Mayan Graffiti at Tikal
The Mayan culture began around the 2600BC. By 250 AD, it was at its peak, covering an area which spanned Southern Mexico, Guatemala, Northern Belize and Western Honduras until its sudden collapse during the eight and ninth centuries. Mayan society was organized into around 20 city-states, but from 300AD until the cultures’ collapse, its three most important centers were at Copan, Palenque, and Copan. These centers were places of intellect and worship, dominated by great observatories, palaces, and temples. However, the magnificence of the architecture did not deter the graffiti.
Tikal, situated in the lowlands of Guatemala is a site particularly noted for the defacement of its monuments by the random etching of visitors. Plaster walls, floors- even the benches in the temples and palaces of the central acropolis, are covered with pictures of ceremonies, nobles, priests and real and fantastic beasts. Some seem to record events. One shows the execution of a prone figure confined between two poles, which warriors are impaling with an arrow or a spear. The question is, who made the graffiti, and why?
Some experts believe the pictures were drawn after Tikal’s’ demise. However, there is nothing is mocking about the figures, which would be expected if the graffiti had been created by those who followed the fallen Mayans. Instead, the graffiti seems to record Tikal in its glory days. The figures are very elite in style. They consist of nobles, priests, and the high-status buildings of the Acropolis. There is nothing every day about them. These details suggest to other experts that elite visitors who wanted to make their mark on the place and record events around them added the drawings while Tikal was at its peak.They may even have served a magical purpose.
It was not unknown for visitors at a great site to react in this way, as is shown by graffiti at the fortress/monastery of Sigiriya in Sri Lanka.