San Bartolo Murals: Early Maya Paintings of Gods and Kings

The San Bartolo murals are a set of Maya wall paintings in northeastern Guatemala, painted around 100 BC and discovered by the archaeologist William Saturno in 2001. They are the oldest well-preserved Maya murals known, showing the maize god, creation mythology and the crowning of a king in vivid colour. The find revealed that the religious and royal ideas of Classic Maya civilisation were already fully formed in the Late Preclassic period.

The site of San Bartolo

San Bartolo is a Maya site in the Petén rainforest, roughly 40 km northeast of Tikal. It flourished in the Preclassic period, before about AD 250, when cities such as El Mirador dominated the northern Petén. The site was later abandoned and covered by forest.

The murals were painted inside a room attached to a pyramid now called Las Pinturas (“the paintings”). Like many Maya buildings, the pyramid was enlarged several times. Each new stage covered the older structures, and this burial protected the paintings from weather and decay for some 2,000 years.

Discovery in 2001

In March 2001 the American archaeologist William Saturno was exploring the region with local guides. Exhausted by the heat, he took shelter in a tunnel that looters had dug into the pyramid. By the light of his torch he saw part of a painted wall, which the looters had partly exposed but not destroyed.

Excavation began in 2002 under a Guatemalan and American team. Over the next years archaeologists uncovered the painted walls of the chamber known as Pinturas Sub-1A. The north and west walls were best preserved, with continuous scenes about 9 metres long on the north wall alone.

What the murals show

The north wall shows a mythical landscape centred on a mountain with a cave, from which a feathered serpent emerges. Figures connected with the maize god make offerings, including gourds and food. The scene probably relates to stories of the origin of maize, water and life.

The west wall contains a sequence of four young men making offerings in front of four trees, each topped by a bird. The four trees stand for the four directions of the world, a central idea in Maya cosmology. Next comes the maize god himself, shown in scenes of death and rebirth, a theme later found in Classic Maya art and in the Popol Vuh, a K’iche’ Maya text written down in the 16th century.

Finally, the west wall shows the coronation of a king, seated on a scaffold and receiving a headdress. A short column of hieroglyphs nearby includes the sign read as ajaw, meaning lord or king. The scene links the earthly ruler to the gods and the creation of the world.

Style and technique

The painters worked on smooth lime plaster, using mineral pigments in reds, yellows, blacks and a range of flesh tones. Figures were first sketched in thin red lines and then filled with colour and outlined in black. The drawing is confident and elegant, with fine detail in jewellery, headdresses and body ornaments.

Specialists were struck by how sophisticated the paintings are. Many conventions of later Classic Maya art, such as the way gods, rulers and costumes are drawn, already appear here in mature form. This suggests a long tradition of painting before 100 BC, most of which has been lost.

The murals also show a clear connection between art, religion and power. By placing a royal coronation next to scenes of world creation, the patrons presented kingship as part of the cosmic order. The same idea was later expressed on carved stelae and painted pottery across the Maya world.

Early Maya writing

San Bartolo also revealed some of the earliest known Maya writing. In 2005 the team found a painted text on plaster in an earlier building phase, dated to about 300–200 BC. This was published in Science in 2006 by Saturno, David Stuart and Boris Beltrán.

In 2022 researchers published fragments from the site bearing the day sign “7 Deer”, also dated to around 300–200 BC. It is among the earliest known written examples of the 260-day ritual calendar used across Mesoamerica.

Conservation and study

The painted plaster is fragile, and the site lies in a remote area threatened by looting. The murals have been left in place and protected, and conservators have stabilised the paint. Artist Heather Hurst made detailed reconstructions of the scenes, which have been central to their study. A replica is on display at the Miraflores Museum in Guatemala City.

Timeline

• c. 300–200 BC: Earliest painted texts and calendar notation at San Bartolo.
• c. 100 BC: The Pinturas Sub-1A murals are painted.
• Later Preclassic: The chamber is buried under new construction.
• March 2001: William Saturno discovers the murals in a looters’ tunnel.
• 2002: Systematic excavation begins.
• 2006: Early Maya writing from San Bartolo is published in Science.
• 2022: Publication of the “7 Deer” calendar fragments.

Why it matters

Before San Bartolo, much of what scholars knew about Maya religion came from Classic-period art after AD 250. The murals show that the maize god’s story, the four-part world and divine kingship were already central to Maya life two centuries before the Common Era. They push back the history of Maya art and writing, much as early Long Count dates push back the history of Mesoamerican timekeeping.