Summer Solstice Ceremonies Performed by Bird Jaguar III de Yaxchilan, Chiapas, Mexico

Abstract

The sculptural styles of different Maya cities, while conforming to the canon of figural representation that is uniquely Maya, can also easily be identified as those of a particular city. Similarly, epigraphers begin to recognize that each city, while operating from the same cultural and linguistic premises, gave precedence to specific types of events in its historial record. Tikal, for example, in addition to accessions, recorded mostly Period Ending dates on its stone monuments. Palenque rulers thought it important to clarify the history of births and accessions of the various rulers of the site as well as the births and significant actions of the Maya supernatural ancestors. The events recorded at Yaxchilan are mostly not on Period Ending Dates, nor do they focus on the activities of supernaturals. At Yaxchilan, the major classes of events are historical captures, autosacrifices by males and females, and other· ritual events. These other events, the miscellaneous category, if you will, form a large portion of the monumental inscriptions. Many of these events were periodic commemorations of similar events by earlier rulers (Tate 1984). Another group of important ritual events occurred in con~ junction with several specific solar phenomena: the first annual passage of the sun over the zenith at Yaxchilan, and summer solstice.