The Maya Wall Paintings of Chajul (Guatemala)
Part of: Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)
This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "The Maya Wall Paintings of Chajul (Guatemala)" at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.
This panel proposal presents the results of the interdisciplinary research of the murals of Chajul, an Ixil Maya town located in highland Guatemala. Different phases of this project were carried out by the Jagiellonian University in Krakow between 2019 and 2022, and included conservation and scanning of the walls in three adobe houses, archaeological excavation, and pigment analysis, as well as ethnographic and ethnomusicological fieldwork. The paintings in different stages of preservation can be observed in over 10 houses in Chajul; they are also recorded in oral history. They constitute an exquisite example of indigenous art of the Americas, especially that such mural paintings in the colonial setting were typically seen in contexts associated almost exclusively to Catholic sacral architecture. The iconography of the murals reveals interesting details such as human figures in rich attires, musicians, and animals and hunting motifs. These elements direct to interpretations associated with the performance of dance-dramas, religious sodalities activity, ceremonies, and feasts dedicated to the figures of saints. The panel will also present results of recent archaeological excavations associated with colonial houses with murals from Chajul.
Other Keywords
Maya: Postclassic •
Historic •
contact period •
Iconography and epigraphy •
Ethnography/Ethnoarchaeology •
Cultural Heritage and Preservation •
demography •
Architecture •
Ceramic Analysis •
Materiality
Geographic Keywords
United Mexican States (Country) •
Belize (Country) •
Republic of Guatemala (Country) •
North America (Continent) •
Mesoamerica: Maya highlands
Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-8 of 8)
- Documents (8)
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Architecture and Conservation Works at Chajul (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "The Maya Wall Paintings of Chajul (Guatemala)" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. One of the major objectives of the Chajul Murals Conservation Project (COMUCH) was the consolidation and conservation of murals in several houses located at the modern town of Chajul inhabited by the Ixil Maya and located in the department of El Quiché, in western Guatemala. During our research carried out between 2015 and 2022, conservation...
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Chajul and the Ixil Region during Prehispanic Times (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "The Maya Wall Paintings of Chajul (Guatemala)" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Archaeological, epigraphic, and ethnohistoric data indicate that Chajul was an important precolumbian center of the Ixil Maya. In this paper we present an overview of archaeological investigations conducted in the Ixil region sites. Moreover, we present the results of archaeological excavations conducted at Chajul in the 2021 season. This...
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A Historical Perspective on Population Patterns and Settlement Layout at Chajul, Guatemala, AD 1530–1821 (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "The Maya Wall Paintings of Chajul (Guatemala)" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Archival records suggest that Chajul was the largest town in the Ixil region during the colonial period. Spanish chronicles emphasize that different polities and communities were merged into a single colonial settlement during the foundation of the town as a congregación during the sixteenth century. This information is also remembered in...
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The Maya Wall Paintings of Chajul (Guatemala): Iconography (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "The Maya Wall Paintings of Chajul (Guatemala)" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The revealing of Chajul mural paintings has opened a completely new chapter in the history of colonial art of Latin America. Most of today’s known examples of colonial art are located in churches or other buildings related to religious spheres, while Chajul murals cover walls of private houses of Ixil Maya families. Not only the location of...
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Music Instruments in the Chajul Murals (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "The Maya Wall Paintings of Chajul (Guatemala)" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In this discussion the locations of murals in the three houses restored at Chajul are pinpointed, and the placement of musicians and instruments in those murals identified. The authors introduce music archaeology, and explain why its methods are necessary for identification and interpretive purposes; setting up a focus on the three...
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Prehispanic Colors to Re-create New Images and Stories: Materiality and Technology of Color in the Colonial Houses of Chajul, Guatemala (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "The Maya Wall Paintings of Chajul (Guatemala)" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The houses of Chajul, region of Ixil, Guatemala, have preserved stucco coatings and mural paintings from the colonial period. Since 2019, the University of Valencia (Spain) has collaborated with the Jagiellonian University (Poland) within the framework of the Project of Conservation of Chajul Murals–COMUCH. The objective of this study has...
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A Preliminary Archaeomusicological and Ethnomusicological Interpretation of the Murals of San Gaspar Chajul (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "The Maya Wall Paintings of Chajul (Guatemala)" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In this paper, the author discusses an interpretation of the iconography of the murals of Chajul, Quiche, in the highlands of Guatemala. The murals consist of several paintings of Ixil-Maya culture music and dances from the late colonial period. An approach from archaeomusicology and ethnomusicology has been applied in this analysis both...
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“This is the true history of the people of Chajul”: Selected Aspects of the Narratives and Music of the Tz’unun Dance (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "The Maya Wall Paintings of Chajul (Guatemala)" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Baile del Tz’unun is one of the dance-plays performed in the western highlands of Guatemala. In the past it was an annual celebration in Chajul. It is also present in Aguacatan, and there is a documented history of musical exchange between these two regions. Oral tradition associated to the Baile del Tz’unun as well as in the same time to...