FLOOD REPTILES, SERPENT TEMPLES, AND THE QUADRIPARTITE UNIVERSE

Abstract

Mayapan, Yucatan, Mexico, was the most prominent Maya ceremonial center from the mid-thirteenth to the mid-fifteenth century. The city was a religious center for surrounding Maya populations. Its construction was linked through cyclical reasoning to a chain of antecedent centers, the ultimate link of which lay in creation. In the heart of Mayapan lay its exemplary center, an architectural model of cosmogony composed of five temple assemblages. The central building of each assemblage was a temple decorated with serpent imagery. These five serpent temples were depicted on a mural in Structure Q-80 at Mayapan, with additional symbolism suggesting that each building was tied to a specific elite official, likely the Ajaw B'atab'ob , Jalach Winik , and AjK'in as described in ethnohistoric documents. The serpent temples also depict the primordial flood crocodilian, who was both the world and the world destroyer—hence, a symbol of both order and chaos.