Centering the Kingdom, Focusing on the King: Maya Creation and Legitimation in San Bartolo

Abstract

During the Late Preclassic, San Bartolo, already had many of the characteristics expected from a large Classic Period center; well differentiated residential hierarchy and monumental ceremonial spaces clearly defined, as well as polychrome narrative murals and painted hieroglyphic texts. The mural scenes at San Bartolo bring to mind elements of the Codex Fejervary-Mayer as well as the Codex Borgia. In all cases, divine sacrifice is associated with the establishment of an orderly world. In this manner and through sacrifice, we see the order of the cosmos to the East, West, North and South; but also a paradise created, the underworld, the earth and the sky; and also a cosmos of flowers, aquatic, animal and of birds. Likewise, the mural artistic narrative, as well as its own composition, serves to establishing parallels between the divine action and the royal one, reinforcing the connection between the center of the world, civilization, maize and the king. All of this was used in San Bartolo to legitimize a historic king, linking his rightfulness to his direct association with the divine instead of ancestry.