Iconography

Another strand in Maya historiography has been the identification and interpretation of the images carved on sculptures, painted on vessels and walls, or inscribed in other media. Iconographic interpretation has a long history in Mesoamerican studies, with its roots in the work of Eduard Seler and Herbert Spinden and related to iconographic and iconological studies of Western art. Notable iconographic studies about or relating to the Piedras Negras monuments are those by Flora Clancy (2009), Mary Miller (1999), John Montgomery (1995), Andrea Stone (1989), David Stuart (2000, 2005:89), and Karl Taube (1988a). Their studies have identified many elements of these complex images, including particular deities, types of headdresses, supernatural birds, and ritual paraphernalia, among other elements. They also have attempted to relate these elements to mythology, ceremonial practice, and other aspects of ancient Maya society.

One recent study devoted to the Piedras Negras sculptures is Clancy’s The Monuments of Piedras Negras, an Ancient Maya City (2009). Her book is structured by chronology, with a chapter on each ruler and the sculptures from each reign, and she describes all of the sculptures’ images and texts. Clancy closely examines the images, identifying iconographic elements and their possible sources in Preclassic Maya and Olmec art and in other Classic period Maya images. Clancy also combines her interpretations of the images with epigraphic decipherments to contextualize the monuments within the historical narratives of the Yokib polity.

Also important to the study of Piedras Negras sculptures have been analyses of their forms. One contribution is John Montgomery’s (1995) master’s thesis, in which he examines the individual signatures on the monuments of K’inich Yat Ahk II in relation to visual evidence of the hands that sculpted them.