| الوصف: |
During the Late Classic period, the ancient site of Toniná—located in the Ocosingo Valley of Chiapas, México—was a thriving Maya polity engaged in local and foreign political affairs, which extended throughout the Usumacinta region. Alliance building and warfare in this period centered on the contentious relationship between Toniná and its historical rival, Palenque. The events that unfolded between these powerful communities, their rulers, and ancillary vassals were recorded in the art and architecture of Tonina’s ball courts, plazas, and acropolis. The seven-tiered structure, which is one of the tallest acropolises of the Classic period, boasts a vast corpus of stone and stucco monuments scattered throughout staircases, palatial residences, and temple structures. The stone monuments reflect themes of divine rulership, period-ending events, and subjugated enemies. The stuccoes of the acropolis, however, incorporate stylized mythical and/or ritual-political iconography that imbues the acropolis with darkness, liminality, and metaphysical energy. The culmination of such representations occurs on the fifth terrace where supernatural themes coincide with sacred tombs and ritual deposits. The stucco panel on the east side of the patio, moreover, embodies the sacred concepts of the acropolis while reflecting the Late Classic geopolitical networks burgeoning at the site. The panel, therefore, promotes the cosmic authority of the ruler/s who commissioned the work while providing a supernatural monument through which sacred acts could reinforce these ritual-political messages. Most studies that have been conducted on the stucco monument, to be sure, are either brief or grounded in the Popol Vuh narrative of the sixteenth century. This thesis aims to develop a complete analysis of the material, formal, and iconographic/textual characteristics of the panel that accounts for its links to cosmic origin stories yet explores the specific local understandings of the imagery. Further, the text investigates how ancient supplicants may have viewed and engaged with the panel and its surrounding structures. By analyzing the potential methods by which elite members of ancient Toniná experienced these works, I hope to reveal how and why the panel was a vital contribution to the artistic corpus of the acropolis and site writ large |
