Bonampak
16 42'14 "N 91 3'54" W / 16.70389, 91,065 Bonampak is a former Mayan state of Chiapas , in Mexico , located about 30 km south of the larger site of Yaxchiln at the border of Guatemala.
This is a small Mayan site, which depended on Yaxchilan. The whole structure seems to have been built between 580 and 800. Bonampak was rediscovered in 1946 by photographer Giles Healy , where he was guided by the Maya Lacandon who continued to practice at certain periods, ancient Mayan rituals in temples.
Summary |
Site description
Bonampak has many medium-sized temples around a main square and some finely carved stelae, but these are the frescoes adorning its Acropolis, making it a unique archaeological site and famous.
This building, commonly called "Temple of Paintings" (or more technically "Structure 1") has three rooms arranged lengthwise on top of a pyramid. It is on their interior walls that one finds the most beautiful Mayan ruins of painting, whose only other evidence is stale or small pieces of information about the poterie.Ces frescoes show scenes related to events of the reign the king of Bonampak Chan Muan.
By happy chance, rainwater seeped into the plaster of the roof covering the interior walls with a layer of calcium carbonate slightly transparent. Shortly after the discovery of Healy, the Carnegie Institution sent an expedition to Bonampak. The walls were painted with kerosene , which made the layer covering the paintings temporarily transparent. The paintings were so widely and fully photographed, and two different artists realized duplicate paintings. In 1996 a team of Yale University launched the Bonampak Documentation Project, which included the completion of a even more detailed study, a photographic archive and reproduction murals.
The paintings date from 790 and were made in the form of frescoes. The absence of joint in plaster indicates that each piece was painted in one sitting, during the short period when the plaster was wet. They bear the mark of a master, and two competent assistants. The three pieces depict very realistic series of events. The first describes the clothing of priests and nobles, a ceremony where a child becomes the heir of a noble family, a band playing trumpet in wood, drums and other instruments; nobles discussing during a debate. The second piece shows a scene of war and the capture of prisoners and those prisoners bleeding fingers, ritually slashed, sitting in front of the lord of Bonampak, Chaan Muan , richly dressed. It is generally assumed that the prisoners are being prepared for a human sacrifice , even if the murals do not show it. The third coin depicts a ceremony with dancers in elegant costumes wearing masks of gods, the lord and his family ceremonially planting needles in their languages, to shed blood. The text hieroglyphic that accompanies the paintings date the scene and called the principal participants.
According to Professor Mary Miller of Yale, head of a large study of paintings: "There is certainly no other artifact of the antiquity of the New World offers a vision of society as complex as the Hispanic the Bonampak paintings. No other work does feature as many Mayans in their lives of courtiers, with much detail, making murals of Bonampak an unparalleled resource for understanding ancient societies. "
Tourist information
Although Bonampak is a tourist site, it is nevertheless difficult to access and away from everything. However, since the construction of the highway from the border by the Mexican government in the early 1990s , Bonampak has become much more accessible to tourists.
The frescoes are not nearly as sharp as photographs of the 1940s. No flash photography is allowed in the Temple of the Paintings. There may be a good idea today of the frescoes by visiting the reproduction of the temple to scale at the National Museum of Anthropology and History of Mexico. Even if the rest of the site is less impressive as Yaxchilan , frescoes richly deserve to be seen.
See also
Related articles
External Links
- (En) Panoramic views of Bonampak
- (En) The Maya civilization
- (In) Mesoamerican Photo Archives: Bonampak
- (Fr) Virtual Reality Bonampak Murals - Zip Files reproductions Antonio Tejeda
- (En) (es) - Site of the State of Chiapas
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