Palenque Museum

The Dr. Alberto Ruz Lhuillier Palenque Site Museum (Museo de Sitio de Palenque Dr. Alberto Ruz Lhuillier) is located in the Archaeological Zone of Palenque, in the north of the state of Chiapas. Since its opening in 1958, it has had two basic functions: firstly, to safeguard the objects recovered in the excavations of the site, and secondly, to provide elements for the interpretation of the archaeological monuments.

Entering the museum.

Museum floor plan.
The visit to the Museum recreates a tour of the archaeological site, conceived as an example of a Mayan city from the Classic period (250-900). Thus, each room refers to a specific architectural space, including the pieces rescued in each of them, always with references to ideology, warfare and the collective and daily life of the pre-Hispanic palencanos.

Censer of the Group of Crosses.
Composite censer. Female character. Group XV.

Anthropomorphic figurine with bird helmet.
Clay sculpted figurine, the character in a seated position with his legs intertwined, his left hand on his knee, his right hand at chest level, loincloth, necklace, bracelet, and bird mask.

Panel (tablero) of Warriors.
The panel shows kneeling prostrate, the prisoner B'olon yooj is represented in a grotesque way, since his body is anatomically disproportionate. The relationship between the size of the head and the body is alien to the usual canons of Palencano sculptural art. More than the inexperience of the sculptor, this image reveals an intention to denigrate the personality of the captive.

K'inich Kan B'alam holds a flint-bladed spear. In addition, the weapon shows a series of blades tied to the handle of the blade. The incorporation of these knives added a sharp lateral element to the spear and prevented the victim from snatching it from the attacker if he tried to take it by the handle.
The ruler wears, as the most notable element of his attire, a large headdress with the representation of Waxaklaju'n 'Ub'aah Kan, “Eighteen are the images of the serpent”, also known as “The Teotihuacan War Serpent ”.

Stone panel (tablero) of the pilaster of Temple XIX.
The lower section (representation of the feet) was found attached to the pilaster. Apparently the rest of the panel was dismantled in pre-Hispanic times. One of the upper fragments was found in front of the throne. It is thought that a sahumador to burn copal was placed on top of it in post-dynastic times. Associated with a stucco panel on the same pilaster and throne boards.

Panel (tablero) of the pilaster of Temple XIX.
Composed of two parts that were part of the decoration of a pilaster from Temple XIX, it preserves red and blue pigments, it represents an attired figure and a torrent of water, with some fish, and twelve bas-relief glyphs.

The head and headdress were found in the rubble.

The rowing gods in the censer holders.
In the archaeological site of Palenque, in Chiapas, at least 16 complete censer holders are preserved, in which the rowing gods occupy an important place because they are also attributed to the personification of different celebrations.

Hidden in stone, stucco and ceramics, the voices of the ancient Maya resonate even today with all their grandeur. The patrons of the Mayan pantheon in Palenque are gods that are distinguished by their special characteristics.

Scheme of the effigy censers of Palenque.
A censer is made up of two elements, one that is the tubular body where all the iconography is located and on the sides it has two fins or little tablets.

In the tubular body there are three levels, one that is the outer mask, generally represents the monster Imix, which is an aquatic deity, in the center is one of the main gods of Palenque, and at the top there is generally a bird that represents heaven.
Like other gods, the rowers appear in the central part of the censer. Iconographically, the Jaguar Rower God is characterized as an old deity, with a prognathism on his face, but with jaguar elements such as claws, tail, jaguar patches, and a headdress with the upper part of the feline's jaws; he also has marks on his body that distinguish him as a deity, with the night sign 'akab'.
The second god, known as Raya, is prognathous, has a Xook Monster headdress, a fusion between shark and crocodile, and a stingray thorn that pierces the septum of his nose; the marks of sacredness are a sign of the day 'k'in'.
The rowing gods were finally the personification of the journey to the underworld.
There is a representation in Tikal of the journey that is made to the underworld and they are represented in a boat, hence their name, although they have a broader function of transgressing space-time, are beings that help us precisely to pass, especially in the rites of passage that are timeless, for example from childhood to youth, from youth to adulthood and even old age.

Censer holder effigy of the solar god GIII.
This beautiful work represents the face of the god GIII, a Palencan version of the solar god, in his aspect of a jaguar from the underworld, which was venerated in the Temple of the Sun.

On top are the Serpent Bird, a celestial deity, and a figurine of the god GII, Kawiil, which represented the earth.
These objects had an important ritual character as they housed the spirit of the three tutelary cosmological gods: heaven (GI), earth (GII) and underworld (GIII), to receive the offerings of men.

Compound incense burner, representing K'inich Ahaw.
K'inich Ahaw, god of the Sun, Jaguar of the Underworld.

Censer holder.
The central mask represents the God Rower Raya.

Brazier or censer.
Anthropomorphic censer holder, with rectangular sections or flaps on the sides, with the representation of a young face with kin attributes, probably in relation to an early sun, placed on a emaciated face that can mean the underworld or the Xibalba.

It carries a tall headdress made up of overlapping masks: first that of a saurian, above it, by a bird with a long beak, then the head of a reptile with open jaws crowned with the head of a mythical being.

Censer holder.

Censer holder of the God Rower Jaguar.
The god Rower Jaguar is the patron of the Mayan priests, he represented the sunset Sun and the underworld. This piece, whose characteristic feature is the jaguar headdress, was located in a shrine of Group XVI of Palenque, a complex inhabited by local high priests.

Censer holder.
Effigy censer with representation of the god GIII or Sun Jaguar of the Underworld.

Censer holder.

Replica of Pakal Tomb.
It is located next to Room 2, it is a replica made of plexiglass (transparent walls), which seeks to satisfy the legitimate interest of the tourist to visit the original tomb through a museographic alternative that complements the visit to the archaeological zone and the site museum.

This room is supported by electronic, written and audiovisual certificates that are presented to the public every thirty minutes. The thematic content has to do with the burial chamber, the find, the view of the chamber and the subject of the tombstone.
The tomb is flanked by the characters of the nine lords of the night engraved on the walls of the chamber.

The Red Queen of Palenque.
The Red Queen of Palenque, a 7th-century Mayan ruler’s wife whose remains were discovered in 1994, has a new resting place in the museum adjacent to the Palenque archaeological site in Chiapas.

The Red Queen is believed to have died in A.D. 672, 11 years before Pakal, who was ajaw – ruler or king – from 615 until his death in 683. Her remains had been deposited in a subsection of Temple XIII, located next to the Temple of the Inscriptions, where Pakal the Great’s tomb was discovered.
Interred with the queen was an elaborate headdress and a 116-piece mask, among other items. Made of 110 pieces of malachite, two of obsidian and four of white jade, the strikingly realistic mask was partially placed over the face of the deceased queen prior to her burial.
A garment worn by Mayan royalty known as a k´ub covered the queen’s chest and shoulders. It was decorated with more than 170 small discs of jade, omphacite and albite and also featured a small rosette and miniature carving of a monkey’s head.

Red Queen Mask.
Its origin is the Temple XIII of the Red Queen. The mask was made with 129 malachite tesserae, two rounded plates as pupils, four jadeite plates simulating the iris, and two tubular beads, four circular that form the carved ears.

It carries two earmuffs made up of circular and tubular beads.
The diadem is an ornament made of jade, it has 39 circular plates perforated, carved, polished.
The Red Queen's necklace is a chalice stone, jade, cylindrical and spherical shape carved, polished incised.

Female figurine in a shell.
Mortuary offering. Temple XIII or of the Red Queen.

At the time of her death, the Red Queen of Palenque was placed inside a limestone sarcophagus and covered with deep red cinnabar powder.
As part of her funeral offering, a sea shell (Spondylus calcifer) was deposited near her head, which contained a stone figurine representing an elegantly attired woman, perhaps a portrait of the queen herself.
It is believed that the Red Queen could be Lady Tz'akbu Ajaw, the main wife of the ruler Pakal.

Needle of self-sacrifice.
Self-sacrifice was quite common; people would offer maguey thorns, tainted with their own blood and would offer blood from their tongues, ear lobes, or genitals.

Blood held a central place in Mesoamerican cultures.
The 16th-century Florentine Codex by Franciscan friar Bernardino de Sahagún reports that in one of the creation myths, Quetzalcóatl offered blood extracted from a wound in his own penis to give life to humanity. There are several other myths in which Nahua gods offer their blood to help humanity.
See more at Human sacrifice in Maya culture - Wikipedia and Human sacrifice in Aztec culture - Wikipedia.

Anthropomorphic head.

Anthropomorphic head.
Partial anthropomorphic sculpture: face of a character with defined features, lips parted, teeth visible, mustaches and a lock of hair on the forehead, with a small missing area on the upper right.

Anthropomorphic head.

Panel (tablero) of the self-sacrifice.
It shows five characters performing a bloody self-sacrifice ceremony. In the center is the ruler K'inich Janaahb ’Pakal, who offers a stingray spine to his grandson, the ruler K’inich Ahkal Mo’ Nahb ’(AD 721-736), who attends to an extraordinary supernatural being. On the right is Ahkal Mo ’Nahb’s designated successor, his younger brother U Pakal K’inich, who attends to another identical supernatural being.

The glyphic blocks on the sides relate other events, such as the dedication of Temple XXI, consecrated to the cult of K'inich O' Kan, protective entity of the god GIII, patron of war and the underworld, which occurred on June 9, 736 AD.
Another recorded event is a rite at the end of the period that took place on July 22 of the same year, in which censers of the three patron gods of Palenque were used: the celestial deity GI, the terrestrial Unen K'awiil (GII) and the infraterrestrial deity GIII.