Yaxchilan Lintel 2

Location:  Yaxchilan (yashshe-lan) in Chiapas, Mexico

Description:  Yaxchilan is an ancient Central American site in Chiapas, Mexico.  Various structures at the site contain carvings on lintels.  Regarding lintel 2 at Yaxchilian, Teobert Maler states, “A high priest, or Ahuacan stands before an altar of glyphs, … In each hand the priest holds an ornamental cross, one horizontally and the other vertically.  Each cross is surmounted by the bird ketsalli [quetzal], while the transverse arms end in round flowers. … He wears a priest’s hat …, the accessories naturally displaying some deviations.  In this case a head surmounts the priest’s hat, and above it rises a serpent curving forward.  Behind the altar formed of glyps, opposite the high priest, stands a second priest drawn quite in profile, likewise richly dressed and with a similar hat also surmounted by a head and a serpent curved forward.  This personage, drawn on a somewhat smaller scale, also carries a cross in his right hand, to the top of which a Trogon Pavoninus is likewise attached.  The three crosses all end below in an appendage of streamers, which naturally falls in a right angle from the cross, which is held in a horizontal position.  We must admit that to people belonging to the sphere of Christian civilization it is indeed interesting to find that the cross also occurs as a decorative, symbolical object in the religious representations of long-forgotten temples buried in primeval forest of America.” [15]  It is important to note that the legendary Quetzalcoatl figure is also known as the bearded white God (Jesus Christ).  The quetzal bird mounts each cross on the carving.

A drawing and photo of the carving can be found at the Peabody Museum website. Yaxchilan Then find “Lintel 2”.