Written by Nicholas Hellmuth
On December 24, 2024
This is "Santa Nicholas" being pulled by native deer of Guatemala. In Classic Maya art deer are associated with monkeys. And paintings of monkeys often show them with deer antlers and deer ears.
The circular path is the Maya Sky Band with celestial motifs. We have published many PDFs on this topic. Just Google Sky Band Hellmuth FLAAR.
Often the Sky Band is the body of a Bicephalic Cosmic Monster, with "starry-eyed" deer at the left and an upside-down Quadripartite Badge Headdress monster at the right. Just Google Bicephalic Cosmic Monster, crocodile lecture, Hellmuth and you will see lots of Maya art with this monster.
So for year 2025 we will continue with new iconography reports on deer, on monkeys, on bats, on rabbits in Maya art. Our research results on iconography of peccary in Maya art are already published--just Google peccary, Maya iconography, Hellmuth.
