taube 2005 jade symbolism

THE SYMBOLISM OF JADE IN CLASSICMAYA RELIGION

Karl A. TaubeDepartment of Anthropology, University of California, Riverside, CA 92521-0418, USA

Abstract

The Classic Maya esteemed jadeite not only for its preciousness and beauty but also as stone of great symbolic import. This paperexamines the religious significance of jade and certain types of jade artifacts among the Classic Maya. In this study, I note that theClassic Maya ascribed a number of meanings to jade, including maize, centrality, and rulership, as well as a material embodimentof wind and the vitalizing breath soul. Because of its close relationship to the breath spirit, jade was an important component offunerary rites and the ritual conjuring of gods and ancestors. Carved in floral form, jade earspools were considered supernaturalsources or passageways for the breath spirit, frequently portrayed as a bead or a serpent emerging from the center of the jade flare.A common Classic Maya death expression, och bih, pertains directly to resurrection of the soul through the symbolism ofearspools. Many of the symbolic meanings and imagery found with Classic Maya jade also appears with other cultures of ancientMesoamerica, including Teotihuacan, Xochicalco, and the contact-period Aztec. Rather than being wholly of Classic Maya origin,many aspects of this jade symbolism and related artifacts can be also found among the earlier Middle Formative Olmec.

In Classic Maya art, jade is so inextricably linked to images ofMaya rulers that it is difficult to conceive of them without thisprecious stone. In fact, one of the more common ways of portray-ing the abject and pathetic state of captive elites is to have themstripped of their jade finery. Perhaps because of its ubiquity inMaya art, discussions of Maya jade have been largely descriptive.Although a great deal of attention has been paid to jade accoutre-ments, such as Jester God diadems, belt celts, and beaded skirts,research regarding the symbolic qualities ascribed to jade is notextensive. In volumes devoted to Mesoamerican jade, discussionsof its symbolic meaning are generally limited to several para-graphs (e.g., Digby 1972; Lange 1993; Proskouriakoff 1974). Onenoteworthy exception is a work by Gutierre Tibn (1983), al-though it focuses primarily on the symbolism of jade in Late Post-classic central Mexico. This also holds true of the detailed studyby Marc Thouvenot (1982), which concerns jade in sixteenth-century documents pertaining to the Aztecs.

In Maya studies, jade is often related to rulership and authority,wealth, water, maize, and centrality, themes that will be furtherdiscussed in this study (Fields 1991; Freidel 1990; Miller andSamayoa 1998; Taube 2000a, 2004b). In addition, it will be notedthat jade embodies ancient Maya conceptions of wind and thebreath soul. Much of the Classic Maya symbolism regarding jadehas considerable time depth and can be readily traced to the earlierOlmecs. In fact, the Mayas seem to have identified jade with an-tiquity, both in terms of precious heirlooms passed down throughgenerations and by the ritual use of the stone to communicate withthe ancestors.

JADE AND THE FORMATIVE OLMEC

The use of jadeite is of considerable antiquity in the Olmec re-gion, and excavations at the site of El Manat, Veracruz, haveyielded jadeite beads and polished celts dating to approximately1500 b.c, well before the Olmec apogee at San Lorenzo (Ortiz andRodrguez 2000:79). Although jade celts continued to be offeredat El Manat during the San Lorenzo phase (1150900 b.c.), thisstone is notably rare at San Lorenzo (in this study, all dates areuncalibrated). During the Middle Formative period of La Venta(ca. 900500 b.c.) jade becomes far more common in the Olmecheartland and other regions of Mesoamerica. For the Olmecs ofLa Venta, jade was manufactured into a wide variety of items,including headdress plaques, earspools, beads, belt celts, pecto-rals, and figurines. The celt, however, continued to be a dominantform in Olmec jade carving. Vast quantities of greenstone celts ofjadeite or softer serpentine are found in La Venta caches as well asat the recently excavated site of La Merced, Veracruz (Rodrguezand Ortiz 2000). Charlotte Thomson (1975:98) suggested that celtsserved as the basic form in Olmec jade exchange, with figurines,pendants and other jewelry being cut from celt pre-forms.

Aside from their economic importance, greenstone celts alsohad profound cosmological significance in Olmec thought by de-fining the four directions and world center. In ancient Mesoamer-ica, one of the most basic and widespread cosmological models isthe four-sided world, with the intercardinal corners framing thecentral and pivotal axis mundi (Taube 1998:429 432, 2003a).This model can be readily documented for the Middle Formativeperiod (900500 b.c.), when maize agriculture became a centralcomponent of Mesoamerican subsistence and economy. In Olmeciconography, the four-sided world is portrayed by the bar-and-four-dots motif, formed of a central vertical bar with four elementsE-mail correspondence to: [email protected]

Ancient Mesoamerica, 16 (2005), 2350Copyright 2005 Cambridge University Press. Printed in the U.S.A.DOI: 10.1017/S0956536105050017

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delineating the corners. As Kent Reilly (1994:257) notes, this signconstitutes a two-dimensional form of a three-dimensional model,with the central bar being the vertical axis surrounded by elementsmarking the four quarters (for a diagram, see Reilly 1994:Figure 15.29). A number of incised jade celts portray the Olmecmaize god as the central world tree, and these scenes probably

constitute early versions of the Mesoamerican conception of thefour-sided world as a maize field (Taube 2000a:303). For oneexample, the corner elements are celtiform maize ears (Fig-ure 1a). It has been widely noted that among peoples of ancientMesoamerica, jade served as a basic symbol of maize and agricul-tural wealth, a concept that probably originated during the Forma-

Figure 1. Formative Olmec and Classic Maya celt symbolism. (a) Incised jadeite celt portraying Olmec maize god surrounded by fourceltiform maize ears (drawing by the author after Porter 1996:Figure 2). (b) Monument 25/26, LaVenta (drawing by the author afterPorter 1996:Figure 8). (c) Middle Formative celt and earspool cache, Mound 20, San Isidro, Chiapas (drawing courtesy of the NewWorld Archaeological Foundation). (d) Detail of Late Classic Maya text describing celt image of stela, Copan Stela 4 (after Stuart1996:Figure 17). (e) Detail of text from Copan Stela A describing vertical sky celt and horizontal earth celt (after Schele and Mathews1998:Figure 4.28).

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tive period (e.g., Coe 1988:225; Joralemon 1988:38; Miller andSamayoa 1998; Taube 1996:71, 2000a, 2004b; Tibn 1983:20;Wagner 2001).

CONCEPTS OF CENTRALITY, MAIZE,AND RULERSHIP

James Porter (1996) notes that the Olmecs of La Venta carvedcertain stelae in the form of giant celts (Figure 1b). Fashioned ofgreen stone, La Venta Monuments 25/26, 27, 58, and 66 portraythe maize god as a celtiform world tree (Taube 1996:5051). Por-ter (1996) also mentions that Classic Maya stelae are commonlyceltiform, a convention probably derived from the earlier Olmecs(Figure 1b). Copan stelae texts provide epigraphic evidence forthe Classic Maya identification of stelae with celts (Figure 1d).David Stuart (1996:162) notes that at Copan, stelae are frequentlydescribed as celt stones. The text of Copan Stela A provides acontrast between a vertical sky celt and a horizontal earth celt,suggesting that an upright celt alludes to the heavens and a flatlying celt, the surface of the earth (Figure 1e). Maya stelae mayhave been considered vertical sky celts. According to Postclas-sic Mixtec mythology, a vertical copper ax supported the heavens(Taube 1996:54).The form of the Maya celt sign is similar notonly to flint ax blades but also to the jade belt celts appearing inClassic Maya art, including examples from Copan stelae. For theLeiden Plaque and other Early Classic examples, the belt celts candisplay incised images closely resembling portrayals of rulers onstelae, much as if they were miniature monuments (Proskouria-koff 1950:105).

Middle Formative caches excavated at La Venta, San Isidro,Seibal, and Cival contained celts oriented to the cardinal direc-tions (Estrada-Belli et al. 2004:77, Figures 8, 9; Taube 2000a:301). The offering from San Isidro, Chiapas, had jade earspools aswell as celts at the four directions. Whereas most of the celts wereplaced flat, two on the east and west axis were bit upward, muchlike miniature stelae (Figure 1c). As in the case of the Copan StelaA text, vertical and horizontal celts appear in symbolic opposi-tion. The carefully placed earspools recall an Early Classic cachediscovered within Structure 10L-26 at Copan. This offering in-cluded six roughly cut earspool blanks, four at the corners andtwo near the center, the latter probably alluding to zenith and nadir(Figure 2a). The central area contained a jade statuette of themaize god as a contortionist arching his legs up over his head(Figure 2b). Portrayals of the maize god in this position are fairlycommon in Classic Maya art, including other examples from Co-pan (Figures 2cf, 3). A number of examples have a curl at theback of the head, an important trait of the maize god during theEarly Classic period (Figure 2b,c,e,f ). One Early Classic jade hasa cross with foliage sprouting from the top of the maize godshead, delineating the world tree (Figure 2d). The contortionistposition alludes to a growing tree and is found both with depic-tions of the maize god as a cacao plant and the well-known croc-odilian ceiba axis mundi (Figure 2f,g). The Copan cache portraysthe maize god as the pivotal world tree in the center of the fourdirections. At Copan, a similar composition recently was discov-ered by Seiichi Nakamura (2000, 2003:130131) in Offering 7 ofQuadrant 10J, which contained a central jade image in a shellsymmetrically surrounded by four jades and four shells. Wearing azoomorphic headdress topped by a maize ear and foliage, thisfigure is also the pivotal maize god framed by the four directions(Figure 6c).

For the Mayas, the radial placement of four jades around acentral image appears as early as the Late Preclassic period atCerros and probably at Nohmul, as well (Hammond 1987). As inthe case of the Olmec examples, such placements delineate thecenter surrounded by the world directions. At the eastern periph-ery of Mesoamerica, the Classic-period site of Salitrn Viejo, Hon-duras, possessed large quantities of carved jade, including a maizegod contortionist (Figure 2d). Jade earspool fragments were placedas dedicatory caches at the corners of Structure 21, thereby mark-ing the four world quarters (Hirth and Hirth 1993:176177). Thequadripartite directional placement of jade in dedicatory cachescontinued among the Late Postclassic Aztec and their early colo-nial Nahua descendants. Writing in 1569, Pedro Ponce de Lennoted that during the ritual dedication of houses, the Nahua wouldplace small idols or stones of good color at the four corners ofthe structure (Garibay 1979:129). Building L in the Aztec TemploMayor precinct contained Offerings 16 and 16-A, two adjoining,stone-lined cysts, each with five jade beads forming a quincunxoriented to the four quarters and world center (Lpez Lujn 1994:173, 191, 428 430). A two-horned statue, possibly an aspect ofthe fire god Xiuhtecuhtli, was also placed on the central axis ofOffering 16. This composition is notably similar to the interior ofthe Aztec stone box from Tizapan. The painted interior lid of thissquare vessel depicts four directional Tlalocs surrounding a jadedisk. Below, inside the lower half of the box, there is a greenstoneimage of the Aztec maize goddess atop another jade sign. In thisbox, the maize deity is portrayed once again as precious jade inthe center of the four directions (Taube 2000a:319, Figure 23).

At Late Classic Palenque, the great ruler Kinich Janaab Pakalwas buried with jades oriented to the four quarters and worldcenter. It is widely recognized that the Sarcophagus Lid from hisburial chamber portrays Pakal as the maize god at the base of theworld tree (Freidel et al. 1993:276; Ruz Lhuiller 1973:225; Scheleand Mathews 1998:115117; Taube 1992b:4850). Within the sar-cophagus, Pakal was arrayed with one of the richest offerings ofjade known in the Maya region. Four large jade beads were placedat the hands and feet, framing Pakal as the world axis (Ruz Lhuiller1973:Figures 205206, 234ad). In addition, a fifth, central jadelay in his groin region, making a pattern strikingly similar theOlmec bar-and-four-dots motif (Figure 4a). Linda Schele and Pe-ter Mathews (1998:Figure 3.29G) tentatively identify the upperportion of the central jade as the head of the maize god (Fig-ure 4b). Given the coiffure and projecting vegetal element atop thehead, this seems a likely interpretation, although the curious, spi-raling lower portion of this jewel remains to be identified. It is acrocodile snout, complete with the widely spaced curving teethand the conch element at the tip of the nose. This snout is verysimilar to crocodile examples appearing in texts from the North-east Court at Palenque (Figure 4c,d). This jade conflates two be-ings identified with the pivotal world tree, the crocodile as thelower trunk and the maize god, the upper foliation.

One well-known codex-style bowl portrays the reborn maizegod sprouting as the world tree out the center of the turtle earth(Taube 1993:77). The accompanying text explicitly describes himas the maize god crocodile (Figure 4e). Supplied with a phoneticya for the ayiin (crocodile) reading, the crocodile logograph hasthe conch-tipped nose and the widely spaced, curving teeth foundwith the Palenque jade. The crocodile epithet probably again re-fers to the corn god as the cosmic tree in the world center. In thevessel scene, the maize deity wears a jade pendant on the centralaxis of his body (Figure 4f ). The lower portion of the pendant is

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Figure 2. The Early Classic Maya maize-god contortionist as the world tree. (a) Early Classic cache excavated within Structure 10L-26,Copan (after Fash 1988:Figure 1b). (b) Detail of jade contortionist maize god from cache (after Fash 1988:Figure 1c). (c) Early Classicjade of maize-god contortionist, Museo Barbier-Mueller de Arte Precolombino (after Muoz Cosme et al. 1999:Number 81). (d) EarlyClassic jade pendant of maize god with world tree atop head, Salitrn Viejo, Honduras (after Hirth and Hirth 1993:Figure 13.8a).(e) Jade of acrobatic maize god, Dumbarton Oaks collection (after Bliss 1957:Plate 64). (f) Maize god in acrobatic position as a cacaotree, detail of Early Classic incised vase (after Kerr 2000:972). (g) Late Classic Maya crocodilian world tree in acrobatic position,detail of Late Classic codex-style vase (from Taube 1992b:Figure 12h).

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the fanged snout of the crocodile with a nose plug projecting fromthe nostril region. Along with the snout, the jade also has a humanface on its upper portion. This carving is the same type of jewelfound between the legs of Pakal, a crocodilian maize god as theaxis mundi. The placement of this jade in the groin area recalls theiconography of Classic Maya loincloths, which frequently portraythe world tree (Schele and Miller 1986:77). In the case of CopanStela C, an entire crocodile head hangs atop the central pendantloincloth (Fash 2001:Figure 68). The five jades within the sar-cophagus portray Pakal, the maize-god world tree, as the pivotalaxis of the four quarters.

A long jade bead from Burial 196 of Tikal displays four imagesof the contortionist maize god as the world tree, possibly alludingto maize plants of the cardinal directions (Figure 3c). Its propor-tions recall long, tubular beads bearing a related world-tree motif,although in this case not the corn god but, rather, the deity servingas the Classic-period patron of the month Pax (Figure 5ce). A

large and elaborate Early Classic bead of this type was recentlyexcavated by Nakamura (2003:124125) in Quadrant 10J at Co-pan (Figure 5c). A jade plaque portraying the same being was alsocached at the base of the stairway of Copan Structure 10L-26(Figure 5d). However, the tubular form of the Quadrant 10J piecemore closely resembles a Pax God jade discovered near Nohmul,Belize, which is also a long bead (Figure 5e). An aspect of the sundeity, the Pax God lacks a lower jaw. In Maya art, he often appearsas a personified world tree, an identification corroborated by Mayaepigraphy (Figure 5a,b). In Long Count texts, the Pax God candisplay foliation or the te sign signifying wood or tree (Figure 5a).Moreover, this head can serve epigraphically as a variant of the teglyph (Schele and Mathews 1998:127; Stuart and Houston 1994:39). Just as the maize-god contortionist represents the pivotal axismundi, the Pax God carvings are also world trees of precious jade.It is surely no coincidence that, along with the maize-god croco-dilian world tree, a small Pax God jade statuette was placed at the

Figure 3. Classic Maya portrayals of maize god as a contortionist. (a) Maize god contortionist, detail of Early Classic incised vessel(after Berjonneau et al. 1985:Plate 329). (b) Late Classic maize-god contortionist, fragmentary monument from Isla El Bellote, LagunaMecoacan, Tabasco (after Navarrete et al. 1993:Figure 74). (c) Late Classic pectoral of Maya maize god, Tikal Burial 196 (afterGallenkamp and Johnson 1985:Number 105).


feet of Pakal, once again placing him at the central axis of theworld tree (Ruz Lhuillier 1973:Figures 205, 242, 244; Schele andMathews 1998:127).

The theme of the cosmic tree is reiterated by the foliated Ajawelement topping the Pax God jades from Copan Quadrant 10J andNohmul (Figure 6a,b). This device is a schematic form of the jadeJester God as the world tree, a symbol of centrality and ruler-ship (Taube 1998:454). Such foliated Jester Gods frequently capthe headdresses of stelae at Copan and other Classic Maya sites(Figure 6d). In fact, the central jade maize god in the aforemen-tioned cache from Copan Quadrant 10J wears the foliated JesterGod as his headdress (Figure 6c). Virginia Fields (1991) notedthat the vegetal, trefoil form of the Maya Jester God derives froman Olmec prototype of a foliated ear of corn. A number of massiveEarly Classic jades portray the maize deity as the Jester God,thereby conflating the concepts of centrality, jade, and corn as theworld tree (Figure 6e). An especially massive Jester God jade wasdiscovered in Tomb B-4/7 at Altun Ha, Belize (Figure 6f; Pender-gast 1982:5659). However, rather than the maize god, this carv-

ing portrays the avian head of the Principal Bird Deity with foliageand an Ajaw sign on the brow. This foliated bird head is an im-portant variant of the Jester God jewel and appears in Late Pre-classic as well as Classic Maya iconography (Taube 1998:454458). As with the large Pax God jades, these foliated Jester Godsdenote the symbolic role of the ruler as the pivotal world tree.

The themes of rulership and centrality are also expressed bythe Classic Maya linkage of jade to thrones. Tubular beads oftendisplay the woven mat design denoting royal thrones, conciselyconflating the concepts of kingship and jade (Kidder et al. 1946:Figure 146h; Laporte and Fialko 1995:Figure 28; Proskouriakoff1974:Plates 44f,5, 45,5,7; Sharer 1999:Figure 6; Shook and Kid-der 1961:6). Throne borders of mat signs and jade disks appear inClassic Maya art and in the murals at Tetitla, a Teotihuacan apart-ment compound containing many references to the Classic Maya,including Maya glyphic texts (Figures 7ac; Taube 2003c). Attimes, Classic Maya jaguar-cushion thrones are rimmed with fourjade-mask and pendant-celt assemblages, thereby framing and de-lineating the center (Figure 7d). Altar 1 at Tonala, Chiapas, is a

Figure 4. Kinich Janaab Pakal buried as the maize god. (a) Schematic outline of Pakal with five jades placed in the areas of the hands,feet and groin (after Ruz Lhuiller 1973:Figures 205, 206). (b) Two views of central jade from groin area (after Ruz Lhuiller1973:Figure 242). (c, d) Examples of crocodile glyphs from Palenque (after Greene Roberston 1985:Figures 319, 333b). (e) Glyphicepithet of maize-god crocodile from codex-style bowl illustrating resurrection of corn god out of the earth (from Taube 1993:77).(f) Comparison of pectoral worn by crocodilian maize god in resurrection scene with central jade from Pakals sarcophagus (upper,from Taube 1993:77).

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three-dimensional portrayal of a jaguar-headed throne surroundedby three pendant-mask assemblages bound by knots (Ferdon 1953:Plate 21b). Classic Maya stelae also portray kings wearing foursets of mask-and-belt-celt assemblages on their belts, quite prob-ably portraying them as the world axis surrounded by jade celts of

the four directions. There was probably considerable thematic over-lap between jade-ornamented thrones and the belt assemblagesworn by Maya kings. Dos Pilas Stela 9 portrays the belt of BalajChan Kawiil as a massive element projecting out sharply fromthe back, strongly suggesting the appearance of a throne (Fig-

Figure 5. The Classic Maya Pax God in epigraphy and jade carving. (a) Pax God appearing in Initial Series Introductory Glyph, CopanStela 9; note wood marking on cheek (after Maudslay 18891902:I:Plate 110). (b) Pax God appearing in Initial Series IntroductoryGlyph, Zoomporph B, Quirigua; note foliage emerging from mouth (after Maudslay 18891902:II:Plate 14). (c) Roll-out drawing oflarge jade Pax God pectoral, Burial 36, Quadrant 10J, Copan (drawing by the author from photographs courtesy of SeiichiNakamura). (d) Pax God pectoral from Hieroglyphic Stairway cache, Copan (after Fash 2001:Plate 9). (e) Pax God pectoral fromvicinity of Nohmul, Belize (after Digby 1972:Plate 3).


ure 7e). Wearing jaguar-pelt kilts and elaborate jade-belt assem-blages, Maya kings may have been considered living embodimentsof royal thrones in ritual performances.

JADE AND WIND

Along with relating to maize, centrality, and rulership, jade em-bodies the concept of life essence in Mesoamerican thought: [j]ade

is the stone with life that gives life, because it is identified with thesun, water, blood, sacrifice, sustenance (Tibn 1983:147; my trans-lation). In his discussion, Gutierre Tibn (1983:14, 26) focused onjade in respect to the life-giving qualities of water, an associationalso proposed J. Eric S. Thompson (1950:78) for the pre-HispanicMaya. Nevertheless, the ancient Mayas identified jade more closelywith wind, carrier of rain, and the essence of the life spirit. Mi-chael Coe (1988:225) suggested that the Classic Maya burial prac-

Figure 6. The foliated jade Jester God. (a, b) Foliated Ahau Jester Gods atop Pax God pectorals (Figure 4d, 4e). (c) Maize Godwearing headdress of foliated Jester God, central jade figure from Offering 7, Quadrant 10J, Copan (after photograph courtesy ofSeiichi Nakamura). (d) Foliated Jester God, Copan Stela P; note Ahau sign on brow, (from Taube 1998:Figure 15g). (e) Large EarlyClassic jade portraying maize god as foliated Jester God; note foliated Ahau sign atop head (from Taube 1998:Figure 17d). (f) Roll-outdrawing of jade Jester God boulder sculpture, Altun Ha (from Taube 1998:Figure 17b).

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tice of placing jade in the mouth relates to a sixteenth-centuryfunerary ritual performed at the death of Pokom Maya lords:[w]hen it appears then that some lord is dying, they had ready aprecious stone which they placed at his mouth when he appearedto expire, in which they believe that they took the spirit, and onexpiring, they very lightly rubbed his face with it. It takes thebreath, soul or spirit (translation in Miles 1957:749; for the orig-inal Spanish text, see Las Casas 1967:II:525526). As Coe (1988:225) noted, this account indicates that the jade bead was regardedas the breath spirit essence of the deceased.

Early Formative burials from the Valley of Oaxaca at timescontain a jade bead in the mouth, suggesting that the concept ofjade as the breath spirit may of great antiquity in Mesoamerica(Marcus 1999:Figures 4, 5). In addition, the breath bead appears

in Mesoamerican art from the Middle Formative Olmec to theLate Postclassic period, commonly portrayed as an element pro-jecting from or hovering in front on the nose (Houston and Taube2000:267). The Aztec also related jade to moist breath. Accordingto the Florentine Codex, precious stones are discovered by thehumid, smoke-like vapor that they exhale: [i]n this manner[they see,] they know where it is: they can see it is breathing,[smoking], giving off vapor (Sahagn 19501982:Book 11:221).Although this portion of the account only mentions piedras pre-ciosas, prospecting for jade, or chalchihuitl, is also specificallydescribed: [a]nd thus do they know that this precious stone isthere: [the herbs] always grow fresh; they grow green. They saythat this is the breath of the green stone, and its breath is veryfresh (Sahagn 19501982:Book 11:222). The same source adds

Figure 7. Jade elements appearing on mat thrones in Classic-period Mesoamerica. (a) Maya-style throne with pendant tassels andgreen jade disks on mat, Tetitla, Teotihuacan (from Taube 2003c:Figure 11.12a). (b) Mat throne with jade elements, detail of EarlyClassic Maya stucco facade in the Museo Nacional de Antropologa, Mexico City (from Taube 2003c:Figure 11.12d). (c) Jaguar-pelt-cushion throne with jade signs on horizontal mat element, Naranjo Stela 22 (from Taube 2003c:Figure 11.12e). (d) Probablejaguar-pelt-cushion throne with jade plaques on horizontal mat elements and jade-mask and belt-celt assemblages, Lintel 2 of TikalTemple III (after Jones and Satterthwaite 1982:Figure 72). (e) Ruler wearing heavy belt in form of jaguar-pelt-cushion throne withjade-mask and belt-celt assemblages, Dos Pilas Stela 17 (detail of drawing after Schele and Miller 1986:Figure 1.4d).


that the finest translucent green jade attracts water: [i]t attractsmoisture, becomes wet, has dew (Sahagn 19501982:Book 11:222). This may well relate to the collection of moisture by breath-ing on the surface of highly polished jade, as occurred in thePokom Maya death rites.

For the ancient Mayas, jade both exhaled and inhaled breathand moisture. Recent iconographic and epigraphic research hasdetermined that the breath soul was personified by the ClassicMaya wind god, a handsome, youthful being also identified withflowers and musicaroma and sound being phenomena carriedby air and wind (Houston and Taube 2000; Taube 2001, 2004a).Appearing as God H of the Postclassic codices and epigraphicallyas the patron of the month Mak and the personified form of thenumber 3, the wind god typically has long, unbound hair andwears a flower or jade jewel on his woven headband (Figure 8;Taube 1992b:56 60, 2004a:7274). Quite frequently, this browornament emits a pair of symmetrical volutes denoting breath oraroma (Figure 8a, e; Houston and Taube 2000:270). One of themore common death expressions in Classic Maya inscriptions con-cerns the expiration of the white flower windthat is, the breathsoul (Houston and Taube 2000:267). In one death phrase fromPalenque, the wind god substitutes directly for the ik wind sign asthe personified form of the breath spirit, the same soul captured byjade during death rites (Figure 8b).

The well-known jade mosaic funerary masks of Palenque andCalakmul probably concern the preservation of the vital breathsoul. One Calakmul example has breath volutes of white shell

emerging from the nostrils and corners of the mouth (Houston andTaube 2000:Figure 5d). The jade mosaic masks are probably moredeveloped forms of the jade bead placed in the mouth, a means ofholding and sustaining the living soul of the dead king.

Along with the Calakmul jade mask portraying the breathing,vital face of the king, the personification of the breath spirit, thewind god, also appears in jade, including examples from the Sa-cred Cenote at Chichen Itza (Figure 8c,d). The excavations byNakamura in Quadrant 10J at Copan have uncovered a jadeitestatuette of the wind god, complete with a floral headband emit-ting a pair of aroma elements and long hair cascading down theback of the figure (Figure 8e). Although few specialists have notedthe fact, Maya jade objects and portrayals of jade jewelry fre-quently display breath and wind signs (Figures 8a, 9, 10). Jadepectorals portraying the ik wind sign appear both in Classic Mayaart and as actual objects, including a pectoral from Calakmul (Fig-ure 9a,b; Schmidt et al. 1999:Number 144). The aforementionedjade belt celts, typically hanging as tinklers in sets of three, oftendisplay the ik sign (Figure 9c). Aside from alluding to jade, theik sign on celts may refer to music, as rattles, drums, and othermusical instruments are frequently marked with this element (Hous-ton and Taube 2000:273). A very dense and hard stone, jadeite hasstriking acoustical qualities, particularly when the surface is highlypolished. In replicative research, I have found that a set of threejadeite belt celts emits high and sharp clinking sounds, somethingthat must have especially impressive to the non-metal-using Clas-sic Mayas.

Along with being ornamented with ik wind signs, jades exhalethe same symmetrical breath volutes that emerge from flowersand the mouths of serpents in Maya art (Figures 8a, 9dg). Ac-cording to Stuart (1992), earspools were symbolic flowers amongthe Classic Mayas. As symbols of wind and breath, they also oftenexhale pairs of breath volutes. Late Classic zoomorphic facadesfrom the northern Maya Lowlands frequently depict earspoolswith pairs of symmetrical breath volutes (Gendrop 1983:Figures 38f, 52f, 65c, 79d, 82a, 92d). These earspool emanationscan be extremely large and elaborate. For the roof comb of theCasa Colorada at Chichen Itza, the earspools and breath elementsaccompanying the three masks constitute more than half of thesculptural facade. At Chichen Itza, the outwardly curling volutepairs often emerge simultaneously from the earspools and mouthcorners of zoomorphs, clearly indicating that they are breath(Schmidt 1999:37). Jade flares worn on the brow or as earspoolscommonly exhale breath volutes, including an example from theEarly Classic Leiden Plaque (Figure 9e,f ). An emerald green jadeportrays the maize god with a pair of large volutes denoting thebreath essence of the precious stone (Figure 9g). The smoking orexhaling jade flare on the brow denotes this figure god as anancestor, a motif commonly found on Late Classic carved jades aswell as in scenes of conjuring (Proskouriakoff 1974:Plate 71, c1;Yaxchilan Lintel 55).

CLASSIC MAYA EARSPOOL SYMBOLISM

Of the various jade ornaments worn by Classic Maya elites, theearspool appears to have been most closely related to the symbol-ism of breath and wind. At times, the aforementioned breath beadappears as an earspool (Figure 19g). In Classic Maya art, ear-spools are even portrayed in profile as versions of the ik sign(Figures 8a, 10a). The Classic wind god frequently has earspoolsof this form, and in the Postclassic codices the glyph of the wind

Figure 8. The Classic Maya wind god. (a) Early Classic wind god appearingas patron of the month Mak (from Taube 1992b:Figure 26e). (b) Wind godsubstituting for ik breath sign in death expression, Palenque (from Hous-ton and Taube 2000:Figure 4e). (c) Jade pendant of wind god, Cenote ofSacrifice, Chichen Itza (after Proskouriakoff 1974:Plate 62a.5). (d) Detail ofjade wind god pendant, Cenote of Sacrifice, Chichen Itza (after Pros-kouriakoff 1974:Plate 68.2). (e) Early Classic pendant of wind god, Quad-rant 10J, Copan (drawn after photograph courtesy of Seiichi Nakamura).

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god has a brow jewel element in the form of a earspool assem-blage (Taube 1992b:Figure 25a, e). A Naranjo text portrays fourik signs surrounding a sky glyph (Figure 10b). The form of thesewind signs are identical to earspools portrayed in profile (Fig-ure 10a). Zachary Hruby (personal communication 2001) has calledmy attention to a similar quadripartite program on a Late Classicpolychrome (Figure 10c). Portraying four earspool wind signsplaced to the cardinal directions within a floral form, this signprobably refers to the winds of the four directions. Both the Naranjoglyph and the vessel motif recall the directional earspools fromMiddle Formative and Early Classic caches from San Isidro andCopan (Figures 1c, 2a). In addition, three-dimensional ceramicearspools appear on three sides of an Early Classic, Teotihuacan-style rectangular cache vessel or censer from the Escuintla area ofGuatemala (Schmidt et al. 1998:Figure 252). A similar programappears on the lid of a Tepeu 1, Naranjo-style vessel in the BritishMuseum (Figure 10d). The lid portrays four equidistantly placedjade and breathing floral elements surrounding the handle in theform of a jade disk. Caches featuring four jades placed around acentral element may concern not only the cardinal world direc-tions and center but directional winds, as well.

In Late Classic Maya art, Teotihuacan-style supernaturals fre-quently breathe rain clouds from the corners of their mouths (Fig-ure 11d, f). For these breath volutes, raindrops fall from a cloudscroll. Late Classic Maya scenes portray the same Teotihuacan-derived cloud-and-rain element emerging out of earspools, muchas if they were breathing clouds of rain (Figure 11b,c, e). In fact,Early Classic murals from the Tepantitla compound at Teotihua-can portray the rain god with an undulating stream of water fallingfrom his earspool (Figure 11a). The concept of jade earspoolsexhaling rain clouds immediately recalls the Florentine Codexdescription of jade breathing fresh moisture onto growing plants.However, the concept of earspools exhaling moist breath is by nomeans limited to central Mexico. The same curving breath ele-ment can be seen in Early Classic and Late Preclassic Maya por-trayals of earspools, including a figure from the recently discoveredmurals at San Bartolo (Figure 12c). Tipped with a raindrop, thebreath volute on the Late Preclassic San Bartolo example is verysimilar to Late Classic Maya portrayals of Teotihuacan earspools(Figures 11b,c,e, 12c).

In Classic Maya art, the most common way of denoting earspoolbreath is neither the curving rain cloud nor pairs of breath volutes.

Figure 9. Classic-period portrayals of jade with wind and breath signs. (a) Jade pectoral with ik sign, Temple of the Inscriptions,Palenque (after Greene Robertson 1983:Figure 189). (b) Pectoral with serpents and ik sign, Structure 10L-11, Copan (after Schele andMiller 1986:Plate 36). (c) Jade belt celts with ik signs, Caracol Stela 5 (after Beetz and Satterthwaite 1981:Figure 6). (d) Serpent exhalingsymmetrical breath volutes, detail of Blom Plate, Late Classic (after Hellmuth 1987:Figure 409). (e) Jade flare with breath volutes,detail of Leiden Plaque (after Schele and Miller 1986:Plate 33b). (f) Jade flare with bifurcated breath element, Caracol Stela 4 (afterBeetz and Satterthwaite 1981:Figure 5). (g) Jade pendant of maize god and bifurcated breath element (after Stierlin 1998:Plate 247).


Rather, it is the virtually ubiquitous tube and spherical bead pro-jecting from the center of the jade flare (Figures 7e, 15b, 19g).This bar and bead is clearly a part of actual earspool assemblagesand is well documented in archaeological excavations (Kidderet al. 1946:Figures 45f, 145b; Ruz Lhuiller 1973:249, Fig-ure 226). But the jade bar and bead also represents moist breathand commonly projects out of the nostrils of serpents and othercreatures, denoting the breath soul of these zoomorphic beings(Figures 4f [ left], 7e, 15a, 17e,f, 18a; Baudez 1999:56; Houstonand Taube 2000:265). The bar and bead closely resembles Meso-american depictions of falling rain, including examples from Mid-dle Formative Chalcatzingo to the Late Postclassic Aztec. Thisconvention also recalls the stream of water falling from the earspoolat Tepantitla, Teotihuacan (Figure 11a). Late Classic Maya por-trayals of wind jewel jades often have pendant bar-and-beadassemblages, quite probably depicting drops falling from cloud-making wind (Figure 9a,b). The elements projecting from ClassicMaya earspools indicate that they are living, flower-like entitiesbreathing moisture and life.

The concept of earspools exhaling water and rain is very an-cient and was already present among the Preclassic Maya. Men-tion has been made of the San Bartolo mural portraying an earspoolwith the curving cloud element tipped by a raindrop (Figure 12c).Simpler examples appear in the exterior murals of Structure 5D-Sub-10-1st of Late Preclassic Tikal, which are earspools backedby prominent raindrops (Figure 12a). Another figure from the SanBartolo murals has an earspool emanation with a pair of beads or

drops (Figure 12b). Protoclassic figures from La Lagunita, Gua-temala, display breath elements similarly tipped with a pair ofbeads, a convention that can also be seen on the earlier, Olmec-style Shook Panel (Figure 12f,g). An especially elaborate earspoolelement appears on the Late Preclassic Stela 5 from Kaminaljuyu(Figure 12e). In this case, the breath element with its two beadsappears as the lower face of a zoomorphic being, quite possiblythe Maya rain god, Chaak. In addition to this being, earspoolbreath elements can also appear as serpent heads. The well-knownfacades from Structure 5C-2nd at Cerros depict earspools withprofile serpent heads exhaling raindrops from their mouths andnostrils (Figure 12d). Aside from the Cerros facades, Late Prelas-sic earspools with serpent heads appear on the incised Olmec heir-loom plaque at Dumbarton Oaks, the stucco facades of Structure5D-Sub.3 at Tikal, and Stela 1 of Nakbe (Coe 1990:Figure 43a,Miller 1996:61; Schele and Miller 1986:119). The Late Preclassicearspool elements portray the same concept of moist breath but indifferent levels of complexity, from a simple drop, to a curvingcloud and raindrop, to, finally, serpent and other zoomorphic headsas the embodiment of the exhalation.

In Late Classic Maya iconography, serpent heads continue torepresent the symbolic breath of earspools (Figures 13, 14, 16f ).The West Building at Uxmal supports a series of stacked zoomor-phic mountain masks, each having earspools with plumed serpentheads exhaling prominent breath scrolls from the corners of theirmouths (Figure 13a). Quite probably, these serpents are simplifiedforms of the great Quetzalcoatl serpents extending across the en-

Figure 10. Classic Maya earspools and the winds of the four directions. (a) Late Classic portrait glyph of wind god with ik signearspool, detail of carved bone text, Tikal Burial 116. (b) Sky glyph surrounded by four ik elements in the form of earspools, NaranjoAltar 1 (after Graham 1978:103). (c) Four ik sign earspools within floral motif, detail of Late Classic vessel, Museo Popol Vuh (afterphotograph courtesy of Zachary Hruby). (d) Four jade and breathing flower elements framing central disk, detail of Late Classicvessel lid, British Museum (after Coe 1973:86).

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Figure 11. Rain-breath elements at Early Classic Teotihuacan and in Teotihuacan-style Late Classic Maya art. (a) Teotihuacan Tlaloc withwater stream falling from mural, detail of Early Classic mural from Tepantitla, Teotihuacan (drawn after image courtesy of JenniferBrowder). (b) Ruler 3 with schematic Tlaloc mask and rain-breathing earspools, Dos Pilas Stela 16 (after Graham 1967:Figure 7).(c) Tlaloc figure with earspool breathing rain element, detail of text from Temple 26, Copan (after Stuart 2000:Figure 15.24). (d) Skullbreathing rain cloud from corner of mouth, detail of temple text from Structure 10L-26, Copan (after Stuart 2000:Figure 15.24).(e) Tikal ruler Jasaw Chan Kawiil with brow goggles and earspools breathing rain clouds, Lintel 2 of Tikal Temple 1 (after Jones andSatterthwaite 1982:Figure 69). (f) Schematic drawing of War Serpent breathing rain cloud from corner of mouth, Lintel 2 of TikalTemple I (after Jones and Satterthwaite 1982:Figure 69).


Figure 12. Late Preclassic Maya earspool iconography. (a) Earspool with raindrop, detail of Late Preclassic mural, Stucture 5D-Sub.10-1st, Tikal (after Coe 1990:Figure 32a). (b) Male figure with earspool emanation with pair of drops, West Wall mural, San Bartolo,Guatemala (detail of drawing courtesy of Heather Hurst). (c) Goddess with cloud and raindrop element projecting from side ofearspool, detail of North Wall Mural, San Bartolo (after drawing courtesy of Heather Hurst). (d) Earspool with serpent exhalingraindrops, detail of Late Preclassic stucco facade, Cerros (after Freidel 1985:Figure 6b). (e) Figure with earspool emanation with dropspersonified by deity head, possibly Chaak, detail of Kaminaljuyu Stela 5 (after Parsons 1986:Figure 53). (f) Figure with pair of beadedbreath elements, detail of stone sarcophagus from La Lagunita, Protoclassic period (after Ichon 1977:Figure 49). (g) Olmec-stylefigure with pair of breath beads, detail of Shook Panel, Middle Formative period, Guatemala (after Taube 2004b:Figure 9f).

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tire facade. It is widely known that in central Mexico, Quetzal-coatl is the embodiment of rain-bringing wind, and it subsequentlywill be noted that Quetzalcoatl can be found emerging from ear-spools in Late Postclassic Aztec art (Figure 19b,c). In ClassicMaya iconography, serpents are not only presented in profile againstthe earspool but can emerge directly from the center of the device,a convention that appears with other jade flares. On Caracol Stela 5,the aforementioned breath element in the nostrils of zoomorphicbeings is a serpent emerging from a jade flare (Figure 13b). Inanother example, a serpent head in profile embodies the smoke orbreath exhaled from the brow flare (Figure 13c). The stackedheaddresses on the eastern side of Copan Stela C have four ear-spools with serpents displaying probable cloud volutes on theirbodies (Figure 13d). Breathing-serpent earspools continue to ap-pear in Late Postclassic Maya art, including in the Dresden Codex(Thompson 1972), as well as on the murals at Santa Rita, Belize(Figure 13f,g). In the Dresden Codex example, the serpent emergesfrom the central projecting bar of the earspool.

In concept, the Dresden Codex earspool is very similar to anexample from Late Classic Machaquila Stela 3, which depicts afret-nosed serpent as the projecting bar and bead of the earspool

assemblage (Figure 13e). But in contrast to the central bar andbead of actual Maya earspools, this serpent is usually not a solid,carved jade object. Instead, it is an idealized portrayal of breath.Thus, the Maya sun god and other beings often exhale this samebreath serpent from their noses (Figure 14a,b). An incised alabas-ter vessel portrays a fret-nosed serpent head emerging from anearspool in the form of the ik sign (Figure 14c). The fret-nosedserpent probably denotes warm, living breath, as this creaturealso emerges from solar disks and burning censers. Althoughheat and warmth may seem to oppose the concept of water, warmsummer breezes bring the fructifying rain. Moreover, in the Flo-rentine Codex account of finding precious stone mentioned ear-lier, Aztec prospectors would watch for the breathing mist at thedawn rising of the sun. A very dense silicate, jadeite stronglyabsorbs solar heat. Left in tropical sun, a polished piece of jadeis both burning to the touch and fully capable of producing vaporif moistened.

For the Classic Maya, the most grandiose forms of breathingearspools occur on a particular form of the ceremonial bar wreathedin flowers and the mat design at both ends (Figure 15). This barappears to be a rolled mat with flaring stoppers at both ends.

Figure 13. Late Classic and Postclassic Maya earspool iconography. (a) Earspool with plumed serpent exhaling volutes at corners ofmouth, detail of facade from West Building of Nunnery Quadrangle, Uxmal (after Schele and Mathews 1998:Figure 7.36). (b) Jadeflare and serpent breath element, Stela 5, Caracol (after Beetz and Satterthwaite 1981:Figure 6). (c) Serpent as smoke or breath of jadebrow flare, Lintel 1, Itzimte (after von Euw 1977:31). (d) Four earspools with emergent breath serpents, east side of Copan Stela C(after Fash 2001:Figure 68). (e) Serpent emerging as central breath element of earspool, Stela 3, Machaquila (after Graham1967:Figure 49). (f) Late Postclassic Chaak with serpent emerging from central breath element of earspool, Dresden Codex, page 35b.(g) Kawiil with serpent in earspool, detail of mural from Santa Rita, Belize (after Taube 1992b:Figure 32f).


Stuart (personal communication 1999) suggests that these endpieces are giant jade earspools, with the Pomona Flare being anexample of such an object. Kenneth Hirth and Susan Hirth (1993:185) call attention to particularly massive earspools, or biconicalearflares, that are far too heavy and large to be worn through theear. The Hirths note the presence of these earflares in centralHonduras, Copan, and Quirigua (Hirth and Hirth 1993). In addi-tion, many of these jade flares were found in the Early Classicjade cache from Cerro de las Mesas, Veracruz (Drucker 1955:5152, Plate 41). Philip Drucker (1955:5152) also expresses the opin-ion that they were not worn as earpieces: a number of earspoolflares from the cache, in fact a considerable number, are so largeand heavy that I am inclined to doubt that they could have beenactually worn in the ears. Hirth and Hirth (1993:185) suggestthat the large flares could have been worn as belt plaques or asheaddress ornaments, but it is also possible that many served asstopper-like endpieces on ceremonial bars.

Many Early Classic figures holding ceremonial bars wear largeearspools edged with the same mat and floral devices found on thebars, much as if their headsthe space between the pair of spoolsconstituted a personified form of the bar (Figure 15a [upper cen-ter]). In addition, on the Early Classic Stelae 1 and 2 of Tikal andStela 6 of Caracol, rulers wear long necklace chains of earspoolswhile wielding the ceremonial bar (Figure 15a [lower center];Beetz 1981:Figure 7; Jones and Satterthwaite 1982:Figures 1, 2).At Late Classic Coba, rulers holding ceremonial bars invariablyhave long earspool chain necklaces (Graham and von Euw 1997).For Stelae 2 and P at Copan, earspool necklaces with pairs ofsymbolic serpent heads substitute directly for the ceremonial bar(Fash 2001:Figures 50, 51, 58). The southern side of QuiriguaStela F portrays a pair of long earspool chains ending with serpent

heads hanging from the headdress to below the arms of the ruler.As Herbert Spinden (1913:58) noted long ago, the pair of descend-ing chains and serpent heads substitutes directly for the ceremo-nial bar. Quite frequently, Early Classic figures adopt the ceremonialbar arm posebut without the barover their pendant jade neck-laces, as if the jades serve as substitute ceremonial bars (Fig-ures 5ce, 6e). In Classic Maya costume and regalia, the ceremonialbar was clearly related to the symbolism of earspools and jade.

Along with jade earspool chains, the ceremonial bar is por-trayed in the form of jade pectorals, items worn in the same chestregion where the bar would be held. An excellent example wasrecently discovered by Nakamura in Copan Quadrant 10J; it por-trays a miniature ceremonial bar in the form of a mat tube withstylized flowers and flares at the ends (Figure 16a). The EarlyClassic Burial 48 at Tikal, the tomb of Siyah Chan Kawiil, alsocontained a jade in the form of a rolled mat with ends resemblingearflares (Figure 16b). A markedly similar jade pectoral, attrib-uted to the Atlantic Watershed of Costa Rica, depicts the rolledmat as well as serpent heads projecting from the ends of the ear-flares, recalling portrayals of ceremonial bars in Classic Maya art(Figures 15, 16c). As with other Early Classic jades known fromCosta Rica, this pectoral was probably imported from the Mayaregion.

Late Classic sculptures from the recently excavated TempleXIX at Palenque portray the ruler Kinich Ahkal Mo Nab wear-ing a ceremonial bar pectoral, complete with serpent heads pro-jecting from the earflare ends (Figure 16d,e).The many specifictraits shared among the Temple XIX examples suggest that theyportray the same pectoral, a specific jade assemblage worn byKinich Ahkal Mo Nab. A fragmentary looted panel from theregion of Pomona portrays yet another example of a ceremonial

Figure 14. The fret-nosed breath serpent emerging from faces and earspools. (a) Fret-nosed serpent emerging from nasal area, detailof Late Classic jade plaque (after Schele and Miller 1986:Plate 34). (b) Sun god breathing serpent from nose, Quirigua Stela D (afterMaudslay 18891902:II:Plate 26). (c) Ruler with breath serpent emerging from earspool, Seibal Stela 10 (after Graham 1996:32).(d) Ik sign earspool with breath serpent, detail of carved alabaster vase (after Bliss 1957:Plate 86). (e) Breath serpent emerging fromearspool, Dos Pilas Stela 8 (after Mathews 2001:Figure 40.2). (f) Breath serpent emerging from floral earspool, Yaxchilan Lintel 25(after Graham and von Euw 1977:55).

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bar serpent pectoral (Figure 16f ). In this case, a virtually identicalserpent head emerges out of the earspool, once again linking thesymbolism of the ceremonial bar to earspools.

The ceremonial bars portrayed on Classic monuments and asjade pectorals are idealized portrayals of supernaturally chargedbut also physically inert items. Rather than actual carved objects,the serpent heads emerging from the ends of ceremonial bars areprobably symbolic, breath-like emanations, massive versions ofthe serpents exhaled from jade earspools. One Late Classic vesselscene portrays a youthful, long-haired maleprobably the windgodholding the rolled mat bar, complete with large earspoolends wreathed in mat and floral designs (Figure 15b). The writh-ing serpent passing through this item is clearly not part of thestatic ceremonial bar. Often known as the Bearded Dragon, this

serpent is a creature of breath and wind and frequently rises out ofburning bowls as swirling convection currents or is exhaled out ofthe mouths of zoomorphic mountains (Figure 17f; Taube 2003c:295296). As with many ceremonial bars, the serpent exhales agodin this case, Kawiilfrom its open maw. The accompany-ing vessel text describes the birth of Kawiil, denoting the sceneas an act of conjuring. The serpent heads and gods at the ends ofceremonial bars portray supernatural beings breathed and con-jured into existence.

Along with the Classic Maya phrase referring to the expirationof the breath soul, another common death expression is och bih,meaning enters the road. Typically, the glyphic compound forthis phrase is a rattlesnake tail, och, followed by an earspool, readbih (Figure 17b). However, the snake tail and earspool compos-

Figure 15. The ceremonial bar in Classic Maya iconography. (a) Detail of Early Classic ceremonial bar from Tikal Stela 2; note alsoearspool assemblage and earspool necklace in upper and lower center respectively (after Jones and Satterthwaite 1982:Figure 2).(b) Codex-style vessel portraying Kawiil being conjured out of ceremonial bar by probable wind god wearing crocodilian headdress(after Kerr 1992:389).


ing the sign are not simply phonetic; they also relate to the con-cept of the breath serpent passing through the jade earspool road,or bih. On the Early Classic vessel commonly referred to as theDeath Vase, the och bih expression is explicitly rendered as a

serpent penetrating an earspool (Figure 17a). Simon Martin (per-sonal communication 1999) notes that the hand och variant, as canoccur in a version of the och bih phrase, appears in the brow offour small supernaturals on the sides of Tikal Stela 1 (Fig-

Figure 16. Jade pectorals in the form of ceremonial bars. (a) Early Classic ceremonial bar pectoral of rolled mat with four-lobedflowers and earspools at ends, from Burial 36, Quadrant 10J, Copan (drawing by the author from photograph courtesy of SeiichiNakamura). (b) Jade pectoral from Burial 48, Tikal (after Shook and Kidder 1961:6). (c) Jade pectoral of rolled mat with earspools andemergent serpent heads at both heads, attributed to Atlantic Watershed, Costa Rica (after Jones 1988:Plate 83). (d) Jade pectoralportrayed on carved bench, Temple XIX, Palenque (drawing by the author after field drawing by David Stuart). (e) Jade pectoraldepicted on carved panel, Temple XIX, Palenque (drawing by the author after field drawing by David Stuart). (f) Figure with ser-pents emerging from bar pectoral and earspool, fragmentary bas-relief from vicinity of Pomona (after field drawing courtesy of IanGraham).

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Figure 17. The och bih expression in Classic Maya epigraphy and art. (a) Och bih glyph portraying serpent penetrating earspool, detailof Early Classic Death Vase (after Kerr 2000:972). (b) Och bih compound, Sarcophagus Lid, Temple of the Inscriptions, Palenque.(c) Och bih variant with hand substituting for och rattlesnake tail, Tikal Stela 31, G28. (d) Piscine figure with och hand sign on brow,Tikal Stela 1 (after Jones and Satterthwaite 1982:Figure 1). (e) One of pair of snakes passing through probable earspools, Tikal Stela 1(after Jones and Satterthwaite 1982:Figure 1). (f) Zoomorphic witz mountain breathing snakes through earspools, Tonina Monument106 (partly reconstructed by the author after Becquelin and Baudez 1982:Figure 175). (g) Breath element emerging out of ik signearspool, detail of upper portion of Pier C, Palenque (after Maudslay 18891902:IV:Plate 55).


ure 17c,d). Aside from the serpent conjuring bar and earspoolnecklace, Stela 1 portrays a pair of descending serpents passingthrough a pair of disks, quite possibly earspools (Figure 17e). Thescene of the conjured birth of God K described earlier is a graphicportrayal of och bih, here in the context of conjuring as symbolicbirth (Figure 15b).

Early Classic witz monsters frequently exhale snakes throughtheir earspools. Excellent examples occur on Tikal Structure 5D-33-2nd and D5-1 at Tonina (Figure 17f ). Both were obviouslyextremely important and revered buildings; in the case of the Ti-kal structure, this was the mortuary monument for Siyah ChanKawiil. Quite probably, the serpent earspools portray these witzmountains as places of och bih for conjuring revered ancestorsinto the sky. Whereas the death expression och ha, or enters thewater, refers to expiration and netherworld descent, och bih ap-parently concerns rebirth and resurrection related to fire, flowers,and the celestial road of the sun (Taube 2003b). On the EarlyClassic Death Vase, the och bih expression appears in a scene

where a solar disk rises above the bundled corpse of the maize god(Kerr 2000:972). The Sarcophagus Lid text of Pakal of Palenquecontains many och bih phrases, including explicit reference to theburied king (Figure 17b). From the sarcophagus, a hollow ma-sonry psychoduct snakes its way up the interior steps to end atPier C. The upper portion of the stucco facade of Pier C, and onlythis pier, features the date 1 Ik, or 1 Wind, as well as an ik-signearspool with smoking breath pouring onto a solar sign, quiteprobably depicting the celestial resurrection of Pakals breath soul(Figure 17g).

The relationship of och bih to celestial solar ascent can betraced to Stela 4 of Late Preclassic Takalik Abaj (Figure 18a). Themonument portrays an undulating and burning serpent rising outof a form described by Julia Guernsey Kappelman (2002:77) as amedallion-decorated portal. This device is an earspool, quitelike an example that appears on Takalik Abaj Stela 2 (Figure 18c).The serpent has a solar kin sign in its coils and is apparently beingbreathed out of the watery depths of Flower Mountain, marked by

Figure 18. The och bih event in the art of Late Preclassic Takalik Abaj. (a) Serpent with solar sign and probable ancestral head in mouthrising out of earspool in water; note zoomorphic witz heads with flowers on brows flanking pool of water, Takalik Abaj Stela 4(partially reconstructed drawing by the author). (b) Detail of earspool in pool of water, Takalik Abaj Stela 4. (c) Figure with earspoolassemblage, Takalik Abaj Stela 2 (after drawing courtesy of James Porter).

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a pair of zoomorphic witz heads with flowers atop their brows.Along with transporting the sun, the serpent bears a human face inits mouth. Guernsey Kappelman (2002:77) notes that this figurewears a jade bead in front of the nose. This is the breath bead,which apparently was accompanied by a pair of large breath vo-lutes extending beyond the length of the face. A Late Preclassicform of och bih, the Takalik Abaj scene depicts a serpent risingout of an earspool to carry an ancestor or god upward into thecelestial road of the sun.

JADE AND EARSPOOL SYMBOLISM IN CLASSICAND POSTCLASSIC HIGHLAND MEXICO

The relationship of jade earspools to breath, wind, and super-natural serpents was not limited to the Classic Maya. It was alsopresent in Postclassic Central Mexico. As with the Classic Maya,the Aztecs commonly portrayed earspools as disks with a centralprojecting bar and bead, a device that also serves as a basic Aztecsign for jade and preciousness (Pasztory 1983:Plate 45). How-ever, two massive Tlaloc censers attributed to Late PostclassicOaxaca or Veracruz display earspools with explicit serpents emerg-ing in place of the central bar and bead, a convention strikinglysimilar to the Maya rain god in the Dresden Codex (Figures 13f,19a; for Tlaloc censers, see Brettell 1993:8; Matos Moctezuma1995:31). Leonardo Lpez Lujn (personal communication 2001)has called my attention to an Aztec silver mask pendant that hasearspools in the form of disks with penetrating serpents (Fig-ure 19c). With their rattlesnake tails and plumed crests, these ser-pents probably portray Quetzalcoatl as the embodiment of wind.A small Aztec stone sculpture in the collections of the FriedaKahlo Museum portrays Quetzalcoatl surging out from the centerof an earspool, probably to denote the breath essence of the orna-ment (Figure 19b). Such an earspool may have been a specificcostume element of Quetzalcoatl. In the Telleriano-Remensis Codex(Quiones-Keber 1995), Quetzalcoatl wears a serpent earspool inthe thirteen-day trecena of 1 Wind, and this is the only example ofsuch an earspool in the entire manuscript (Figure 19f ).

The identification of earspools with Quetzalcoatl and breathwas clearly present during the Early Postclassic period. The mag-nificent gold mask discovered in the Cenote of Sacrifice at Chi-chen Itza portrays a pair of undulating plumed serpents above theeye orbits (Figure 19d). Each of the serpents carries a pair ofearspools emitting long quetzal plumes (Figure 19e). In ClassicMaya iconography, floral or jade breath elements frequently ap-pear with quetzal feathers. A Chochola-style carved vase depictsthis breath device as an earspool with quetzal plumes emergingfrom the center of the jade, a concept identical to the examplesthat appear on the Chichen Itza plumed serpents (Figure 19g).Moreover, stone almenas from roughly contemporaneous Tula de-pict earspools in profile with prominent breath volutes (Figure 19h).

The Pyramid of the Plumed Serpents at Xochicalco constitutesone of the most elaborate, monumental portrayals of Quetzalcoatlknown in ancient Mesoamerica. The Terminal Classic facades alsoportray a great deal of imagery pertaining to Classic Maya jadesymbolism. Many researchers have noted that the seated nobleson the northern, eastern, and southern facades of the lower plat-form Xochicalco are based on the format of Late Classic Mayajade plaques (Coe 1984:106; Nagao 1989:9495; Ringle et al.1998:205). In fact, the entire tableaux of these facades concernsthe symbolism of jade, breath, and wind in the context of royalMaya ancestors (for entire scenes of facades, see Smith 2000:

Figure 4.2). All of the seated Maya figures wear breathing spoolsin their headdresses, denoting them as conjured supernaturals (Fig-ure 20a). The form of these brow pieces resembles not only Clas-sic Maya examples but also the breathing earspools at EarlyPostclassic Tula (Figures 9e, 19h). Similar breath volutes cap thespeech scrolls of the Xochicalco figures, speech and breath beingclosely related phenomena in Mesoamerican thought (Houstonand Taube 2000:274276). Along with breath volutes, the quetzalplumes hanging from these speech scrolls probably also denotebreath and wind (Figure 20a).

The breathing-jade-spool motif appears again in far larger formon the three Xochicalco facades, here atop Reptile Eye glyphswith the coefficient of 9 (Smith 2000:Figure 4.2). According toAlfonso Caso (1962:53), the Reptile Eye sign probably corre-sponds to the day name Wind, equivalent to the Maya day Ik, anidentification also favored by other researchers (Coe 1984:106;Ringle et al. 1998:209). Supported by flame volutes, the breathingspools are virtually identical to the examples ornamenting thebrows of the seated Maya lords (Figure 20b).

On the Pyramid of the Plumed Serpents, a massive vertical barwith a mat motif marks the center of all three facades (Fig-ure 20c). I suspect that this device portrays the ceremonial bar ofMaya kings, commonly in the form of a rolled mat with flaringspools at both ends (Figures 15a,b, 16ac). In the roughly con-temporaneous Terminal Classic murals of Structure A at Cacaxtla,the Maya eagle warrior carries such a bar with mat designs whilestanding on a plumed and bearded serpent (Coe 1984:105). How-ever, although the Xochicalco examples lack the pair of spoolends, there are two of these with each facade, these being thelarge, breathing spools atop the pair of Reptile Eye Glyphs appear-ing on all three sides of the building. In the case of the north andsouth facades, the pairs of breathing spools and Reptile Eye signsflank the sides of the vertical bar (Smith 2000:Figure 4.2). It isthus readily possible to place the pairs of breathing spools witheach of the three bars (Figure 20d). However, aside from the breathvolutes, these facades contain far larger portrayals of breath andwind, these being the pairs of massive, bearded plumed serpentsextending out from both sides of the central bars (Figure 20e).These serpents display cut conch wind jewels on their bodiesand exhale quetzal plumes from their nostrils, indicating that theirfeathered bodies and essence is breath and wind (Taube 2001:111,121, 2003c:291).

Extending outward from both sides of the central bar, the pairsof bearded plumed serpents at Xochicalco are quite like the BeardedDragon heads emerging as symbolic breath out of the ends ofMaya ceremonial bars (Figure 15a). However, whereas conjuredbeings typically appear in the mouths of the Maya Bearded Drag-ons, the Xochicalco facade portrays the Maya lords floating in thecoils of the plumed serpents. The lower facades of the Pyramid ofthe Plumed Serpents portrays the Maya figures not as living kingsbut as ancestors embodied in jade and conjured and carried bybreath and wind.

The references to elite Maya jade lore on the Pyramid of thePlumed Serpents could suggest that many of the aspects of jadesymbolism noted for Postclassic highland Mexico may have beenderived from the Classic Maya by way of Xochicalco. However,although jadeite is notably rare at Teotihuacan, there was never-theless an elaborate symbolic complex concerning earspools. AtTeotihuacan, earspools were commonly portrayed as flowers, of-ten with four-petaled forms (Figure 21b; Berrin and Pasztory 1993:Numbers 70, 75, 104; Sejourn 1966:Figures 5459). In the


Figure 19. Plumed serpents, breath, and earspools in Postclassic Mesoamerica. (a) Serpent emerging from earspool, detail of LatePostclassic Tlaloc censer (after Bretell 1993:8). (b) Aztec stone sculpture of Quetzalcoatl emerging out of large earspool (drawing byauthor of item on display in Museo Frida Kahlo, Mexico City). (c) Aztec feathered serpent in earspool, detail of silver Yacatecuhtlimask from Templo Mayor, Tenochtitlan (after Bonifaz Nuo 1981:Number 83). (d) One of pair of plumed serpents on eyes of goldmask from the Cenote of Sacrifice, Chichen Itza (after Coggins and Shane 1984:Number 32). (e) Detail of pair of earspools withquetzal feathers on body of plumed serpent (after Coggins and Shane 1984:Number 32). (f) Quetzalcoatl with serpent earspool,Telleriano-Remensis Codex, Folio 22r. (g) Earspool and quetzal feather breath element, detail of Late Classic Maya vase (after Kerr1997:837). (h) Early Postclassic portrayals of breathing earspools, Tula, Hidalgo (after de la Fuente et al. 1988:Figures 14041).

44 Taube

Teotihuacan-derived Early Classic art of Escuintla, Guatemala, anumber of censer lids have central chimneys in the form of hollowearspools (Figure 21a; Hellmuth 1975:Plates 23, 36, 39). At times,the rim is beaded, a common trait of both Classic Maya and Teo-tihuacan earspools (Figures 13e, 21a; Berrin and Pasztory 1993:Number 102; Sejourn 1966:Figures 5455, 5759). ATeotihuacan-

style censer lid from Early Classic Kaminaljuyu depicts a seateddrummer within such an earspool displaying the beaded rim (Kid-der et al. 1946:Figures 87, 201i). Vents under the arm and in theopen mouth of the singing figure served as the exit holes andsmoking breath of the censer. Like the Classic Maya concept ofoch bih, the smoke passing up through these symbolic earspools

Figure 20. Imagery pertaining to jade, breath, and wind from the Pyramid of the Feathered Serpents, Xochicalco. (a) Seated lord withbifurcated breath element atop speech scroll and emerging from jade flare on brow (drawing from photograph by the author).(b) Profile rendering of earspool with flames and bifurcated breath element (drawing from photograph by the author). (c) Mat motifin center of north, east, and south facades (drawing from photograph by the author). (d) Mat form placed with pair of breathingearspools (composite drawing from the author). (e) Pairs of bearded plumed serpents and earspools with mat form (compositedrawing by the author).


constitutes the conjured soul essence rising into the sky. In addi-tion, these censers vividly recall the breathing spools placed di-rectly atop pairs of flames at Xochicalco (Figure 20b).

As circular, flower-like stone objects, mirrors and earspoolsare closely related in Teotihuacan symbolic thought. Both are con-sidered cave-like, supernatural passageways (on mirrors as sym-bolic caves, see Taube 1992a:194197). A number of earspoolsfrom the Early Classic Esperanza phase burials at Kaminaljuyuwere encrusted with iron-ore mosaic, thereby conflating earspoolswith mirrors (Kidder et al. 1946:109). Teotihuacan murals fre-quently portray mirrors having an earspool in the center of thereflective face (Miller 1973:Figures 149, 315, 366). This mirrortype was found in an Esperanza phase tomb at Kaminaljuyu, with

the central jade earspool containing a jade face carved in profile(Kidder et al. 1946:Figures 26, 143b). The Teotihuacan examplesof figures within earspools may not be simply decorative fancy;they may depict conjured beings (Berrin and Pasztory 1993:Number 184). The Early Classic Burial A-31 at Uaxactun con-tained a pair of earspools with mosaic faces of Tlaloc in theircenters, recalling the depictions of clouds and rain emerging fromTeotihuacan-style earspools, including the Early Classic examplefrom Tepantitla (Kidder 1947:44, Figure 79g).

At Teotihuacan, one structure in particular appears to evokethe concept of och bih and the celestial ascent of the soul. Con-structed near the beginning of the third century a.d., the Temple ofQuetzalcoatl featured images of Quetzalcoatl, the rain-bringing

Figure 21. Early Classic Teotihuacan earspool iconography. (a) Censer lid with chimney in form of earspool atop quetzal, Escuintlaregion, Guatemala (after Hellmuth 1975:Plate 39c). (b) Earspool with four-lobed flower and petaled rim, detail of fragmentaryTeotihuacan censer (after Easby and Scott 1970:Number 123). (c) Quetzalcoatl with War Serpent headdress on body passing throughpetaled rim, detail of facade of Temple of Quetzalcoatl, Teotihuacan (drawing by the author).

46 Taube

god of wind, writhing through great rings rimmed with apparentfeathers (Figure 21c). The serpents emerge from giant, three-dimensional flowers in the center of the rings, suggesting thatthey are breathlike emanations of the blossoms. Although I haveidentified the outer feathered rings as the rims of mirrors (Taube1992a:197), it is quite possible that they are earspools, as thereare examples with similar rims at Teotihuacan, including onewith a four-petaled flower in the center (Figure 21b). Of course,the earspool identification would be very consistent with thebreath serpent and floral earspool imagery noted for the ClassicMaya. In addition, although there are portrayals of serpents emerg-ing from mirrors in Postclassic Central Mexico (Taube 1992a:Figure 21e), serpents also pass through earspools, including theexplicit Aztec portrayal of Quetzalcoatl exiting from such a de-vice (Figure 19b).

As creatures of life-giving breath and wind, the plumed ser-pents from the Temple of Quetzalcoatl are being exhaled into thesky as a massive Teotihuacan version of the Classic Maya och bih(Taube 2003b:433435, 2004a:8891). Whereas the feathered ser-pents at Xochicalco carry conjured Maya rulers on their bodies,the Teotihuacan examples bear the War Serpent helmet denotingan office of war (Taube 1992c:59 61). The dedicatory mass buri-als within the Temple of Quetzalcoatl contained many individualsdressed and armed as warriors (Sugiyama 1992). It is becomingincreasingly evident that, as with the later Aztec, the souls of deadwarriors at Teotihuacan were transformed into celestial butterflies(Berlo 1983; Taube 2000b). Carrying war helmets on their bodies,the plumed serpents on the Temple of Quetzalcoatl may portraythe ascent of such heroic warriors into the sky and the celestialparadise of the sun (Taube 2003b, 2004a).

CONCLUSIONS

Among the ancient Mayas, jade was esteemed for its beauty andpreciousness and as a rarefied embodiment of life essence, notonly as maize and life-giving water, but also as a physical mani-festation of the breath spirit. The fleeting and ethereal breath soulwas commonly portrayed in jade, one of the hardest and mostdurable materials in ancient Mesoamerica. This breath soul the-matically relates to music and flowers, and the importance ofsound is reflected in the jade belt celts often suspended from an-cestor masks. The tinkling celts may well have denoted the breathand speech of the jade mask. The belt celts also recall floral Aztecgold jewelry, which, when worn or handled, emits a sweet, deli-cate sound. Clearly, individuals wearing such items had a special

and direct link to the gods and ancestors. Among the Classic Ma-yas, jade earspools symbolized rain-making wind and the breathspirit, and in their hollow, flared form, both evoked flowers andsupernatural, cave-like portals. The four-petaled form of manyearspools represented the quatrefoil cave motif as well as flowers.Elites wearing such jade devices probably were conceived as be-ing in continuous sonic contact with numinous beings. In ClassicMaya rituals of conjuring, gods and ancestors were symbolicallyexhaled and conjured from pairs of massive earspools placed atthe ends of ceremonial bars.

Much of the Classic Maya breath symbolism found with jade,including earspools, was also present in highland Mexico. Asidefrom the explicit portrayals of serpents emerging from earspools,massive architectural facades and Xochicalco and Teotihuacan por-tray earspool and jade symbolism in relation to the plumed serpentQuetzalcoatl, the embodiment of life-giving breath and wind. Al-though it may appear strange to lavish such monumental attentionon a relatively simple item of adornment, this is also clearly thecase with many Classic Maya facades, which are filled with elab-orate portrayals of earspools and their breath-like emanations.

In the Maya region, the relationship of earspools to breath andcelestial serpents can be traced to the Late Preclassic period, in-cluding the elaborate scene on Takalik Abaj Stela 4. However,much of this symbolism was already present among the MiddleFormative Olmecs, including the portrayal of breath beads beforethe face (Houston and Taube 2000). Mention has been made of theSan Isidro cache containing earspools oriented to the four direc-tions, an antecedent of the later Classic Maya placement of ear-spools as the winds of the four directions. In addition, a pair ofjade earspools from La Venta bear incised miniature breath ele-ments in the form of a disk, possibly a miniature earspool, withpairs of outcurving breath volutes (Taube 2001:Figure 81). Two ofthe more ancient jade forms appearing among the FormativeOlmecs, earspools and belt celts were both related to antiquity andancestor veneration among the Classic Maya. In part, the relation-ship of jade to the ancient past concerns the tough and durablenature of this stone, which allows objects to be used and reusedfor hundreds of years as heirlooms and material testimony to pastevents (Joyce 2000:1315). However, jade also symbolized theimmaterial breath essence of the soul, allowing for ritual contactwith otherwise remote gods and ancestors. In Classic Maya thought,jade was a stone of beauty and ancient tradition, a living materialthat, through heirlooms and rituals of conjuring, linked the livingto generations of the dead.

RESUMEN

Los mayas del perodo clsico estimaron la jadeita, no solamente por suvalor como materia preciosa y su belleza, sino tambin por ser una piedrade gran importancia simblica. Este trabajo examina el significado reli-gioso del jade y varios tipos de artefactos de jade entre los mayas delclsico. En este estudio, notar que los mayas del clsico atribuyeron unnmero de significados al jade, incluyendo el maz, centralidad y gobi-erno, as como un personificacin del viento y la vitalidad del espritu oaliento sagrado. Debido a la cercana relacin al aliento sagrado, el jadefue un componente importante de ritos funerarios y de la aparacin ritualde los dioses y ancestros. Talladas en forma floral, orejeras de jadefueron consideradas como fuentes supernaturales o conductos para el

aliento sagrado, frecuentemente representado como una cuenta o serpi-ente surgiendo del centro de la orejera. Una expresin comn de lamuerte entre los mayas del clsico, och bih, tiene que ver directamentecon el renacimiento del espritu a travs el simbolismo de las orejeras.Muchos de los significados e imagines encontrados con el jade de losmayas del clsico tambin aparecen en otras culturas del Mesoamricaantiguo, que incluye Teotihuacan, Xochicalco y los aztecas del perodode contacto. En lugar de ser completamente de origen maya, muchosaspectos del simbolismo del jade artefactos relacionados al mismo tam-bin se pueden encontrar entre los olmecas tempranos del formativomedio.


ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

A version of the paper was first presented during the 2001 Congreso In-ternacional de Copn. I am grateful to Ricardo Agurcia Fascquelle andothers of the organizing committee for allowing me to participate in thissession. I thank Seiichi Nakamura for generously sharing his detaileddescriptions of the excavations and finds from Quadrant 10J at Copan.Takeshi Inomata and Shuji Araki kindly assisted with Japanese biblio-graphic information. Virginia Fields provided a number of useful sugges-tions and comments. Jennifer Browder and Claudia Garcia des Lauriers

were of great help in translating Nahuatl texts concerning jade. Thanksalso to William Saturno and Heather Hurst for kindly sharing their unpub-lished material concerning the murals of San Bartolo, Guatemala. StephenHouston and David Stuart were a steady source of information and inspi-ration during the preparation of this manuscript. Finally, I thank WilliamFowler and a reviewer, William Ringle, for their many thoughtful com-ments and suggestions for the final published version of this paper.

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taube 2005 jade symbolism

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