SPINDEN— CENTRAL AMERICAN PORTRAITURE 



city. These coordinated monuments all bear the same date, 5 Ahau 

 3 Kayab, which on Stela 11 is declared to occupy the position 

 10. 1. 0.0.0 in Maya chronology (equivalent to about 575 A.D.). The 

 technique of the carving is the same for the entire group. The single 

 subjects are presented in profile and treated in low, flat relief, with 

 an overplay of delicately modeled and incised detail. The personage 

 on Stela 8 wears mittens and shoes made of jaguar feet and holds out 

 a grotesque head in his right hand. On Stelae 9 and 10 a late variant 

 of the Ceremonial Bar is carried in both arms, and on Stela 1 1 a club 

 is grasped in the left hand while seed is scattered from the right. 

 Under the feet of the last figure a prostrate captive can still be made 

 out. At other Maya cities "wearers of jaguar claws" and "carriers 

 of ceremonial bars" are so frequently represented that we may pre- 



a b c 



Fig. 11. — Seibal faces, (a, Stela 8; b, Stela 9; c, Stela 10.) 



sume them to have been generally recognized officers, perhaps of 

 shamanistic character. The warrior chief in the dual aspects — benign 

 and militaristic — of "scatterer of seeds" and "wielder of the war- 

 club" serves as subject for many sculptures, although the two aspects 

 are not often indicated at one and the same time as here. The four 

 leading men in the sacerdotal and governmental circles of Seibal may 

 well be represented in this series of sculptures. 



When we compare the faces on the four correlated monuments we 

 find a wide range of differentiation in the group as a whole and in 

 each face a compelling individuality. The face on Stela 8 (fig. 1 1, a) 

 is partially concealed by a strap that passes under the eye and over 

 the nose, and by a long scroll-like object that swings downward over 

 the cheek and forward under the chin. The mouth is closed and 

 straight. The rather thin lips combine with the retreating chin to 



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