Tulum Stela 1 is the name of a Mayan engraved monolith that was found at the ancient Mesoamerican site of

Tulum Tulum (, ) is the site of a pre-Columbian Mayan walled city which served as a major port for Coba, in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo. The ruins are situated on cliffs along the east coast of the Yucatán Peninsula on the Caribbean Sea. T ...

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

. Known for its important inscription, the stela was purchased by the

British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...

in 1924.

Description

The large stone

stela A stele ( ) or stela ( )The plural in English is sometimes stelai ( ) based on direct transliteration of the Greek, sometimes stelae or stelæ ( ) based on the inflection of Greek nouns in Latin, and sometimes anglicized to steles ( ) or stela ...

portrays in low relief a standing Maya lord in full

regalia Regalia ( ) is the set of emblems, symbols, or paraphernalia indicative of royal status, as well as rights, prerogatives and privileges enjoyed by a sovereign, regardless of title. The word originally referred to the elaborate formal dress and ...

, with a long inscription in Mayan hieroglyphs framing the image. The headdress is that of K'awiil, the skirt that of the Tonsured Maize God. The pillar was badly damaged when discovered and is missing parts of the base. The condition of the extant carving has also faded through water

erosion Erosion is the action of surface processes (such as Surface runoff, water flow or wind) that removes soil, Rock (geology), rock, or dissolved material from one location on the Earth's crust#Crust, Earth's crust and then sediment transport, tran ...

. The long

inscription Epigraphy () is the study of inscriptions, or epigraphs, as writing; it is the science of identifying graphemes, clarifying their meanings, classifying their uses according to dates and cultural contexts, and drawing conclusions about the wr ...

includes a date that corresponds to 564 AD, based on the Mayan system of recording time.

Provenance

Stela 1 was found by

John Lloyd Stephens John Lloyd Stephens (November 28, 1805October 13, 1852) was an American explorer, writer, and diplomat. He was a pivotal figure in the rediscovery of Maya civilization throughout Middle America (Americas), Middle America and in the planning of th ...

and

Frederick Catherwood Frederick Catherwood (27 February 1799 – 27 September 1854) was an English artist, architect and explorer, best remembered for his meticulously detailed drawings of the ruins of the Maya civilization. He explored Mesoamerica in the mid 19th ...

during their exploration of the

Yucatán Yucatán, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Yucatán, is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, constitute the 32 federal entities of Mexico. It comprises 106 separate municipalities, and its capital city is Mérida. ...

peninsular in the early nineteenth century. It was discovered near the 'Temple of the Initial Series' which lies to the south of the main castle at Tulum. This temple was named after Stela 1 as its Mayan inscription has the earliest recorded date in

. Archaeologists estimate that most of Tulum is Post-Classic and that the city was largely built after 900 AD. As this stela predates this phase, it has been conjectured that it was moved from a neighbouring Maya city, perhaps

Coba Coba () is an ancient Maya city on the Yucatán Peninsula, located in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo. The site is the nexus of the largest network of stone causeways of the ancient Maya world, and it contains many engraved and sculpted stelae ...

. The stela was subsequently owned by the British archaeologist Thomas Gann, who sold it to the British Museum in 1924.

References

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Bibliography

*C. McEwan, Ancient Mexico in the British (London, The British Museum Press, 1994) *M. Coe, Breaking the Maya code (London, Thames & Hudson, 1992) *L. Schele and M.E. Miller, The blood of kings (London, Thames & Hudson, 1986) * M. Coe and J. Kerr, The art of the Maya scribe (London, Thames & Hudson, 1997) Maya art Mesoamerican artifacts Tulum (municipality) Artefacts from Africa, Oceania and the Americas in the British Museum Ethnographic objects in the British Museum Sculptures in the British Museum 6th-century inscriptions Mexico–United Kingdom relations

Description

Provenance

See also

References

Bibliography