Modelando el sonido en barro: figurillas-silbatos miniatura del basurero de un noble del Grupo IV de Palenque

Abstract

Chak Suutz’ was a sajal and war general who served the ruler K’inich Ahkal Mo’ Nahb III of Palenque during his reign, in the first half of the eighth century. He lived in a palace located in a residential area known as Group IV and some of the events experienced by him may help to give birth to the musical instruments, small or tiny whistles, which have been rescued from the residential area and are the object of this study. The finding in the Chak Suutz’ Palace (Structure J1) of the Tablet of the Slaves, where King Ahkal Mo’ Nahb III was represented as he came to the throne in December 721 AD (Schele 1991; Stuart 2005: 148-149), indicates that he had a special taste for art and managed financial resources that allowed him to sponsor this type of work. Therefore, it is not surprising that he was also surrounded by craftsmen, evidence that is attested to archaeologically by the presence, in the rooms surrounding his residence, of palencano type stone censers and an interesting number of figurines of nobles made of clay, many of them fragmented, and a large number recovered from the back of his residence. Immediately to the southwest of Structure J1 is J3, a rectangular-shaped building that began to be excavated in 2016, bounded on the west by a rubbish dump where, in addition to the figurines, a large volume of everyday ware has been discover. Very diverse cultural materials were also found in this deposit, as well as several fragments of musical instruments on which we are going to focus our attention on this occasion.