Bonampak
Ivan del Rivero
A true treasure is embraced by the monumental Lacandon Jungle. It is the sacred city of Bonampak, which in the Mayan language means painted wall, the only archaeological site in the Mayan world that has murals with such a high degree of preservation, which is why it is considered one of the most significant archaeological discoveries in Mesoamerican mural painting.
These extraordinary murals, undoubtedly the first great discovery in Mexico after World War II, depict scenes of war, tribute payments, representations of the underworld, and sacrifices of prisoners. This finding had various implications, including the eradication of the initial assumption, established by the British ethnographer and archaeologist Eric S. Thompson, that the Maya were a peaceful civilization dedicated solely to the contemplation of the stars and the recording of dates.
The period of splendor of Bonampak occurred between the years 600 and 800. It has a central plaza surrounded by religious, administrative, and residential buildings. Among them is Building I, known as the Temple of the Paintings, which consists of three rooms whose interior amazed the Lacandon inhabitants who knew the city when it had been abandoned for many centuries, and which a few years later dazzled Giles Healey and Mateo Bolívar, two foreign visitors who arrived there guided by the Lacandons.
On that occasion, they found three rooms profusely decorated with mural paintings, with an unprecedented degree of preservation and details that are highly revealing of ancient Mexico. The whole world recognized the beauty, the realism of their expressions, the balance of their composition, and the dramatic themes that since their discovery have established these murals as one of the most precious jewels of universal artistic expression.
Bonampak is a sacred site that shows us impressive accounts of the wonderful world of pre-Hispanic civilizations and allows us to peek through a window into another time.