Bloodletting (Lintel 17)

myminifactory

The ritual bloodletting scene unfolding here mirrors the one on lintel 24 (also uploaded to Scan the World). A sumptuously dressed woman, kneeling and grasping a rope with her tongue outstretched, is Lady Balam-Ix, another wife of Bird Jaguar. Opposite her sits Bird Jaguar himself, adorned in ornate earplugs, a nosepiece, a bar pectoral, jade cylinder cuffs, and a shield secured to his back. The fact that he wears a skull and skeletal serpent headdress, just like Lady Xoc on lintel 25, suggests that he is also about to undergo bloodletting by piercing his penis with the perforator held in front of him.