Yaxchilán Lintel 24

Yaxchilán Lintel 24 depicts a bloodletting ritual performed by Lady Xook and her husband Shield Jaguar II, ruler of the Maya city of Yaxchilán. Carved around 725 CE, the limestone relief shows Lady Xook pulling a thorn-studded rope through her tongue while her husband holds a flaming torch. The blood-soaked paper in the basket below would be burned to communicate with ancestor spirits.

Maya elites performed bloodletting rituals to access supernatural power and communicate with the dead. The pain and blood loss induced visions, depicted in related lintels showing a serpent emerging from the smoke. Lady Xook was Shield Jaguar's most powerful wife, and these lintels decorated her personal temple. The scene commemorates a ritual performed on the king's accession in 681 CE.

The lintel is at the British Museum.