Mirrors and cigars

Following Blainey (Reference Blainey2007), who identified approximately 50 vases in the Kerr collection featuring mirrors, and searching for mirrors and cigars in the archaeological iconographic register, we examine the Kerr Maya Vase Database (Kerr 2025)_—which contains more than a thousand images—for mirrors depicted in conjunction with fire or cigars. A notable 18 percent of a universe of 50 vessels featuring mirrors documented by Kerr incorporated cigars across different pictorial styles. We regard the mutual appearance of mirrors and cigars as significant since the conditional probability of finding a cigar given the fact that a mirror appears in the scene fairly exceeds the probability of cigars appearing whether mirrors appear or not, showing a significant correlation among these elements (see supplementary material), being most of the vases lacking information on provenance, dating, or context. We added two important ceramic pieces not in the Kerr Maya Vase Database to our analysis: the Reynolds Vase (Figure 3), and a plate from a Sotheby’s auction.

Cigars and feather bouquets

In Maya iconography, feathers and fire share a profound symbolic connection (Figure 3), as they do in ritual contexts. Feathers are a ubiquitous element in depictions of Maya and Mexica rulers and gods, adorning headdresses, mirrors, fans, and shields, and as key ceremonial offerings. They frequently appeared crowning carefully folded and tied bundles of fabrics or clothes—as on Vase K5453—offered to powerful rulers or otherworldly entities. The feathers are tightly bound at their calamus, forming the handle of a bouquet—being this handle’s form iconographically almost indistinguishable to that of torches or cigars (elements also depicted emerging from K’awiil’s mirror). James Langley (Reference Langley and Berlo1992:272) states that feathers can be used to designate flames in Teotihuacan art, a convention also known for later Aztec iconography. Further, these feather bouquets recall what Taube has described as the “feathered maize fetish” or “torch motif” among the earlier Olmecs (Taube Reference Taube, Clark and Pye2000).

While this bouquet has been ambiguously identified as a “perforator dagger?” (Robicsek and Hales Reference Robicsek and Hales1982:80), its resemblance to smoking objects is striking. The symbolic metaphorical substitution becomes evident when viewed through the lens of a key passage in the Popol Vuh. In the story, that takes place in the “House of Darkness,” the Hero Twins are given a lit torch and a lit cigar by the Lords of Xibalba and commanded to keep them alight all night yet return them intact—an impossible task given fire’s ephemeral nature, not unlike life itself. The Twins subvert this unfeasible demand through trickery:

Macaw feathers simulate a torch’s flame, and fireflies simulate a cigar’s ember. This myth provides an insight for interpreting the iconography: the feathers bouquet is not merely an offering but a symbolic representation of a smoking or burning object, a torch or cigar, metaphor explicitly stated in the text (Figure 2). On Vase K5453 these three elements appear jointly: the cigar, the torch, and the feathers bouquet on top of a bundle.

Figure 2.

Olmec Mirror No. 13 from Carlson’s catalog found in Arroyo Pesquero, Veracrúz (left), carved Mirror Ornament from Southern Veracruz, Mexico, at Los Angeles County Museum of Art (center), and Turquoise Plaque from Chichen Itza, Yucatan (right).

Fireflies are often depicted holding torches or smoking cigars (Coe Reference Coe1973:160; Lopes Reference Lopes2025), their forms closely mirroring the feathers bouquet described earlier, as can be seen in Figure 4 in which we compare the torch held by a firefly on Vase K521 and the feathers bouquet held by one young lord in the Vase K1561 rollout. This beam of feathers has been originally called a “feathers bouquet” by Robicsek and Hales and we decided to keep this name here for clarity (Robicsek and Hales Reference Robicsek and Hales1982:80).

If we extend the iconographic analysis to include vases in which feather bouquets—interpreted as symbolic torches or cigars—appear in conjunction with mirrors, the number grows to 17. This represents 34 percent of the universe of the total mirrors identified by Blainey, suggesting a significant iconographic link. However, we should keep in mind that this analysis is highly interpretive in its application of the proposed metaphor. The revision of the roll-out pictures from the Kerr Maya Vase Database is summarized in Table 1.

Table 1.

Comparison of different iconographic elements appearing in vases with mirrors and cigars (feather bouquets)

Table 1 Long description

Rows list individual Kerr numbers and named vases, with columns for cigar or ocote torch, feathers bouquet, mirror, close to optical axis angle, throne or jaguar cushion, piled bundle, and style. In the first set, all nine Kerr entries plus the Reynolds Vase show a cigar or ocote torch, and all show a throne or jaguar cushion. Mirrors are marked yes for eight of nine Kerr entries, including one noted as concave and one noted as yes 2, while Kerr 3386 is marked no but Kin symbols. Close to optical axis angle is marked yes for seven of nine Kerr entries, with angles of 0 degrees for Kerr 1728, 8793, and 7062, and no for Kerr 5416 at 120 degrees; Kerr 3386 is marked no with no angle. Feathers bouquet is marked yes only for Kerr 8000 and the Reynolds Vase, and piled bundle is marked yes for Kerr 1728, 6437, and the Reynolds Vase, with Kerr 625 noted as unwrapped tributes. The first frequency row reports 100.00 percent for cigar or ocote torch and for throne or jaguar cushion, 22.22 percent for feathers bouquet, 88.89 percent for mirror, 77.78 percent for close to optical axis angle, 33.33 percent for piled bundle, and styles listed as 9 py, 1 cx, 1 b and w. In the extended section, additional rows include 1561, 1651, 3203, 5110, 2711, 6666, 1453, and Sothebys, Sale N07996,Lot 192, with cigar or ocote torch often marked no and one entry marked flaring mouth. Mirrors are marked yes for all extended entries, including 1561 noted as yes, multiple, and close to optical axis angle includes yes at 0 degrees for 3203 and 1453, and no at 71 degrees for 1651, 130 degrees for 5110, and 100 degrees for 6666. The extended frequency row reports 64.71 percent for cigar or ocote torch, 58.82 percent for feathers bouquet, 94.12 percent for mirror, 58.82 percent for close to optical axis angle, 88.24 percent for throne or jaguar cushion, 47.06 percent for piled bundle, and styles listed as 14 py, 1 cx, 1 b and w, 1 md.

Notes: The appearance of cigars or bouquets is highlighted in yellow; palace scenes with actual cigars are highlighted in light green; and feather bouquets are highlighted in light blue. The scenes of Twin Lords are highlighted in purple. See supplementary material for analysis of the whole set of ceramic pieces, or click on the Kerr Maya Vase Database catalog No. in the table linking to each picture.

We have not attempted a comprehensive pictographic or epigraphic analysis, a task beyond our expertise and the scope of this work. Rather, we aim to demonstrate the presence of mirrors, cigars, and other elements of K’awiil worship that may suggest the use of cigars to ignite fire with concentrated sunlight.

We have grouped the representative scenes into two main narrative types:

• • Scenes with Twin Lords, identified as the Hero Twins in the Reynolds Vase (Robicsek Reference Robicsek1978), seated on thrones with cigars or feather bouquets and mirrors. Reynolds Vase, Vases K1561, K3386, K8000, and K1651 (purple in Table 1).

• • Palace scenes likely representing an enthronement ceremony or a tribute payment event. Vases K1728, K8793, K625, K6437, K5416, and K7062 having cigars (light green in Table 1), and K3203, K5110, K2711, K6666, and K1453 with feather bouquets (light blue in Table 1).

As can be seen, a large proportion of these vases feature a concurrence of elements: the mirror, the smoking or flaring torch or cigar/bouquet, elite contexts, sacred bundles, etc., associated with the worship of K’awiil (see the section devoted to him). These 17 scenes are related by their common elements, though not all are present in every scene: a throne, known as a “teem” or a jaguar cushion (15/17), a principal figure seated on the throne in a lotus position (17/17), a mirror standing on the throne, on the floor, or atop a bundle (16/17), a sacred bundle, recognized in the paraphernalia of both Tezcatlipoca and K’awiil worships (8/17) (Valencia-Rivera Reference Valencia Rivera2006), a servant or two standing beside or behind the dignitary, where the dignitary or a servant is smoking a cigar (8/17), and a bouquet of feathers symbolizing a smoking cigar or torch (10/17). In 10/17 cases, the cigar or the feathers bouquet is in close proximity to the mirror’s optical axis (OA) (proximity meaning that the angle between the OA and the direction pointing toward the cigar/bouquet is less than 45°), showing not only a strong correlation between mirrors and these objects but, likely, the act of, factually or symbolically, igniting them.

In those vases not included in this analysis, and not representing the god K’awiil with his mirror/cigar pair, the mirror is used for self-contemplation, scrying, as a portal to the otherworld, or as an adornment denoting prestige—but always in an elite context, in accordance with royal lineage and Kovasevich’s findings (Kovasevich Reference Brigitte2016).

Olivier remarked:

Thus, let the vases speak for themselves.

Scenes of Twin Lords

The Reynolds Vase (Figures 3 and 5) has been correctly identified by both Robicsek and Coe as depicting the Hero Twins of the Popol Vuh, who are known in that epic as Hunahpu and Xbalanque (Robicsek Reference Robicsek1978:120). We build upon their contributions by identifying the mirror present in each tableau. Our own analysis benefits from a now more developed understanding of how such optical instruments were represented pictorially from a side view. This scene is part of a coherent iconographic group—including K3386, K1561, K8000, K1651 (purple in Table 1), and possibly K624—that evokes the Popol Vuh narrative of the Twins’ journey in Xibalba (Coe Reference Coe1973:13–14; Robicsek Reference Robicsek1978:121).

Figure 3.

The Reynolds Vase showing a young lord, seated and smoking a cigarette in his throne in front of a mirror while holding a feathers bouquet (metaphor of a lit torch).

Figure 4.

Comparison between the torch held by a firefly (Vase K521, left) and the feathers bouquet held by one young lord (Vase K1561, right).

Figure 5.

Line drawing of the Reynolds Vase in which Maya Hero Twins sit on a pair of thrones and their mirrors stand in front of them and on top of their thrones. Probably from the Usumacinta region, vase at the Smithsonian Museum of the American Indian.

Being aware of what Robicsek called the “Popol Vuh syndrome”—the tendency to interpret all iconography in light of this text—we did not resist the temptation, but proceeded carefully. An important sign in this Twin Lords group of vases is the attitude and posture of the figures: these young lords are peacefully seated cross-legged, and the only action they perform is holding the feathers bouquet, just as the Hero Twins did when commanded to wait for dawn with their torches and cigars alight and keep them intact. We suggest that these figures are in the House of Darkness, given this narrative concordance with the text.

One Hunahpu and Seven Hunahpu (progenitor and uncle of the Hero Twins who faced the same challenge but failed)…They were seated cross-legged there in the darkness when the courier arrived to give to them their torch and their cigars. The torch was brightly burning when it arrived, and with it were lit each one of the cigars:

“These are to be returned at dawn. They are not to be used up. Instead, they are to be collected again intact. Thus say the lords to you,” they were told (Christenson Reference Christenson2007:110).

In addition, the Twin Lords have their headdresses facing forward and with pompom ornaments, matching those of the Hero Twins (Coe Reference Coe1973). The vertical bands separating both panels are related to the Sun or the sun god Cauac monster associated with the entrance to the Underworld, and they feature jaguar-spotted loincloths or beaded collar-like beads or marks on the back or arms. Table 2 summarizes some of the shared iconographic elements in this group. Thus, these signs allow us to extend the identification of these young Twin Lords with the Hero Twins of the Reynolds Vase to the whole group as a working hypothesis.

Table 2.

Twin Lords group, in which some shared elements among different vases are shown

Table 2 Long description

Rows list five vases and columns mark whether specific elements are present: Forward headdress, Pompon, Jaguar loincloths, Feathers bouquet, Cigar, Bundle, and Other. Forward headdress, Pompon, and Feathers bouquet are Yes for Reynolds Vase, K1651, K3386, K8000, and K1561. Jaguar loincloths are Yes for K1651 and K8000, and No for Reynolds Vase, K3386, and K1561. Cigar is Yes for Reynolds Vase and K3386, Yes? for K8000, No for K1561, and No? for K1651. Bundle is Yes, sky for Reynolds Vase; Yes for K1651; No? for K3386; Yes? for K8000; and No for K1561. Other is No for Reynolds Vase; Pipes? for K1651; Sun vertical bands (VB) for K3386; blank for K8000; and sun god VB, Macaw for K1561.

In Figure 5, the left character—while seated cross-legged—smokes a cigarette and holds a bouquet of feathers, possible metaphors for a smoking torch or cigar, much alike in the Popol Vuh’s House of Darkness passage. There is a mirror in front of each character. Two different bundles appear in both images on the thrones behind the characters (Robicsek Reference Robicsek1978:120). The bundle behind the right figure has the sky glyph showing perhaps its divine character. Here both elements appear: the cigar and the feathered torch—just as in the House of Darkness passage—alongside the conundrum that mirrors represent.

The scene on the Reynolds Vase finds its mirror in the scene of Vase K1561 (Figure 6), where the young Twin Lords each hold a bouquet of feathers and below each throne are three logographic representations of mirrors. Notably, the bouquet held by the figure on the left has on top the faint outline of what appears to be a dead macaw—an echo of the Popol Vuh episode in which Vucub Caquix (Seven Macaw) is defeated. We must recall that before traveling to Xibalba, the Hero Twins defeated the false Sun and arrogant tyrant Vucub Caquix. Through deception, they stole all the precious metal from his once-shining eyes—where resided his solar-like power—tricking him into believing they would heal a wound they had inflicted. Christenson (p. 140, n. 189) notes that the macaw has a circular white ring around its eyes, where feathers appear to have been removed since this event.

Figure 6.

Vase K1561 featuring the Twin Lords seated on a pair of thrones, holding bouquets of feathers that resemble cigars or torches, where the feathers could symbolize flames. Below each throne are three logographic representations of mirrors.

The conjunction of the mirror with the cigar held by one of the twins in Figure 5 is not merely decorative; it decisively links these iconic figures to the core paraphernalia of the Lord of the Smoking Mirror, a connection previously overlooked. Due to the co-occurrence of the Twin Lords characters and the feather bouquets similar to torches, these vases likely illustrate the myth of substitution, where fireflies mimic cigar embers and macaw feathers (perhaps from the defeated Vucub Caquix?) simulate torch flames, but they add a crucial element absent from the Chichicastenango text—the Popol Vuh—the ritual mirror. Did they use a mirror, maybe the stolen eyes of Vucub Caquix, to light up their cigars and torches at dawn again?

We therefore suggest throughout these rhetorical questions a logical and materially grounded explanation—namely, that the mirrors were used to ignite cigars with sunlight at dawn—which closes the narrative gap in a way that is consistent with both passages of the Popol Vuh, the visual evidence, and the known technological capabilities of the period.

As Shele and Miller state about the relationship among Mayan art and myths:

The Popol Vuh stories are not illustrated word for word in the art of the Classic period, but many elements of the storyline have compelling parallels in Classic imagery created seven hundred years before the text was written, and some appear to be directly illustrated, suggesting that these stories are fragments, surviving to the time of the Conquest, of very ancient myth cycles describing the universe and the origins of gods and man (Schele and Miller Reference Schele and Miller1986:33).

Myths and tales can embody not only ethical or historical knowledge but technical knowledge and concepts as well. Throughout sophisticated languages—pictorial, epigraphic, oral, theatrical, and others—this knowledge is codified without diminishing their poetic content, thus speaking to the subtlety of both the concepts and the human experiences intended to be preserved within them. Indeed, part of the refined optical knowledge developed by the Maya—knowledge that manifests itself in their perfect lapidary art—would therefore be encoded in the very vases that artistically depict these rituals and myths.

Palace scenes

A compelling example that synthesizes these elements is found on Vase K1728 (Figure 7). The scene depicts a palace ritual, likely an enthronement or tribute ceremony. Here, a black and likely concave mirror is placed at the feet of the rightmost character, below the throne. Crucially, the ritual action directly involves fire: two figures hold burning objects. The rightmost character appears to be using a cigar as a tool to generate fire on an ocote torch, while the other character’s torch burns in the vicinity of the mirror’s optical axis. This vivid depiction provides a strong iconographic link between the mirror, the act of ignition using a torch or a cigar within an elite ceremonial context. Oftentimes mirrors point in the direction of lords themselves, likely serving as a kenning for the lord becoming the Sun itself—that is, the very act of contemplating one’s own image.

Figure 7.

Kerr Maya Vase Database, Vase K1728. A lord sits on a throne beneath which a concave black mirror is displayed. The character on the far right stands, smoking a cigar at his lips and holding an object engulfed in flames. The second character from left to right holds an ocote beam burning in flames aligned to the mirror’s optical axis.

In several other paintings (Vases K8793, K625, K6437, K5416, and K7062), Figures 8-10, characters appear smoking cigars or using smoking tubes alongside mirrors, as well within palace contexts, in which elements that are commonly suited for being offered to the gods or tributed to the highest lords or rulers (feathers, textile bunds, etc.) are present. The dignitary or another accompanying individual is often shown smoking, sometimes directly in front of the mirror. The recurrence of this scene across different sites, time periods, and artistic styles, and its composing elements, suggests that it represents a significant ceremony, most likely a ruler who is being paid or honored with tribute by elites of a social hierarchy atop which he sits. But the cigars appearing together with mirrors and close to their optical axis are instances that point out toward a functional relationship among those instruments: their incendiary ability of the mirrors if they were concave.

Figure 8.

A painted depiction of a dignitary seated on his throne, holding a cigar or smoking tube in front of a mirror. The cigar is in a close vicinity of the mirror’s optical axis. Kerr Maya Vase Database, Vase K8793.

Figure 9.

A dignitary is smoking, seated on his throne on which a mirror stands in front of him and on top of the throne. Again, the cigar is located close to the optical axis of the mirror. Probably from northern Peten in the Late Classic period. Kerr Maya Vase Database, Vase K625.

Figure 10.

A palace scene in which a dignitary is sitting on his throne in front of a mirror, holding a cigar close to the mirror’s optical axis. The text suggests the bearded individual is a visitor from the west. An attendant standing in wings is behind the throne. Kerr Maya Vase Database, Vase K6437.

In the preceding scenes, the mirror could be interpreted in two, not mutually exclusive ways: as a vain and prestigious luxury object for self-contemplation, or as a symbolic element of power, given the magical attributes for scrying and divination that these objects possessed. Our interpretation is that cigars could have been lightened by mirrors, based on the symbolic protagonic role of both elements, the frequent apparition of similar scenes, and the importance of both elements in the veneration of K’awiil—a deity, who for centuries was a symbol of the divine legitimacy of dynastic lineages, being this interpretation is consistent with the elite ceremonial context represented. Both the cigar and the mirror received the same scribal attention, repeatedly and across different epochs and places. We cannot disregard the cigar as a futile iconographic element based on our own present-day perspective; rather, we must interpret the signs and symbols and their roles within the scene accounting their symbolic value in their own historical context, considering the Popol Vuh as a key reference.

For the vases depicting a similar palace scene to those previously analyzed, but in which feather bouquets symbolically substitute torches or cigars (light blue in Table 1) (which includes Vases K3203, K5110, K2711, K6666, and K1453), the analysis should be carried out in the same way, noting the significant and frequent apparition of the pair mirror/feathers bouquet (35 percent) and the proximity of these last objects to the mirror’s optical axis (50 percent).

In the supernatural realm, the mirror and the cigar are closely related in the very effigy of K’awiil. However, when used in conjunction in this world, they possess the capacity to ignite fire. We believe this constitutes a power worthy of the veneration that Mayan people have dedicated to this pair.

In summary, our analysis shows that cigars and mirrors were consistently depicted together in palace-related ceremonial contexts. This association may reflect multiple, overlapping meanings: cigars could have functioned as intoxicating agents to facilitate communication with entities perceived beyond the mirror during scrying; both objects may have served as symbols of prestige, self-contemplative vanity, and sensory pleasure, as they serve today; they might also have referenced the transformative power of fire and light as symbols of K’awiil attributes; or, alternatively, formed part of a pyrotechnological assemblage used to generate fire. These interpretations are not mutually exclusive and may have coexisted within the same cultural framework.

In this sense, our analysis shows the symbolic prominence of the cigar/mirror pair that does not only reflect supernatural attributes of deities, but emphasises the dignity, knowledge, and dominion over the natural and supernatural forces of the community’s rulers or elites, providing them with divine legitimacy throughout K’awiil’s symbolism.

We acknowledge that the vast majority of mirrors from the Classic period are flat, however we propose that some mirrors—specifically those depicted in ritual contexts involving cigars—may have been concave and functionally incendiary, and that this specialized knowledge was sly restricted to elite practitioners associated with K’awiil symbolism. Furthermore, since a concave mirror must possess a precise combination of specular reflectivity, focal distance, aperture, and minimal aberrations to achieve the concentration factor necessary to ignite cellulose, such mirrors would have been rare technologically sophisticated objects, and their manufacture and use would have been restricted to high-status individuals. The very difficulty of producing an effective incendiary mirror would have enhanced its ritual and political value, as it could serve as a tangible demonstration of divine power, strict control on trade networks, and technological mastery.

K’awill and Tezcaltlipoca

The most striking and well-known relationship between mirrors and cigars emerges from the Classic iconography of the god K’awiil. As Taube (1992:69) points out based on the classic works of Schele and Miller (Reference Schele and Miller1983) and Stuart (Reference Stuart1987), in classic Maya iconography and epigraphy, K’awiil (Figure 1) is depicted as a reptilian being with a long, upturned snout, and adorned with a fire element on its forehead. This fire element has been interpreted as a mirror pierced by what seems to resemble a lit torch, or alternatively a cigar with smoke or flames, or a smoking blade or axe. However, Coe, in personal communication with Schele and Miller, argues that the smoking element piercing the mirror is a cigar, akin to the one portrayed in the mouth of God L at the Temple of the Cross Complex in Palenque as shown in Figure 11b (Schele and Miller Reference Schele and Miller1983:9).

Figure 11.

From left to right, ocote torches, God L smoking a cigar, and two representations of K’awiil with the characteristic mirror and a torch or cigar burning and smoking on its forehead, after (Shele, 1988).

Furthermore, Robicsek reports that Coe “identified the forehead tube at different periods as a bone tube, a pipe, and finally a cigar, and the flame-like appendage rising from the tube as a smoke, an iconographic complex indicating power and divinity,” and that Schelle agreed that the object probably represents a smoking tobacco cigar, theory reinforced by Kelley on glyphic bases suggesting about the pipe infixed onto the head of K’awiil that “the infix has been so conventionalized in the codices that is no longer recognizable as a separate element” (Robicsek, Reference Robicsek1978: 60). Nowadays, it is well established that the smoking element emerging from the mirror on the forehead of K’awiil’s effigy can represent an axe as in the case of the wooden effigies of K’awiil from Tikal; a torch such as the manikin scepter at Princeton University Museum (Rice Reference Rice2012:Figure 1a), or a cigar as in the Vase K5164, depending on the divine attributes to be represented (García Barrios 2008; Houston Reference Houston and Dine2024; Rice Reference Rice2012; Valencia Rivera Reference Valencia Rivera2016, 2014).

Veneration practices of the Lord of the Smoking Mirror

In order to determine the role played by the cigar and the mirror in K’awiil’s effigy, as well as the cultural relevance of both, it is important to analyze the appearance of such elements in the worship practices of K’awiil and his myths. Olivier (Reference Olivierr2015) describes the common practice, among different Mesoamerican cultures, of adopting foreign deities from their respective pantheons, or “translating” them in function of their divine attributes, by calling “divine homologues” at those equivalent deities, explaining their multivalent or polymorphic nature across time and regions. Thus, due to the fact that the god’s name mutates across different regions and historical periods, the ritual practices and myths of those equivalent deities should be analyzed as well. In this sense, the Postclassic K’iche’ creational deity Huracan—from jun raqan, meaning “one leg”—is one manifestation of this pan-Mesoamerican deity, identified at present as the K’iche’s tutelary deity Tohil (Rice Reference Rice2012). This figure corresponds to the Classic Maya K’awiil (God K, GII, B’olon Tzakab, or the manikin scepter) and in central Mexico, the Mexica worshipped this same fundamental deity as Tezcatlipoca (Rice Reference Rice2012; Olivier Reference Olivierr2003:2; Valencia Rivera Reference Valencia Rivera2006). One of the God K names in the Postclassic period was Ah Bolon Tzacab (Schele Reference Schele and Miller1983). According to Rice (Reference Rice2012), all these distinct deities represent the same and one single creational deity whose origins can be traced back to the Preclassic period. Forerunner depictions can be identified in characteristic features of this deity like in the “flame eyebrow” of the Olmec were-jaguar, the “Young Lord” serpentine figurine, and Izapa Stela 3 deity (Rice Reference Rice2012). One peculiar representation of K’awiil as a baby, the God GII in Palenque’s triad, has the name Unen K’awiil, being Unen the Mixe-Zoquean word for baby, pointing toward an Olmec or Mixe-Zoquean origin of this deity (Martin 2002:63, cited by Valencia Rivera Reference Valencia Rivera2016:59).

According to the Mexica creation myth, the primordial world was a chaotic ocean inhabited by the monstrous beast Tlalteuctl or Cipactli. The couple of gods formed by Tezcatlipoca (one-legged Lord of Smoking Mirror) and the feathered serpent Quetzalcoatl sought to create order by luring Cipactli. Using his own leg as bait, Tezcatlipoca attracted the creature, allowing the two gods to capture it despite losing his leg. They then tore Cipactli in half, lifting the upper part to form the sky and leaving the lower part as the earth (Aguilera Reference Aguilera and Ponciano2008; Cartwright Reference Cartwright2017; Noguez Reference Noguez2024). A parallel exists in the K’iche’ Maya Popol Vuh, where the gods Huracan (one-legged, and identified with the Lord of Smoking Mirror K’awiil) and Qʼuqʼumatz, the feathered serpent known as Kukulkan by the Yucatec Mayans, similarly raise the sky to separate it from the primordial sea, though the specific motif of the dismembered beast is absent (Christenson Reference Christenson2007).

Based on an iconographic analysis, Philip reproduces the Olmec myth of the creation of the world (Philp 2005). According to this myth, a mythical hero faces an aquatic monster, and in this battle, the hero loses a limb but manages to create the Earth’s surface from the body of the defeated monster. Izapa Stela 3, from the Preclassic period, most likely depicts this mythical scene.

Whether a precursor character of this myth existed among the Olmec or Izapa cultures remains a matter of debate, however, the identification of the aforementioned deities—K’awiil, Tohil, Tezcatlipoca, etc.—as different manifesting forms of the same entity, with different names, and their corresponding temporal or regional changes in iconography or divine attributes, is currently a more settled issue.

More relevant to the analysis of the relationship of these gods with tobacco, some researchers link K’awiil to Tohil, the present K’iche’ deity of lightning and storms (Christenson Reference Christenson2007:77; Schele and Miller Reference Schele and Miller1983; Taube Reference Taube1992b). Schele, for instance, suggests the connection between the two gods based on a phonetic similarity between the words “toh” or “tah” (meaning torch and obsidian in nearly all Mayan languages) and the name of the god. Additionally, Tedlock (cited by Taube) notes that, like Tohil, K’awiil is depicted with only one human leg (Taube Reference Taube1992b:76), being this a continuous persistent trait of the deity throughout Mesoamerican history. According to Francisco Jimenez’s re-edition of the Popol Vuh (Jimenez Reference Jimenez1857:90), Tohil is the deity who provides humans with the first fire, keeping the secret of its creation to himself. When the fire extinguishes and people begin to suffer from cold again, Tohil demands that people offer him human blood and tobacco. In other words, Tohil, in addition to being associated with lightning, is a fire deity fed by tobacco. Similarly, Tozzer reported that in the early twentieth century, among the Lacandon people, the first tobacco harvest was offered to the fire god (known as Qaq or KaK to the Lacandon people) in the form of cigars (Tozzer Reference Tozzer1907:142), and that during this ceremony for igniting the new fire, self-bloodletting sacrifices were conducted (Tozzer Reference Tozzer1907:136).

A beautiful archaeological relationship between the actual tobacco plant, and K’awiil can be found in miniature tobacco flasks with K’awiil and God L—both tobacco-related deities—depictions on their surface, in elite burial contexts (Eppich and Navarro-Farr 2016:216, Figure 9.3; Kerr Reference Kerr and Kerr2005).

On the other hand, Taube associates K’awiil with Chaac, as it is common in Maya iconography to encounter a composite deity, Chaac/K’awiil, displaying attributes of the lightning god. Several researchers linked the axe form of K’awiil with lightning, as an instrument of Chaac (Bassie-Sweet 2021; García Barrios 2008:384). “K’awiil is lightning and is the emblem of power used by rulers during the Late Classic period” (García Barrios 2008:384–390). Importantly, Taube also mentions that in Yucatec Maya tradition, Chaac is recognized as a heavy smoker (Taube Reference Taube1992b:76).

Thus, a proposed relationship between these deities could be that K’awiil—the lightning god—serves as the axe of Chaac—the rain god—the instrument that opens the earth to allow Maize to emerge each year, producing fire amid these resplendent and fulgurant events (Chinchilla Reference Chinchilla2021).

Certainly, not only the name but the iconography and pictorial style of this complex deity also varies with region and time, influenced by the aesthetics of the dominant group at that era. Figures 1, 11c, 11d, 12a, and 12b show different representations of K’awiil from different periods, each with slightly different divine attributes. The Postclassic effigies of K’awiil in Figures 12a and 12b (Taube Reference Taube1992b:70–72) exhibit an “international” pictorial style (Valencia Rivera Reference Valencia Rivera2016), with iconographic elements much closer to those of central Mexico. For example, the smoking mirror of the Maya god from El Corozal has acquired a form very similar to that of the Mexica deity Tezcatlipoca (Figure 12c). In contrast, during the Classic Maya period, the mirror was represented from a transverse sectional view or in a manner resembling the nen glyph (T617).

Figure 12.

Image of a Late Postclassic K’awiil from El Corozal, Belize (left), representation of a winged K’awiil with a smoking tube at his mouth, from Tulum (center), and an image of his Mexica divine homolog Tezcatlipoca, from the Borgia Codex (right).

In fact, this creational deity and its myth appear to have been a persistent feature throughout Mesoamerican cultural development, even though the deity does not seem to be represented with the smoking mirror attribute until the Classic Maya period.

K’awiil was a key deity in the political life of Mayan cities since he was a symbol of divine royal lineage. His name was shared by many kings (Copan, Calakmul, Chichen Itza, Tikal, Palenque, etc.) and his effigy as a scepter was used as a symbol of enthronement. Classic-period Maya rulers are frequently depicted in art (stelae, panels) during their enthronement ceremonies holding in their right hand K’awiil’s scepter, with the accompanying inscription uch’ amaw K’awiil (transliterated as u-ch’am-ma-wa K’AWIIL), translated as “To take/grasp/conjure K’awiil” (see Figure 13). This is a nominal formula used to mark the precise moment of enthronement, when a ruler becomes the legitimate possessor of the deity. Therefore, it has been recognized that the scepter of the K’awiil’s effigy was an emblem of royal power (Valencia 2010).

Figure 13.

Glyphic inscription read as uch’ amaw K’awiil or “to take K’awiil,” a nominal formula for ascension.

In this royal context, it is worth noting that Queen Lady K’abel (Burial 61 from El Perú-Waka’ site) was buried laying to rest with her tobacco flask alongside her mirror, among other precious belongings: thus providing us with one important archaeological association between actual tobacco and mirrors, symbols of K’awill’s divine attributes and not merely their artistic representations (Freidel Reference Freidel, Navarro-Far, Rich and Meléndez2024; Eppich, in Loughmiller-Cardinal Reference Loughmiller-Cardinal and Eppich2019; Loughmiller-Cardinal Reference Loughmiller-Cardinal and Zagorevski2016).

Last, it is important to mention Milbrath’s association of K’awiil with Tezcatlipoca (Milbrath Reference Milbrath and Elizabeth2014). This association becomes apparent when considering that both one-legged gods are depicted with a smoking mirror (Figure 12). Once again, as seen in the worship of the gods Chaac and Tohil, cigars and tobacco play a significant role. Similar to Tohil, who requires human blood and tobacco as offerings, Sahagún recounts in the Florentine Codex that the same elements were offered to Tezcatlipoca.

In the corresponding image from the Florentine Codex for this section, shown in Figure 14, appears as a god impersonated in the young to be sacrificed holding a shield in his right hand. A mirror and cigar are held in the god’s left hand, showing again the association of mirrors and smoking cigars.

Figure 14.

Mexica young man character to be sacrificed, holding a mirror and a smoking device, from the Florentine Codex.

Sahagun also recounts about the mirror craftsman: “He sells two-faced mirrors, polished on both sides, mirrors with only one face, and concave mirrors, all of which are very good” (Sahagún Reference Sahagún, Richter and Houtrouw2023:bk. 10, f. 63r), witnessing the manufacture of concave mirrors at the Contact period.

Therefore, cigars and mirrors seem to be intrinsically intertwined within the worship of the Lord of the Smoking Mirror (whether one of its divine homologs; K’awiil, Tohil, or Tezcatlipoca, always sharing divine attributes), both from the iconographic and ritualistic paraphernalia points of view.

Mirrors revisited: pyrite Mayan concave mirrors

Regarding the first impediment —the absence of Classic or Postclassic-period mirrors—our group identified a prominent example: the Turquoise Plaque of Chichen Itza. A review of the archaeological reports by Morris (Reference Morris, Charlot and Morris1931) revealed that the diagram of the transverse section of its central pyrite mirror clearly indicates its concavity (see Figure 15).

Figure 15.

Diagram of the restoration of the turquoise mosaic plaque from the Temple of the Warriors, Chichen Itza in a transverse section view, showing the concavity (at B) of the pyrite mirror at his center. Drawing taken from Morris (Reference Morris, Charlot and Morris1931).

The concavity is paramount since only if it has the right geometry, it would allow the mirror to concentrate solar radiation to a point at which it can start a fire on an appropriate target. Not in art nor in religion, but in anatomy, physiology or engineering, the principle of “form determines function” states that the physical structure, shape, or composition of an object dictates what it can or cannot do. From this perspective, the question if the Preclassic Olmec concave mirrors were used to ignite fire can be extended to the Postclassic Maya due to the presence of this Chichen Itza mirror.

Concerning the second barrier, our research (all details appear in Salazar-Neumann et al. [Reference Salazar-Neumann, Delgado-Calderon and Yuri2026]) in this same volume) demonstrates that most of the known archaeological concave specimens were indeed capable of igniting fire. The cross-section diagram of the superb Chichen Itza mirror allowed us to calculate its radius of curvature and thus evaluate its burning ability, both theoretically and experimentally using a radiative equilibrium approach and analog modern mirrors. Results show that extraordinary temperatures could be reached at their focal point on to a blackened object, much higher than the ignition point of cellulose lignine mixtures (see the penultimate yellow row of Table 3).

Table 3.

Calculated equilibrium temperatures TEq of a black object at the focal point of Olmec and Mayan concave mirrors, and the time it takes a blackened target to ignite, if located at the focal point of an analogous model mirror exposed to the sunlight

Table 3 Long description

Columns list Carlsons Catalog Mirror No. values 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 13, 14, 15, and 18, plus two additional columns labeled Chichen Itza and Xalapa. Rows mark mirror provenance with X for Chichen Itza, La Venta, Arroyo Pesquero, Guerrero, and Unknown. X marks appear for Chichen Itza under mirror 14; for La Venta under mirrors 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 13; for Arroyo Pesquero under mirrors 14, 15, and 18; for Guerrero under mirror 18; and for Unknown under Xalapa. Calculated TEq in degrees C by mirror number is 1,197 for 1; 1,119 for 2; 440 for 3; 1,641 for 4; 1,939 for 5; 1,890 for 6; 1,169 for 7; 1,668 for 13; 2,511 for 14; 1,223 for 15; and 753 for 18. Time to Ignition in seconds is 3 seconds for 1; under 1 second for 2; No for 3; under 1 second for 4; 3 seconds for 5; 2 seconds for 6; 6 seconds for 7; 2 seconds for 13; under 1 second for 14; under 2 seconds for 15; and No for 18.

The theoretical predictions for the equilibrium temperature (TEq) of a blackened target at the focal point of the mirrors are based on the principle that the target’s temperature increases until the incoming solar energy flow equals the energy radiated back into the surrounding environment, as described by the Stefan-Boltzmann law for a black body (Duffie Reference Duffie and Beckman2013). In this context, the color of the target is critical, as it determines the capacity to absorb and emit electromagnetic radiation, and thus the burning power of the mirror/target pair or its equilibrium temperature TEq.

Even though our results show the continuity of the lapidary tradition of crafting concave mirrors from the Preclassic to the Postclassic periods, as well as the good incendiary power of these artifacts, a subsequent question arises concerning the specific materials used as tinder.

One can naively think that any flammable material such as dry leaves or dry wood would suffice and often appears trivial to answer this question. However, the tobacco cigar itself ignited in front of the mirror (Figure 1) provides a coherent answer that aligns both the physical principles governing the mirror and the cigar, and the symbolic world of K’awiil worship, as it will be shown.

The tobacco cigar revisited

From a physical point of view, the ignition of a fire using a concave mirror to concentrate the Sun’s radiation requires a small, easily combustible, blackened object to be suspended at the mirror’s focal point.

To demonstrate how strongly the burning power of the mirror/target pair depends on the target’s absorptance (i.e., its darkness), we performed experiments using modern glass silvered concave mirrors—analogous mirrors—with similar focal distance than their archaeological specimens, but adjusting the aperture area to match the reflected energy flow of their original counterparts (the time required to ignition is shown in the last row of Table 3, when a blackened cigar is used as target). Then, we exposed various materials to solar radiation concentrated by the Chichen Itza analog mirror for three seconds each. The experimental setup of Ekholm who succeeded to light fire with the Arroyo Pesquero Olmec mirror is shown in Figure 16 (upper left), and our own experiment using modern analogous mirrors (upper right). The clear contrast between light-colored and dark-colored materials is shown in the same Figure 16, where the extent of burning caused by the concentrated solar beam is evident. Although the choice of objects made from cellulose seems obvious, since this material is a good fuel and is almost universally available, our results show that Olmec and Mayan mirrors fail to ignite fire on cellulose if it is in the form of compact material like wood or branches, or if its color is light like that of paper or ocote wood.

Figure 16.

Experimental setup of Ekholm, who succeeded to light fire with the Arroyo Pesquero Olmec mirror (upper left), and our own experiment using modern analogous mirrors—with equivalent apertures and focal distances—lighting a tip blackened cigar (upper right). Below, different materials and the extent of burning caused by the concentrated solar radiation. The burnt zone on the blackened cigar on the left has been circled in yellow for clarity.

Placing the blackened target at the focal point without casting a significant shadow over the mirror necessitates a thin, elongated support that simultaneously allows oxygenation during combustion. These criteria are met by tobacco cigars, enabling the lighting of an ember at the tip of the cigar while allowing to enlarge the ember seed by inhalation. Transport and transfer of the ember are made more convenient using such devices (smoking tubes or cigars) through puffing. The smoldering cigar could then be placed into a bundle of kindling (small twigs) to ignite a full flame.

The aforementioned reasons would explain the use of cigars as starting fire devices and their association with mirrors that frequently appears in both Mayan paintings and in Mesoamerican ceremonies. Even more, the enormous amount of effort required to make cigars through drying, curing, fermenting, and rolling tobacco leaves—while still flexible—can be explained by the paramount significance of the ceremonial act of igniting fire on a sacred plant with the Sun’s light.

Cigars are devices that promote very efficient combustion, reaching more than 800ºC temperatures (Touey and Mumpower Reference Touey and Mumpower1957), since oxygen flowing through the cigar increases the kinetics of the combustion reaction proportionally to this air flow (more than tenfold increase in flow rate, from tens of ml/s to 0.5 l/s). They act as a chimney in which the influx of fresh air, without carrying humidity from the lungs, optimally oxygenates the combustion reaction taking place at the burning tip. Furthermore, in a cigar, the smoldering front advances in the same direction as the airflow. If the air were blown in the opposite direction, the ember does not find fuel to sustain itself, making the burning process much less efficient

Nonetheless the ignition temperature of mixtures of cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin affect the ignition point of different biomass fuels, as shown by Cao and colleagues (Reference Cao, Jun, Teresa and Zhang2019) ranging from 370°C to 410°C, the calculated burning ability through their equilibrium temperature (TEq) of these ancient Mesoamerican concave mirrors consistently remains over the ignition point of these mixtures (see Table 3).

It is worth noting that, according to the experiments we have conducted lighting cigars using analogous models, the blackening process is critical; only in the case when the blackened cigar is exposed to the concentrated radiation does it light up almost instantly. However, if the cigar is extinguished and its gray ash-colored tip is exposed to the mirror’s concentrated radiation, it fails to light.

This critical requirement of blackening the target coincides with an important ethnographic observation reported by Thompson, who describes a surficial treatment using carbonized and pulverized tubers of an unidentified plant mixed with a sweet potato and corn gruel for manufacturing cigars among Mayan people (Thompson Reference Thompson1970:109). This treatment, which essentially constitutes a black paint known as cocom paste, is applied to the exterior wrapping leaves of the cigar. Analogously, Sahagun refers:

Although the specific purpose of this treatment is not documented, we propose that this tradition likely comes from the search to increase the optical absorptance of the cigar, making it a more efficient receiver of concentrated radiation (larger value of the absorptance α in Eq. 4. in [Salazar-Neumann Reference Salazar-Neumann, Delgado-Calderon and Yuri2026]). As has been shown experimentally, this absorptance value is critical to achieve the ignition of the receiver.

In addition, Tozzer gives us a conspicuous ethnographic testimony about the knowledge once Lacandons had on how to ignite fire using tobacco and optical devices: “The first tobacco is made into a form of a cigar, lighted symbolically by a crystal, and offered to the gods” (Tozzer Reference Tozzer1984:16). It must be stressed that aside from one of the mirrors of Chichen Itza, a couple of clear quartz crystals were found by Morris in 1931 (Morris Reference Morris, Charlot and Morris1931:182).

The physical and ethnohistoric evidence therefore supports the plausibility of cigars serving as rolls of combustible tinder. Their function would have been to catch the concentrated radiation from a concave mirror, initiating an ember for fire making. Indeed, our experimental results with analogous models of the ancient concave mirrors, including similar focal distances to those of their original archaeological counterparts, have notoriously demonstrated their burning power, as well as the cigar’s excellent capacity as a tool for igniting an ember using solar concentrated radiation.