The Graffiti of Tikal, Guatemala

Abstract

Graffito (plural, graffiti) derives from the Italian meaning scratch or scribble. Art historical studies outside the area of Maya studies have traditionally distinguished graffiti from more formal types of writing, drawing and painting. Likewise, in Tikal, on the basis of formal style or technique, the architectural graffiti are separable from what appear to be the more deliberately conceived and valued forms of art, the material upon which most of the art history of Tikal will be written. Maya graffiti are among the least recognized and poorest preserved of the Maya modes of drawing and painting. The incised, gouged punctuate, painted and printed architectural graffiti of Tikal represent the largest known collection of Maya graffiti. Architectural graffiti is distinguished here from other forms of graffiti appearing on portable objects such as shells, ceramics and obsidians found in Tikal. Many of the centers listed in Chart 1 are represented by a single graffito and some major Maya art centers are conspicuously absent from this list. Maya graffiti have not been carefully recorded and an undetermined number of centers not included in Chart 1 may have unreported graffiti. Graffiti, in fact, appear to be a common and expectable feature of Maya centers; they appear almost everywhere that plaster walls, vaults and floor surfaces are preserved and searched specifically for graffiti. The lack of any concentrated survey and research into the distribution of Maya graffiti, their relationship to Maya art and the meaning graffiti might have in the reconstruction of Maya civilization, is reflected in the few brief and dispersed references to Maya graffiti in the bibliography on Maya art.