Hieroglyphic Panel

Maya (Possibly La Corona (Saknikte’), Usumacinta River area, Guatemala)

650–800

Medium
Limestone
Classification
Sculpture
Dimensions
28.6 × 26.7 × 3.8 cm (11 1/4 × 10 1/2 × 1 1/4 in.)
Culture
Guatemala
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago, Arts of the Americas
Credit line
Purchased with funds provided by the Claire B. Zeisler Foundation
Rights
Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
Who can see it
Teens profiles and older: its subject is for older viewers (war, death, the Passion, drink or the like). How works are placed

View at the Art Institute of Chicago

About this work

The Maya developed hieroglyphic writing to record the names, births, marriages, alliances, victories and coronations, and deaths of their rulers. Mythological events and religious happenings were also carefully chronicled. Today scholars are deciphering this script and linking the translated information to additional archaeological evidence in order to reconstruct ancient Maya history, belief, and culture. This fragment from a hieroglyphic panel contains calendrical information that was part of a longer text.

Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0