Ruud Van Akkeren

NEW BOOK

By Ruud Van Akkeren 9 months ago

Los mayas nunca se fueron. Hoy hablan q’eqchi’. Alta Verapaz y El Petén - Tres mil años de historia

What may be translated as:

The Maya never really disappeared. They are speaking Q’eqchi’ today.  Alta Verapaz and El Petén – Three thousand years of history.

 

Modern documentaries on Maya culture keep fostering the mystery that the great pyramid builders suddenly disappeared from the face of the earth. Maya scholars know this can’t be true but have hardly researched what happened to this people. It is assumed they migrated north, to the Yucatan peninsula.

The book demonstrates that the Q’eqchi’ Maya absorbed a substantial part of the Classic Maya who built the pyramids of Tikal, Ceibal, Calakmul or Caracol. In the process, these Ch’ol Maya lost their language. The key to recognizing their descendants are their surnames. Many surnames today considered Q’eqchi’ are actually Ch’ol in origin. It is only one of the innovative aspects of this newly published book.

Los mayas nunca se fueron. Hoy hablan q’eqchi’.

By Ruud Van Akkeren 10 months ago

Los mayas nunca se fueron. Hoy hablan q’eqchi’.

Alta Verapaz y el Petén – Tres mil años de historia

 

Con cuánta frecuencia se suele escuchar en los documentales sobre la cultura maya clásica que los grandes constructores de pirámides desaparecieron misteriosamente de la faz de la tierra. Los estudios más sofisticados plantean que migraron hacia el norte, a ciudades como Chich’en Itzá y Uxmal. Muy poco investigadores consideran la opción de que la gente migró hacia el sur (Alta Verapaz). Aun cuando las dinámicas históricas al final del Clásico indican tal dirección. Este estudio de tres mil años de historia del Petén y Alta Verapaz muestra que muchos de los descendientes de los mayas clásicos fueron absorbidos por los q’eqchi’es. La clave para tal entendimiento son sus apellidos ch’oles, el idioma de los constructores de estas pirámides. El libro incluye una sección sobre estos apellidos clásicos, hoy q’eqchi’es, con sus respectivos glifos.

 

 

Maguey Mountain: The Original Name of Kaminal Juyu

By Ruud Van Akkeren 10 months ago

Cerro de Maguey: el nombre original de Kaminal Juyu

Kaminal Juyu fue el nombre asignado en el siglo pasado a un sitio preclásico y clásico del Altiplano de Guatemala. Parece una tarea casi imposible reconstruir su nombre original. Sin embargo, sabemos que topónimos suelen ser muy conservadores, especialmente si representan un ‘lugar de origen’, lo que era el caso de Kaminal Juyu.

Una vez establecido que su población fundadora fue el pueblo maya-poq’om, una gama de disciplinas que incluyen la iconografía, epigrafía, etnohistoria y tradición oral coinciden en que el nombre original de esa ciudad era ‘Cerro de Maguey’. De hecho, así lo dejaron apuntado en su testamento los descendientes del linaje Kaqkoj o Puma, una de las familias principales de Kaminal Juyu, en el siglo XVI.

 
 

The Birth of Sun and Moon

By Ruud Van Akkeren 10 months ago

Maya Creation Stories​

The Maya have fascinating myths about creation; the creation of the universe, the mountain, maize and people made of maize. They at least go back 2000 years. Many Maya scholars – often working far from the Maya world – have uttered their doubts about modern Maya being the keepers of ancient cosmological concepts. If they would work with Maya people they would drop these doubts. It does not come as a surprise: religious concepts belong to the realm of the categories of understanding, the fundament of thought that endures the passing of ages.

 

 

 

This time the workshops were about creation stories, and the ones that were still told in their communities. There is an engrossing story of the Sun Hero trying to win the attention of the Moon Goddess, while her father is enviously protecting his daughter. However, the Sun Hero cunningly converts into a hummingbird, this way entering into her bedroom. Next morning they flee from the father’s anger and his deadly thunderbolt. They suffer a lot, almost die, but in the end will become the sun and moon of the new era. There are many local versions, still very much alive, and in our workshops we heard some new ones.

 

 

 

In another creation story, the one about the origin of corn and people made of corn, there is a special role for the gourd or tecomate. Again, these concepts go at least 2000 years back as the wonderful painted murals of the ancient Maya site called San Bartolo have shown. We had the people investigate about the origin of these fruits and present their results. They came back with interesting new insights.

 

 

https://lisa.gerda-henkel-stiftung.de/the_birth_of_sun_and_moon?nav_id=8206

Reconstructing Maya History and Religion with the Maya people

By Ruud Van Akkeren 10 months ago

In 2019 we started our educational project together with the local NGO Loq’laj Ch’och’ or “Sacred Earth” in Q’eqchi’ Maya, funded by the Gerda Henkel Stiftung.

This two-year educational initiative strives to regain Maya identity and to strengthen community integration and political agency through the recovery and systematization of historical knowledge in Q’eqchi’ Maya communities in lowland Guatemala. The Q’eqchi’ are one of the most populous of the twenty-three Mayan language groups in Guatemala. What makes this initiative unique is the participation of teachers, community leaders and activists as direct agents in the production and conducting of historical knowledge. We work with three Maya communities: Las Pozas, Sayaxche – Raxruha – San Luis Petén.

 

Project Coordinator is Dr. Ruud van Akkeren, specialist on Maya history, who has developed an innovative methodology involving Maya communities in the production of historical knowledge. He lives in Guatemala and has over 20 years of experience in educational projects.

 

For more information on Loq’laj Ch’och’

AN ENTIRE WEEK INTO THE PAST OF XELA.

By Ruud Van Akkeren 10 months ago

We have relatively ample information on the time when the K’iche’ Confederation conquered the area – some hundred years before the Spanish invasion – yet little about the prior 2000 years when Mam Maya dominated the region. Still we were able to reconstruct a glimpse of this era. Given the historic complementary model of the Pacific Coast and the adjacent Highland, we may assume that these people were closely connected with Tak’alik Abaj, whose inhabitants were almost certainly Mam as well. The rich Mam city Kooja, mentioned in the documents but now beneath modern Quetzaltenango, seems to have been the Postclassic continuation of this Preclassic and Classic center on the piedmont. And we do know some of their principal lineages. Yet there are also strong indications for another historic link. With the legendary center called Fourhundred Ceibas Fourhundred Pyramids on the lower Nahualate river. The birthplace of many Postclassic ruling lineages, including the Ajaw K’iche’, founders of K’iche’ Confederation.

We learned a lot!

 

Las edades del sol en la cultura Maya

By Ruud Van Akkeren 10 months ago

Les invito a tod@s participar en este curso. Exploraremos el texto completo del Popol Wuj.

Un análisis mítico-histórico de los ciclos del Popol Wuj.

Impartido por: Dr. Ruud van Akkeren Universidad de Leiden, Holanda Módulos 1. Introducción en el Popol Wuj 2. Ciclo de Siete Guacamayo 3. Mito de Xibalba 4. Época del sol presente: los K’iche’ Winaq Sábados 29 de Sept. / 6, 13 y 27 de Oct

Horario: 18:00 a 21:00 horas

Costo: Q600

Incluye Coffee Break y Diploma 6ta. avenida 2-15 zona 1, Cobán, Guatemala Tel: 79510156 / 55177307

Xibalba: creación del sol y origen del maíz

By Ruud Van Akkeren 10 months ago

El lugar del inframundo maya en el Popol Wuj adquirió una mala fama. Por parte por el mito mismo, pero también por influencias posteriores en la colonia, donde Xibalba fue asemejado al infierno cristiano, así como era el caso en la Teología Indorum de fray Domingo de Vico. En el cristianismo el bien y el mal están estrictamente separados. La religión maya es diferente. En ella una deidad puede actuar positivo tanto como negativo, dependiendo del comportamiento del creyente frente a ella. Como mostré en el libro de Xibalba y el nacimiento del nuevo sol, los Señores de Xibalba son efectivamente los Señores Cerro-Valle comunes, conocidos como Qawa Tzuul Taq’a en q’eqchi’, Ajwal Yuuq’ K’ixkab en poq’omchi’ o Rajawal Juyubal Taq’ajal en k’iche’, cada uno significando Señor Cerro-Valle. En un otro libro, Xajooj Keej o el Baile de Venado – publicado junto con Bert Janssens – se muestra que los accidentes, calamidades y enfermedades que cada residente de Xibalba representa y puede causar, son realmente solo diferentes aspectos de estas deidades Cerro-Valle.

A pesar de estas tragedias, juega Xibalba también un papel positivo, aún más, decisivo en la creación de la nueva era. La hija de uno de sus Señores principales, la princesa Xkik’, viene a ser la madre de los Héroes Gemelos Jun Ajpuuh y Xb’alam Q’e. Pocos investigadores han señalado el hecho de que Jun Ajpuuh en el mito muere dos veces. Este tiene su significado. Como mostré en el libro sobre el Mito de Xibalba, había en Mesoamérica dos complejos mitológicos representando los dos elementos claves de la creación: luz y comida, sol y maíz. Cada complejo tenía su protagonista: el Héroe Solar y el Héroe del Maíz. Resulta que en el mito Jun Ajpuuh es una fusión de estos dos héroes y, de hecho, primero muere decapitado en la cancha pelota como el Héroe del Maíz, y luego incinerado en el horno divino de Xibalba como el Héroe Solar. Al final del mito todo está preparado para la nueva era, con las plantas de maíz cuidadas por la abuela Xmukane y el sol subido al cielo. En mi nuevo estudio sobre Kaminal Juyu – Cerro de Maguey – muestro que estos dos complejos mitológicos, llamados paradigmas en este libro, ya estaban vigentes en el Preclásico.

Convento de Santo Domingo de Cobán 10/08/2018

 

San Bartolo – No need to nick the mural

By Ruud Van Akkeren 10 months ago

Last week (June 13-15, 2018) there was an international seminar in Guatemala titled De la oscuridad a la luz, to celebrate the inauguration of a new section in the museum MUNAE: vitrines with original fragments of the famous San Bartolo murals. A great accomplishment! In this blog I want to make some comments on Dave Stuart’s presentation during the seminar called “Maya Creation in four Acts: A Study of Narrative Structure in the San Bartolo Murals”.

 

Every image in this article is based on the Artwork of Debra Atenea Díaz Zúñiga, adapted from Heather Hurst (2015). In Valores plástico-formales del arte maya del Preclásico tardío a partir de las configuraciones visuales de San Bartolo, Petén, Guatemala, Sanja Savkic (2016).

 

Stuart’s idea in itself is interesting, and is based on the two dates that have been found: 3 Ik’ which is on the West Wall and a fragment with the glyph 1 Ajaw, without context, found among the rubble of the other walls. He suggested that they formed part of an original series of four dates which guided the ‘reading’ of the murals. It recalls the birth of the people from Chicomoztoc depicted in the Historia Tolteca-Chichimeca, which indeed follows a calendrical sequence, an example, however, that was not mentioned by Stuart.

In his endeavor to reconstruct the San Bartolo narrative, he divides the murals into four scenes, two of which are on the existing murals and two imaginary others who belonged to the destroyed murals. In this effort he cuts off the Burst Tecomate on the North Wall from the Cave scene next to it, this way leaving the North Wall mural broken up. To him the Burst Tecomate scene belonged to the Throne scene on the West Wall mural. Why, he didn’t say; he just thought there was the cut in the narrative. There are various reasons against this cutting up of the North Wall.

First, of course, it is hard to believe that the creators of these murals did not know how to design their work well. 

Second, the North Mural expresses an organic and thematic whole as I explained in my article Tzuywa: Place of the Gourd published in Ancient America (2006 – available online). Stuart and Taube keep saying the Exploding Tecomate or Gourd is an enigmatic scene, whereas I present a perfectly comprehensive exegesis for it in the article.

 

 

The Burst Tecomate is directly connected to the other, flowering tecomate on top of the kneeling person in front of the cave. As we know, Stuart and Taube claim that the scene represents a coming out of the cave, comparing it to various Chicomoztoc birth-scenes. However, the direction of the bodies, the feet, the faces and the footprints underneath – decisive indications in Mesoamerican iconography – suggest the protagonists are not moving out of but towards the cave. That has been my point: the cave represents the Maya Underworld and the ballcourt. The sacrifice accompanying the ballgame was the decapitation. The kneeling person is a ballplayer that is going to be beheaded, comparable to the scenes on Chich’en’s Itza great ballcourt benches. There, too, we have the flowering gourd symbolism.

 

Artwork: Linda Schele

 

 

In the Popol Wuj, the counterfeited head of Jun Ajpuuh is a chilacayote. In a beautiful play of words, we learn that from the burst chilacayote spring forth the Sons of the Sunrise (Saqil Al Saqil K’ajol), the first people made of corn. I have shown that in Mesoamerican mythology this fruit can be a gourd, a squash or a calabash, but one of the oldest forms must have been the tecomate (tzuh in ch’olano), as we see in San Bartolo. The Exploding Tecomate represents the Place of Origin known as Tzuwa, Tzuywa o Suyua in the indigenous documents, a place often coupled with Tullan and Seven Caves. The manikins leaping out of the fruit are the first people made of corn. Disconnecting this scene from the cave with Maize Hero and the kneeling ballplayer destroys the ancient cosmology intended by the painters.

 

 

That is just one reason for why it is unwise to separate the Burst Tecomate scene from the rest of the North Wall. There is another, an argument I didn’t see back then when I wrote Tzuywa: Place of the Gourd, but which I recently have explained in several conferences. It will appear in my soon to be published ethnohistorical study on Kaminal Juyu. We all know that the Maya believed that at the beginning of time three stones were created, the three hearth-stones or tenamastes, which were and still are part of many Maya households. From hieroglyphic texts we know these stones were considered thrones. Indeed, when in the Popol Wuj the Hero Twins arrive at the sacred hearth of Xibalba, its lords invite them to sit on the stones and the Twins answer that these are not their thrones. It turns out that the North Wall mural evokes these three throne-stones of creation – two of them are being carried by the black youths, who are heading towards the central ballgame scene, and the third is underneath the Burst Tecomate.

 

 

Kaminal Juyu was a Highland Maya site contemporary to San Bartolo. I propose in the new book that what we see painted in San Bartolo, we have in the real in Kaminal Juyu. Here we lack the space to expand on this subject, but it proves that the primordial throne-stones have a historical and geographical counterpart in the three volcanoes of the Valley of Antigua which still are known by their Poq’om-Maya names: Agua or Jun Ajpuuh, Acatenango or Pan Aj and the Fuego or Chi Q’aaq’, the name of the sacred oven itself.

Thus there is plenty of evidence that the Burst Tecomate forms an intrinsic part of the North Wall mural. Cutting it up would be a discourtesy to the artists who were expressing a millennial Maya cosmology which has been preserved from the Preclassic all the way to the times of the creation of the Popol Wuj, and even until modern times.

 

Chama-style pottery

By Ruud Van Akkeren 10 months ago

This is an image from a Chama-style piece of ceramics. It represents a gato de monte, some type of fox. There is a variety of fox-like creatures on Chama ceramics. It’s the Maya way of representing history: a ruling lineage called Fox. In the Classic Maya language named Ch’amak, from which Chama took its name. A beautiful rendering of what I have called a ‘lineage history

Esta es una imagen de una pieza de cerámica de estilo Chama. Representa un gato de monte. Hay una variedad de gatos de monte en la cerámica Chama. Es la manera maya de ilustrar historia: un linaje gobernante llamado Gato de Monte. En el idioma maya clásico llamado Ch’amak, del cual Chama deriva su nombre. Una fina expresión de mi metodología “historia de linaje”