Bonampak Murals: The Maya Paintings of War and Court Life

The Bonampak murals are a set of wall paintings that cover the three rooms of Structure 1 at Bonampak, a small Maya city in the rainforest of Chiapas, Mexico. Painted around AD 790, they show a royal court in action: nobles in procession, musicians and dancers, a fierce battle and the humiliation of prisoners. They are the most complete Classic Maya paintings known and have transformed how historians picture Maya society.

Bonampak and its ruler

Bonampak lies near the Lacanjá river, about 30 kilometres south of Yaxchilan, the powerful kingdom on the Usumacinta river. In the late 8th century Bonampak was a minor centre closely tied to Yaxchilan, which seems to have acted as its overlord.

The murals were commissioned by Bonampak’s ruler Yajaw Chan Muwaan, who came to power in AD 776. He married a royal woman of Yaxchilan, and the paintings celebrate his court, his military success and the presentation of an heir. Carved lintels above the doorways of Structure 1 show captive-taking by Yajaw Chan Muwaan and by a Yaxchilan king.

Structure 1

Structure 1, also called the Temple of the Murals, is a modest stone building standing on a terrace of the Acropolis above the main plaza. It is divided into three separate rooms, each with its own doorway, and none of the rooms connects with the others.

Every interior surface was painted, from the low benches to the vaulted ceilings. Viewers would have entered one room at a time and read its scenes as a continuous story wrapping around them. Below it, in the main plaza, stands Stela 1, a large carved portrait of Yajaw Chan Muwaan, so that sculpture outside and painting inside together glorified the ruler.

Room 1: the court and the heir

The first room shows lords in white cloaks gathered for a ceremony, the dressing of dancers in tall feather headdresses and a procession of musicians. The musicians play drums, rattles, long trumpets and turtle shells struck with antlers.

An important scene shows a small child held up before the assembled nobles, interpreted as the presentation of the heir to the throne. A long hieroglyphic text gives dates around AD 790 and 791.

Room 2: battle and captives

The central room holds the most famous scenes. Its walls show a tumultuous battle in which warriors with spears, shields and jaguar-skin costumes seize enemies by the hair. The figures overlap and twist in a way unusual in Maya art.

The north wall shows the aftermath. Stripped captives sit and sprawl on a stepped platform before Yajaw Chan Muwaan and his richly dressed allies. Several prisoners hold out hands dripping blood, apparently from torn fingernails, and a severed head rests on the steps. These images document the brutal treatment of captives that often ended in sacrifice.

Room 3: dance and bloodletting

The third room shows a grand celebration. Dancers wear huge winged costumes and whirl on a pyramid stairway. On another wall, royal women and the ruler’s family sit on a throne and prepare to draw blood from their tongues, a sacred rite also shown in the Yaxchilan lintels.

Some caption boxes for names were left blank, which suggests the project was never quite finished.

How the murals were painted

The artists painted on lime plaster, applying many colours while it was still damp, a technique close to fresco. Their palette included reds and yellows from iron oxides, black from carbon and the famous Maya Blue, a durable pigment made from indigo and a clay mineral.

The rooms are small and dim, so the paintings were meant for a select audience. Viewers would have seen the ceremonies and battles all around them, as if they were present at court.

What the murals reveal about Maya society

Before Bonampak was found, Maya art was known mainly from carved stone, painted pottery and a few faded fragments of wall painting. The murals showed for the first time how a whole court looked in colour: the textures of jaguar skins and feathers, the jewellery of jade and shell, the white cloaks of nobles and the painted bodies of warriors.

They show a society carefully ordered by rank. The ruler and his family occupy the highest positions, nobles stand in rows according to status, and captives are placed at the bottom of the composition. Small hieroglyphic captions name many individuals, which suggests these were real people known to the viewers.

The paintings also show that ceremony, music and war were closely bound together. Battles produced captives, captives were displayed and sacrificed in public rituals, and these rituals were celebrated with dance and music that confirmed the ruler’s authority. The presentation of the heir in Room 1 ties all of this to the future of the dynasty.

Scholars have counted hundreds of human figures across the three rooms. Their variety of poses, facial expressions and gestures is unusual in ancient American art and has led art historians to compare Bonampak with the great painted rooms of other ancient civilisations.

Key people

• Yajaw Chan Muwaan: ruler of Bonampak from 776 and patron of the murals.
• Giles Healey: American photographer who in 1946 became the first outsider to record the paintings.
• Antonio Tejeda: Guatemalan artist whose copies for the Carnegie Institution made the murals widely known.
• Mary Miller: Yale art historian who led the 1990s documentation project and co-wrote a major study of the paintings.

Rediscovery and conservation

The Lacandon Maya who lived in the forest knew the ruins well. In 1946 Lacandon men guided the American photographer Giles Healey to Structure 1, and he became the first outsider to see and photograph the murals. The archaeologist Sylvanus Morley gave the site its modern name, usually translated as “painted walls”.

The Carnegie Institution of Washington documented the murals and published a major study in 1955, with painted copies by the artist Antonio Tejeda. In the following decades, layers of calcite and well-meant but damaging treatments, including the application of kerosene to bring out the colours, made the paintings harder to see.

From the 1990s a project led by the art historian Mary Miller of Yale University used infrared and digital photography to record faded details, and artists produced new reconstructions. Mexican conservators have since cleaned and stabilised the walls.

Myths and facts

• Myth: the Classic Maya were peaceful astronomer-priests. This view, popular in the early 20th century, was badly shaken by the battle and captive scenes at Bonampak, which show organised warfare.
• Myth: the murals record a single real battle in exact detail. They probably refer to real campaigns, but they are political art meant to glorify a ruler, not a neutral record.

Timeline

• AD 776: Yajaw Chan Muwaan becomes ruler of Bonampak.
• c. AD 790–792: Structure 1 is painted and dedicated.
• Early 9th century: Bonampak is abandoned during the Classic Maya collapse.
• 1946: Lacandon guides lead Giles Healey to the painted rooms.
• 1955: The Carnegie Institution publishes its study of Bonampak.
• 1990s: Yale’s documentation project records the murals with new imaging methods.

Why it matters

The Bonampak murals are a rare window onto the living Maya court, with its music, costume, ceremony and violence. Painted on the eve of the collapse of the southern Maya kingdoms, they show a society still confident in the power of its kings. Few other works of ancient American art show so many people, roles and emotions in a single place.