Mayan lintel

myminifactory

The bloodletting scene here parallels that on another lintel in the same room at the British Museum. The sumptuously dressed kneeling woman pulling the rope through her tongue is Lady Balam-Ix, another Bird Jaguar, adorned with ornate earplugs, nosepiece, bar pectoral, jade cylinder cuffs and a shield tied to his back. The fact that he is wearing a skull and skeletal serpent headdress, like Lady Xoc on another lintel, suggests that he too is about to let blood by piercing his penis with the perforator he holds in front of him.