Seibal - The Site - Monuments

Monuments

The monuments of Seibal include a number of stelae, carved stone shafts, often sculpted with figures and hieroglyphs. The monuments at Seibal are fashioned from a hard limestone, accounting for their generally excellent preservation. During excavations in the 1960s, 57 stelae were identified. Of these 22 were sculpted and 35 were plain.

Hieroglyphic Stairway 1 was located on the front of Structure A-14. The stairway was installed by king Ucha'an K'in B'alam of Dos Pilas to record Seibal's status as a vassal after its defeat by that city. The stones are no longer in situ, having been removed to the area of the camp of the old archaeological project.

Stela 1, on the north side of the South Plaza near Structure A-3, names someone called "Knife-Wing", who is also known at distant Chichen Itza. It is dated to AD 869.

Stela 2 is believed to date to around AD 870 although it bears no hieroglyphic text. It depicts the frontal view of a masked figure and is the only monument at Seibal to show a frontal portrayal. It was broken into six or seven pieces and has been restored.

Stela 3 bears a non-Maya calendrical date, one of the glyphs is cipactli, a crocodile head used to represent the first day of the 260-day calendar in central Mexico. This stela once stood next to Stela 2 but was removed to a museum in Guatemala City.

Stela 4 is badly damaged, having been broken into pieces by a falling tree. It was lost for sixty years before being rediscovered. It currently remains buried under a thin covering of soil.

Stela 5 lies to the north of the South Plaza and is badly damaged. The broken middle section of the stela is all that is left, it bears the representation of a ballplayer and dates to about AD 780.

Stela 6 is slightly to the north of Stela 5, bearing hieroglyphic text. This stela was damaged in antiquity when the upper part was broken off and erected by an altar nearby.

Stela 7 stands to the north of stelae 5 and 6. It is in a reasonable state of preservation and bears the image of a ruler dressed as a ballplayer. This monument was probably dedicated in AD 780, although it records the accession of a king of Seibal in AD 771.

Stela 8 is a well preserved monument on the south side of Structure A-3. Here king Wat'ul Chatel wears jaguar claws on his hands and feet, together with other attributes of the Bearded Jaguar God. In one hand the king holds the head of the god K'awiil. The text describes a visitor named Hakawitzil, an early form of Jacawitz, the name of one of the patron gods of the Postclassic K'iche' Kingdom of Q'umarkaj in the Guatemalan Highlands. Schele and Mathews propose that the event depicted on this stela gave rise to the foundation legends of the K'iche' people.

Stela 9 was erected on the west side of Structure A-3. It is badly damaged and one section is missing. The stela depicts Wat'ul Chatel with the attributes of the Maize God and describes him invoking the Vision Serpent.

Stela 10 is on the north side of Structure A-3. It depicts Wat'ul Chatel, dressed in Terminal Classic Maya style, although his foreign-looking face bears a moustache, which is not a typically Mayan characteristic. The text on this stela displays the emblem glyphs of Tikal, Calakmul and Motul de San José, describing how he received visitors from those cities. Among the visitors are named Kan-Pet of Calakmul and Kan-Ek' of Motul. Wat'ul Chatel wears a headdress associated with the patron gods of Seibal, the heron god and K'awiil, deities that were also the patrons of Palenque. This appears to be an attempt by this foreign king to identify himself more closely with the city he came to rule.

Stela 11 is on the east side of Structure A-3 and describes the refounding of Seibal on 14 March 830 and the installation of its new lord, Wat'ul Chatel, as a vassal of Chan Ek' Hopet of Ucanal. A panel beneath the portrait of the ruler depicts a bound captive. The hieroglyphic inscription describes how Wat'ul Chatel arrived with his palanquins and his patron deities.

Stela 13 stands a little to the west of the South Plaza. It dates to AD 870.

Stela 14 dates to about AD 870 and stands at the junction of two causeways and is in a good state of preservation. It has stylistic similarities with sculptures at distant Chichen Itza in the extreme north of the Yucatán Peninsula.

Stela 18 is one of the last stelae to be erected at Seibal, it lies 20 metres (66 ft) west of the group of monuments consisting of Stelae 5, 6 and 7.

Stela 19 demonstrates the foreign influences prevalent at Seibal during the Late Classic. It depicts a lord wearing a mask representing the central Mexican wind god Ehecatl.

Stela 20 stands to the west of the South Plaza. It was one of the last monuments to be erected at Seibal, dating to AD 889.

Stela 21 is located inside the chamber at the top of Structure A-3. This stela was badly damaged when the vaulted chamber collapsed on top of it and has also suffered from erosion. The monument has been restored and depicts the lord of Seibal Wat'ul Chatel bearing a manikin sceptre. Like Stela 8, the king wears attributes of the Bearded Jaguar God, although without the jaguar claws. The king holds a K'awiil sceptre raised in his right hand, from his other hand hands a shield with the face of the sun god. The inscription on the monument is largely illegible.