olmec. Serpentine, with traces of red cinnabar. When these artifacts are placed together (along with their four other brothers) a story takes shape in the form of a shaman's transformation into a jaguar. These figures would have at one point been covered in red cinnabar indicating their importance.

As shown above we see this transformation take place with the final form being the standing jaguar statue (or as a i like to call it, the boxing jaguar or jaguar dancing the salsa) The importance of these artifacts is that  they not only provide us with a valuable insight into Olmec artistic cannon but they also as Dr Reilly states show that “The traces of red cinnabar signify that if the figures were not created as grave furniture, they were used in the funeral ritual and placed in the grave” (More on red cinnabar and its importance in mesoamerica in a later blog post). These figures would have at this time had been placed in graves of elite members of society and could have backed up the hypothesis of michael coe in his work  "Olmec Jaguars and Olmec Kings” And later restated in Dr Reillys article that olmec theogny would have been used to confirm royal power. 

Sources

Reilly, F. Kent. “The Shaman in Transformation Pose: A Study of the Theme of Rulership in Olmec Art.” Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University, vol. 48, no. 2, 1989, pp. 5–21. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/3774730. Accessed 3 Dec. 2024.

Michael D. Coe, "Olmec Jaguars and Olmec Kings," 

[archaeogoth]

About me:

I created this account so I can talk about archaeology, mesoamerica, and really anything else I'm really passionate about or find fascinating. I'm currently a college student who really just enjoys rambling on about what I'm passionate about so when my friend suggested creating a blog in order to do so I thought it might be a good idea (they're usually right about everything so I'm sure they're right about me enjoying having a blog) I also love feedback and corrections on any of my posts in order to correct any misunderstandings I may have had. Thanks, I hope whoever comes across this blog enjoys reading my ramblings and learn something :)