Ancient Maya graffiti are a little-studied area of folk art of the pre-Columbian Maya civilization. Graffiti were incised into the stucco of interior walls, floors, and benches, in a wide variety of buildings, including pyramid-temples, residences, and storerooms. Graffiti have been recorded at over 50 Maya sites, particularly clustered in the Petén Basin and southern Campeche, and the Chenes region of northwestern Yucatán. At Tikal, where a great quantity of graffiti have been recorded, the subject matter includes drawings of temples, people, deities, animals, banners, litters, and thrones. Graffiti were often inscribed haphazardly, with drawings overlapping each other, and display a mix of crude, untrained art, and examples by artists who were familiar with Classic-period (c. 250–950 AD) artistic conventions.
Maya graffiti are usually difficult to date. Many have been attributed to the Late Classic (c. AD 550–830) and Terminal Classic (c. 830–950) periods, although earlier graffiti are known. Some graffiti have been attributed to squatters in the Postclassic period (c. 950–1539).
Graffiti are not integral decoration of the structures where they are found; rather, they are additions to pre-existing features, and lack formal organisation. Usually they bear no obvious relationship to any neighbouring graffiti, and they can be found randomly scattered on walls, floors, and benches. Some examples are found in obscure locations, such as dark corners and narrow passageways.
Maya graffiti are a poorly studied topic; early explorers and investigators regarded them as a curiosity with little bearing on Classic Maya culture. In the late 19th century, Teoberto Maler became the first person to record Maya graffiti. A few 20th-century scholars made efforts to record additional examples of graffiti. By the later part of the 20th century, graffiti had been recorded at San Clemente, Chichen Itza, Hochob, Holmul, Nakum, Santa Rosa Xtampak, Tikal, and Uaxactún.
Geographical extent
Graffiti have been recorded at sites across the entire Maya area. In the Río Bec region of Campeche, in the southern Yucatán Peninsula, the exceptional preservation of standing architecture has resulted in the preservation of a considerable amount of graffiti. Río Bec graffiti are found in all classes of masonry residences, from simple single-room structures to multi-room palaces. An early 21st-century survey of the Río Bec region discovered 464 graffiti in just 15 of the buildings surveyed.
Subject matter
Ancient Maya graffiti portray a wide variety of themes from ancient Maya life, from the everyday to high ceremony, and are now regarded as an important source providing insight into ancient Maya society; subjects appear to be those witnessed by the artist.
There are a large number of geometrical and abstract designs among Maya graffiti, and some scribbles. Among those examples that represent an identifiable subject, there is wide variation. Designs include whole human figures, anthropomorphic figures, human heads, buildings, deities, human sacrifice, animals (including birds, insects, and snakes), ceremonial ballcourts, patolli boards, and hieroglyphs. Usually each graffito is unrelated to surrounding designs, although in rare instances they can form a larger scene. A notable example of this is at Tikal Temple II; it depicts a scene of human sacrifice. A couple of procession scenes are depicted in buildings at Tikal, and some group scenes are known from Río Bec. The most commonly represented subjects are human figures and heads. At Río Bec, warlike imagery is lacking, although there are scenes of human sacrifice.
At Río Bec, complex representations of ceremonial scenes form compositions that can measure up to in length. Much Río Bec graffiti is concerned with the elite residents, but additional graffiti, apparently added by squatters after the residences were abandoned, incorporate new subject matter that included mythological beings and female imagery.
Graffiti varies widely in quality, from crude drawings described variously as childlike or cartoonish, to skillfully executed renderings of human figures and animals that are of comparable quality to formal Classic Maya art. Most examples fall somewhere between the two in terms of quality. Recognisable content in graffiti generally falls within those topics associated with Classic period Maya art.