Análisis del Poder Calorífico de la biomasa lignocelulósica muestreada

This conclusion will try to answer the question asked in the introduction, namely whether we can establish the use of bells in Postclassic and Historic Maya time. Researchers ascribed three functions to those bells. They were seemingly used as a form of currency, as musical instruments, and as items of personal adornments. This thesis tried to consider the complexity and the resources required for casting, the distribution of bells and the archaeological context to establish the likeliness of bells assuming the above-mentioned roles.

Firstly, the adoption of bells as instruments was rather hard to determine. The Classic period is often most analysed, and many Maya instruments find their roots in it. Numerous ornamental lintels and a handful of wall paintings bear representations of flutes and drums. Based on these paintings and on their current use, scholars have successfully established their sonority and function. Bells, conversely, and due to their late arrival in Maya history, were not given as much attention. Moreover, bells were never retrieved in context that held specific musical functions, and no depiction of bells suggests an inherent use as an instrument.

Nevertheless, two theatrical plays held in the twentieth century incorporated bells as either accessories or instruments. Howell, who has reviewed these two plays, noted that bells were usually not impactful to the general musicality as they were often overshadowed by other standard instruments. He added that, in some instances, the sound they produced did not even match the musicality of the scene. By analysing the plays, it appears that bells were tinkled at three distinct occasions; at the end of a scene, in passages narrating war and lastly, to correct and re-enact a scene.

The first application is rather self-explanatory, bells were used to signal the passage of a scene to another; in this aspect, bells are used to structure a play. The second function seems to associate bells with the launching of armed conflicts. In the baile de los Moros y Cristianos bells were jingled right before the beginning of the war, and in the Rab’inal Achi, the king tickled the bells at his arm before the opening of the battle. Bells association with warfare certainly result from copper association with the sun, itself incarnated by Kukulkan, a major deity of the Maya society. Indeed, the Chilam Balam of Mani specifically describes Kukulkan’s bells as war bells that he tickled to gather his tribute.

Loopers explained that Maya performances served to maintain their society in its current state by honouring their deities and by legitimising and reinforcing the centralised authority. Dancing to honour their gods meant that the performers became the avatars of their deity. Consequently, employing bells on-scene must have served to honour KuKulkan in its war costume.

Lastly, bells were used to warn a performer who has made a mistake. Maya performances are defined by their malleability and by the place left to improvisation. This can occasionally lower the quality of a scene and create misunderstandings among the theatre group and the public. In such cases, a performer will jingle his bell. Upon hearing this sound, the troupe might react in two distinct manners; the scene is either re-enacted, or the mistake is cleared, and the play continues.

The two discussed performances are derivative of Medieval European sword dances; therefore, the usage of bells, as a structural element, might come from the Old Continent. Indeed, in medieval Europe, bells were worn by jokers to pace the rhythm of a dance with a series of foot strikes, and not unlike Maya performances, those plays were often improvised.

Having said that, the integration of bells on the Baile de los Moros y Cristianos Procession is unique to the Guatemalan version, and there, bells were mainly used to regulate the play by signalling the ending of a scene. This could suggest that its structural element, along with its war association are part of the Maya tradition. However, bell’s adoption as a manner to clarify a mistake might be a functional choice, likely derivative of the medieval use of European bells. In any case, further studies on the rhythm of bells might reveal more information. Still, I currently believe that bells were not incorporated for their sonority, or as niche instrument to narrate conflicts.

Bells were undoubtedly not used as currency either. Their distribution and access do not allow for economical use throughout the region. More than five hundred bells have been found in total. This number could have been a testimony of mass production, expected for an object used as money. Still, the reader should remember that they have been produced from the Early Postclassic until the seventeenth century, and half of it comes from a single cache in Mayapán. The production is indeed indicative of bell’s significance but, to my opinion, not quite enough to consider it evidence of monetary function.

89 Although North Belizean sites have revealed bells in greater number than elsewhere, the sample is still shallow as only 75 bells have been found. Besides, the absence of a unique type, form and the presence of local preferences also impedes their usage as coinage; even in Belizean limited sample, distinct types are still attested.

Copper’s apparent democratisation never led to an even distribution of bells among the entire society. Copper bells may have been more traded in cities where they were produced, and commoners eventually gained access to it, albeit in much smaller proportion. But in towns that did not display signs of on-site casting, bells were almost systematically retrieved in either monumental or elite structures. Moreover, several local resources were already used as a form of coinage, and bells did not replace them during the Postclassic, nor in Historical time. Indeed, cacao beans, the favoured exchangeable resource, were still harvested by Maya communities in 1910 and likely played the same role as they used to before European arrival. Finally, a term analogue to the European notion of money was never lexicalised, and barter undoubtedly remained the principal source of economy.

Copper bells must have been precious and indeed showed wealth and social status through cosmological and divine associations. Evidences of high appreciation and value of bells stem from four points. Firstly, copper bells were easily associated with the sun, itself linked to nobility, but were, also, linked to Xipe Topec, the god of precious metals. Secondly, several resources such as wax and copal, required to cast a bell, were already symbolically charged resources that could never be retrieved. Besides, constant supplies of resources were required to maintain an extensive production of copper artefacts. The joint effort of loggers, apiaries and ceramists were essential for this industry. Thirdly, the absence of ore sources in the region forced Maya to trade from distant cultures, further increasing their international connectedness, but also the network within their own civilisation.

The last two points are evidence that a whole new industry had to be put in place to permit copper processing. The towns reviewed here are testimonies of an intense period of interactions, far from the picture depicted by most scholars of the Postclassic as a period of collapse or at best decline. As posit by Berdan and Paris, Mayapán must have been a core economic centre of Mesoamerica, with the majority of necessary resources available in the Yucatán Peninsula, excluding copper ores themselves. Lamanai, on the other hand, appears slightly less predominant in the region and could, therefore, be better visualised as an affluent centre. El Coyote, finally, might have been the primary resource extraction zone, if we adhere with the assumption that Honduran metallurgy followed the Maya tradition. Copper became

an inherent part of Maya culture, eventually entrapping them. This forced them to further develop their sphere of interaction, both within their cultural area and outside of it. The initial belief that Maya poor pyrotechnic knowledge caused the Maya metallurgical tardiness might not be the sole explanation. Indeed, an interconnected world was necessary to obtain all the required elements, and Classic Maya may not have offered it.

Finally, although craft production was distributed throughout the city of Mayapán and usually held in commoner houses, the copper industry seemed to have been more strongly regulated and patronised by the elites; as seen by the production centres either situated in elite residences or close to the monumental core.

Prestige goods and ornaments were usually considered sacred to Maya who believed that they held power and agency. Copper bells most likely held numerous functions and best fit in this category. Firstly, as an exotic resource, it was likely demanded by the elites to mark their status. The Terminal classic already showed an increasing presence of long-distance trade goods in burials. Secondly, as mentioned abundantly, copper natural colour signifies that it was associated with the course of the Sun, incarnated by Kukulkan, the supreme deity of the Maya and linked to warfare. Being connected to war and the sun, copper was surely highly regarded by the elites who controlled these two elements, and whose roles were to maintain the world in its current state.

Next, numerous Mesoamerican bells bear depictions of human faces on them, and the Nahuatl term for bells can be translated as the voice of a man who speaks well. Bells were thus seemingly associated with the cult of the ancestors. However, only a handful of bells from the lowlands depicted anthropomorphic faces. This relative short number might indicate that those bells are the exception rather than the norm and that they could be derivative of Western tradition. Postclassic Mesoamerica is an interconnected region and this symbolism could have been shared. Therefore, although a firm proof is currently lacking, bells may have represented, for the Maya, the voice of their ancestors. As explained in the part dedicated to the history of the region, rulers legitimized their position through various means, notably the greatness of their lineage. Bells would thus serve as a reminder of his bearer great history.

91 The incorporation of bells as a prestige good is thus explainable by the increasing accessibility of previously restricted goods to the lower class. Consequently, copper as an exotic resource might have been integrated to, once more, differentiate the social classes and recall the owner prestigious lineage. Copper’s integration could thus have been a way to maintain social differences and reaffirm the elite’s grasp on commoners in a period of social troubles. and where heterarchical systems were first tested in several Postclassic cities. Nonetheless, as prestige resources had become accessible to the lower class during the Late Terminal, copper could still be purchased by anyone in the cities if they were wealthy enough. Bells must have been particularly ‘expensive’ and the necessity of using already sacred resources to produce them, along with the necessity of building a entirely new industry must have justified their price and the control held by the elites on the production.

Lastly, the numerous flattened and distorted bells are usually understood as being the first step in a recycling process. However, if we take into account the numerous association that those bells had with various deities, with Maya ancestors and warfare, a deliberate attempt at desacralising them through ritualistic destruction might serve to remove their agency. Besides, the power attributed to bells likely came from both their casting process and as finished products. Therefore, a miscast bell was undoubtedly still a highly valued object.

FUTURE AVENUE

This last section will point towards future research that could be realised to establish further the significance of copper and its casting process in the Maya Region. Firstly, a tomographic analysis of the different lairs of the bell, along with a close-up inspection of the mould’s surface would reveal several information. This approach could help scholars to determine whether Maya used a dewaxing furnace or an open brazier as well as determining if the presence of copper dust in the clay is due to recycling habits of the clay as grog temper. Next, my knowledge of music is rather limited; a full-fledged study on Maya musicality and tones might help to define the use of bells as an instrument. Lastly, researching the functions and symbolism held by bells in neighbouring cultures and comparing them to the information we have on Maya, will also modestly unveiled the Mesoamerican interaction sphere and cultural homogeneity or disparity.

A

This thesis analyses the copper bells produced by Maya and spread throughout the lowlands. It testes the three functions attributed to these bells, notably as instruments, currency and items of adornment. The adoption of bells in dance is believed to be used as a niche instrument in scenes narrating conflicts and wars. Bells also play a structural role in plays and could occasionally be tinkled to indicate that a mistake was made. The theatre group would then either re-enact the scene or rectify the mistake. The origin of such practices was researched and a possible European influence was discerned and discussed. The use of bells as currency is, on the other hand, rejected due to the sheer number of miscast specimens, the limiter number of bells found in the territory and the resources required to cast a item using the lost-wax technique. Bells have, therefore, been most prominently worn as ornaments. Maya prestige goods were often associated with major deities, and held cosmological symbolism. As copper emerged relatively late in Maya history, this thesis tries to establish how it was incorporated in their culture and the symbolism it had. The information retrieved indicates that bells was linked with KuKulkan, God of the Sun and linked with warfare. The postclassic period is an era of growing interaction throughout Mesoamerica and various believes were shared between neighbouring societies. Maya have seemingly integrated Xipe Topec, the Aztec deity of goldsmiths and likely venerated him as the deity of precious metal. Bells also likely represented the voice of the ancestors. Lineages were particularly significant to the elites who wanted to assert their position by recalling history and the action realised by their forebears. The Terminal Classic and the subsequent demise of the Maya seems to have caused the inhabitant, of the cities that survived the collapsed, to reject the ideology of Divine Kingship and led them to turn to heterarchical political systems. Copper was integrated at that time and might have been used by the elites to assert their position in a changing society.

93

B

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