Explore the Maya murals at San Bartolo, Guatemala
A guided tour
Beneath this forest canopy lie a multitude of ancient temples, roads, plazas, and houses of Maya villages and cities.
One pyramid has revealed richly detailed artworks and the earliest evidence of Maya writing. Explore San Bartolo’s Las Pinturas pyramid.
This tour was developed by the San Bartolo-Xultun Archaeological Project Team through support of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
The Maya Region
Ancient Maya kingdoms flourished in the region known as Mesoamerica spanning southern Mexico, throughout Guatemala and Belize, and into western Honduras and El Salvador. They built large urban centers and incredible works of art.
Today, approximately 8 million descendant Indigenous peoples live in this region, speaking numerous Mayan languages and with their own vibrant cultural traditions.
In northern Guatemala, the large urban centers and their network of smaller villages that made up the ancient Maya heartland from 400 BCE to CE 900 have now been reclaimed by tropical forest.
This is the Petén region, a protected ecological zone designated the Maya Biosphere Reserve.
The Las Pinturas Pyramid at San Bartolo
San Bartolo was founded in the 4th century BCE. At the center of the carefully designed small city lies the Las Pinturas pyramid.
San Bartolo flourished for approximately 500 years, and then it was abandoned. Over the centuries, the pyramid was rebuilt several times and these construction phases are investigated through archaeological investigation tunnels.
The protective roof prevents erosion of the mound and helps maintain the delicate equilibrium of temperature and humidity inside the tunnels.
Beneath these trees and jungle growth is a large pyramid and two buildings on a raised platform facing west towards San Bartolo’s palace.
However, this is just the latest version of a ritual complex that was rebuilt at least seven times from 400 BCE to CE 100.
What is a Maya pyramid?
Some Maya pyramids were funerary temples that served as a tomb, but not all pyramids had this function.
The pyramid known as Las Pinturas served as an important ritual node at the center of the site and its original layout included a complex associated with celestial observation, public ritual space, and a ballcourt.
The Ritual Complex at 100 BCE
Excavations through the rock and mud construction fill of the final temple revealed the buried ritual complex that preceded it.
Two low buildings faced east on an open plaza at the base of a raised temple atop a pyramid. Each building had a different function. This raised building with masks was likely for administrative, preparatory, or tribute activities associated with the mural chamber.
A human figure kneels amidst swirls of red in this exterior mural. The figure holds an axe, his hair is marked with le signs denoting water, and there are three water droplets in his beard, suggesting this depicts a form of Chaak, the Maya rain god.
Nearby is the mural chamber. The exterior of the mural chamber is decorated with stucco reliefs on the roof and polychrome paintings.
Anthropomorphic figures stand in red swirls of air or clouds at the corners of the building and above, the monstrous avian known as the Principal Bird Deity stretches across the north cornice.
The mural chamber was a “public” or “didactic” temple built at plaza level, ca. 100 BCE. It sat on a very low platform needing only a single step to enter, visible here.
Three broad doorways opened the facade to the east, and two smaller doors provided egress on the north and south. The chamber itself is a single open room with the mural painted on a continuous frieze located at eye-level.
Approximately fifty years later, the mural chamber was partially destroyed before it was buried within the foundation of the new pyramid.
The east and south walls were cut down to the floor level; however, the artworks were first removed. The murals were broken and these fragments carefully collected, and then as the chamber was filled with rock and mud, the fragments were buried within the same chamber.
Over the course of ten years, the San Bartolo-Xultun Archaeological Project research team carefully excavated, documented, and stabilized the mural chamber and its access tunnels.
During this process, thousands of mural fragments were collected. It would take another ten years to curate, analyze, partially reassemble, and conserve the fragments from the broken east and south wall murals.
On the north wall, the Maize God stands as the central figure. This scene depicts a cave located within “Flower Mountain,” a place of mythic origin.
The Maize God and his queen stand among a group of three additional ancestral couples receiving a water gourd and a basket with tamales - the basis of life and community.
Conservation to preserve these magnificent works of art for future generations has focused on minimal intervention, using compatible materials, and maintaining the delicate environmental equilibrium within the mural tunnels.
Here, cracks have been filled with lime-based grout to stabilize the surface and aid ongoing monitoring.
The murals depict a very ancient royal accession: the San Bartolo king sits upon a throne and receives his royal headdress.
Throughout the artwork, figures are paired with text. Painted ca. 100 BCE, these hieroglyphs are largely undecipherable except for the final glyph of AJAW, meaning “lord, ruler,” suggesting this text names an individual in the scene.
Not all of the paintings were found in their original location. Analysis of shape, composition, color, and content of fragments, followed by careful conservation, has led to the reassembly of entire scenes.
This enthronement scene, comprising nearly 100 fragments, depicts the Maize God receiving the royal headdress.
The west wall depicts a sequence of sacrifices that establish the four corners delineating the community and the cosmogram of the Maya world.
In this scene, a young hunter brings a turkey and presents it as sacrifice while letting his blood as self-sacrifice.
The San Bartolo mural uses red, black, yellow, and white hues, all derived from commonly available mineral sources. This restricted palette was intentionally chosen for the narrative of gods and community origins painted in the mural chamber as these colors have strong associated meanings.
In the nearby Ixim chamber, forests, figures, and landscapes are rendered in a true rainbow of hues.
The northern half of the west wall depicts a series of scenes in the life of the Maize God. Here, the Maize God is dancing and playing a drum within the body of a great turtle, symbol of the earth.
Attended by two seated gods of rain and water, the scene relates long-standing creation mythology of rebirth and the emergence of corn and sustenance from the earth turtle.
San Bartolo’s murals are an extraordinary example of Mesoamerican mural painting. These magnificent works of art relate unique information about early Maya culture and beliefs, and demonstrate a strong connection to contemporary practices and the murals’ outstanding value to Maya heritage.
Documentation and digital dissemination is an absolutely essential component of the preservation strategy to safeguard the San Bartolo murals and provide future access. Thank you for visiting!
Continue exploring at the nearby site of Xultun.
Hosted on Spacery