Learn about the Wall of Skulls at Chichen Itza: Tzompantli, otherwise known as the "wall of skulls" at Chichen Itza, was the sacrifice platform where the Mayans displayed the heads of their dead enemies, representing the glory of military conquest and serving as a warning to potential invaders. Clues also indicate that ritual human sacrifices were carried out at this site.
 It was most commonly erected as a linearly-arranged series of vertical posts connected by a series of horizontal crossbeams. The skulls were pierced or threaded laterally along these horizontal stakes. An alternate arrangement, more common in the Maya regions, was for the skulls to be impaled on top of one another along the vertical posts.
Apart from their use to display the skulls of ritualistically-executed war captives, tzompantli often occur in the contexts of Mesoamerican ballcourts, which were widespread throughout the region's civilizations and sites. In these contexts it appears that the tzompantli was used to display the losers' heads of this often highly ritualised game. New research seems to indicate it is not the losers' heads that were taken, but the winners' heads. It was an honor to be the more worthy sacrifice. Not all games resulted in this outcome, however, and for those that did it is surmised that these participants were often notable captives. Tula, the former Toltec capital, has a well-preserved tzompantli inscription on its ballcourt.
The association with ballcourts is also reflected in the Popol Vuh, the famous K'iche' Maya religious, mythological and cultural account. When Hun Hunahpu, father of the Maya Hero Twins, was killed by the lords of the Underworld (Xibalba), his head was hung in a gourd tree next to a ballcourt. The gourd tree is a clear representation of a tzompantli, and the image of skulls in trees as if they were fruits is also a common indicator of a tzompantli and the associations with some of the game's metaphorical interpretations. |
