The Maya civilization was born at the end of the third millennium B.C. This town reached its peak in the ninth century A.C. Before collapsing, they left various and varied influences (weather, conquest) everything that constituted its greatness: pyramids, cities, etc.
Its ruins gnawed by the Amazon forest were repaired in the nineteenth century. So, thanks to excavations and painstaking work, little by little, the Maya writing, its history, its temples, its knowledge in mathematics, astronomy and architecture was gradually deciphered. This brilliant civilization has not revealed all its mysteries, excavations continue being perpetrated.
Thus, as in 2000, archaeologists had the good surprise to discover in the tombs, a unique and ancient art, based on sculptures and mosaic funerary masks fashioned from jade and dating from the neo-classical period of 250-900 years AD. These fascinating masks, which were later exposed in different cultural places in the world, were intended primarily to belong to the ruling elites.
The plant motifs symbolize the God of corn, the reference to the sacred mountain, etc. These masks were not used for a decorative or even symbolic purpose. Indeed, archaeologists realized that these Mayan masks allowed the souls of men to metamorphose. These masks represented, for the Maya, the vital essence of its bearer. They expressed their identity and immortalized their soul.
They were true representations of kings and great lords, on whom they were found. Thanks to these masks, the high dignitaries were consecrated to eternity. That is why in certain cities, Mayan states, masks have been found completely broken. According to the archaeologists’ assumptions, masks of the vanquished dignitaries were broken and scattered so that their souls could disperse and die twice.
For the Maya, the gods were always present and were part of their daily culture. It is for this reason that the masks mingled with its wearer’s effigy. The symbols were based on the human face. These masks could even be carried by the dignitary during his life. It was the case of the priests, who at the time of a ceremony, polished their mask in order to join the divine substance, to become, in a certain way, God, through the contact of his face and the divine symbols.
With this, the Mayas established ties between the realm of the living and the dead. The highly sacred character also explains that these masks were fashioned out of a noble material: jade. For the Maya people, jade was an exceptional stone that belonged to the first constituents of the Universe. In it resided the creative gods of the world. Jade had the values of durability, moistness, renewal, rebirth, blow and vital essence. It was a smooth, reflective stone like obsidian or pyrite. For the Maya, this reflected supernatural worlds considered as crossing points to other planes of the universe.
Jade had the values of durability, moistness, renewal, rebirth, blow and vital essence
The Maya civilization covered a large part of Central America, including the Southeast Mexico (Yucatan and Campeche specifically), Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, El Salvador and Costa Rica. Mayan jade masks have been found mainly in cities located near the jade deposits in the southern highlands.
Why did the Mayas believe that jade possessed the divine breath? At night, jade was a stone that cooled very quickly. And in the morning, when the sun came to reheat it, it exhaled steam. The Mayans then had the feeling that the stone breathed, lived. It is because of this “magic” breath that the Mayans thought the stone lived. It is also the reason why the Mayans chose this stone for their masks, as this mineral literally lived for them.
The masks prepared the dead for their new condition: to become a God. Often, it was K ‘awiil, the Maize God, who was chosen. Besides, the Maya elite was, since birth, prepared to play this God. That is the reason why infants’ cephalic deformation was practiced in order to give the head an “oblong” shape, like a corncob. The Maya children were then, attired with two boards that compressed their skulls. The consequence was to deform, as well, the orbital cavities creating a convergent and divergent strabismus. That is why still today you can see a large number of Mayan representations with this pronounced strabismus, for them, this was a sign of absolute elite.
ALFA