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Three Snake dynasty reliefs found at Maya ball court
Three facades with elaborate reliefs have been discovered in a ball court of the ancient Maya city of Dzibanche, southeastern Mexico. They date to the Early Classic period (500-600 A.D.) and depict symbols and ancestors of the powerful Kaanu’l (Snake) dynasty.
The stucco reliefs decorate two platforms on the Ball Game II court. The three facades averaging about 10 x 5 feet in dimension, and still retain traces of the original polychrome paint in red, blue, yellow and black. These are the first reliefs discovered on a ball court in Dzibanche, and archaeologists with the National Institute of Anthropology and History ( INAH ) were surprised to find such significant iconography on more modest structures.
The first scene shows two guardians flanking a pedestal that once held a sculpture. This podium incorporates graphic symbols alluding to a ruler of the Kaanu’l dynasty. The second presents images of individuals representing Mayan ancestors in the night sky, accompanied by stars, snakes and other motifs characteristic of Mayan and Teotihuacan iconography. The absence of the central sculpture suggests that it may have been removed by the city’s inhabitants centuries ago. The third scene displays a set of mythological animals associated with constellations.
A common element in the three scenes is the representation of intertwined snakes, “which indicates that we are looking at images with which the rulers of Dzibanché sought to reaffirm their lineage. In pre-Hispanic Mayan societies, the hierarchs were seen as representatives of the gods on Earth,” explains Balanzario Granados.
The city-state of Calakmul was the primary power center of the Kaanu’l dynasty in the Classic Period. It had a population of 50,000 at its peak and ruled over a population of 1.5 million in its secondary centers and rural sites. Dzibanche, 125 miles northeast of Calakmul, was not part of the polity’s immediate environs, and yet, the earliest inscriptions that unambiguously refer to the Kaanu’l kings were found in Dzibanche. They date to the 5th century A.D. and attest to the importance of the city when it was under the direct rule of the Kaanu’l dynasty kings between 250 and 650 AD. An inscription found on a royal tomb in Belize recounts the Snake dynasty’s history and records that Dzibanche wasn’t simply an earlier power center, but the city where the Snake dynasty originated.
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