Touch and Interaction in Ancient Maya Art

Abstract

This dossier about Maya iconography emphasizes the importance of studying ancient Maya images in relation to three analytical axes: material support, physical context, and historical context. This essay adds a fourth analytical axis: the experience that people had with works of art, especially with sculpted media. To follow this path, the essay investigates the importance of touch and interaction in ancient Maya art. The somatic experience of images, objects, and buildings was a crucial part of their significance and aesthetic valuation. To these ends, the article focuses on the physical experience that people –– artists or users –– had with the materials and works. It focuses on two case studies: the small bone implements from Burial 116 of Tikal (Guatemala) and the monumental stone sculptures of Piedras Negras (Guatemala). This research seeks to reconstruct their material contexts and to investigate how the images and texts relate both to the material supports and the places where they were erected, used, or deposited. These studies reveal how Maya artists fostered touch, movement, and other interactions and how these actions could have functioned as ritual experiences.