Stela D, Quirigua, 1883 (platinum print)

View of a large stone carving at the ancient Maya site of Quirigua located near the banks of the Motagua river in the department of Izabal, Guatemala. The photograph shows the north face of a carved stone stela known by archaeologists as Stela D, as it was first described by Alfred Maudslay in his seminal publication of the Quirigua site in his multi–volume Archaeology (1889–1902): 'The north face of the monument is slightly broader than the south face, and is much the same in design. The great grotesque head on the pedestal is furnished with scrolls, which apparently spring from the cheeks and spread over the ears; attached to each of these scrolls is a human head with the face turned upwards.' More recent scholarship dates the stela (also known as Monument 4) to 9.16.15.0.0, 7 Ahau 18 Pop (Maya calendar), or A.D. 766 in the standard Western (Gregorian) calendar. The monument was created during the later part of the sixty–year reign of K'ak' Tiliw Chan Yopaat. It was one of a number of stelae and zoomorphs erected at Quirigua as part of a complex building programme which took place at the height of the city–state's power during the Late Classic period, and whose primary aim was to legitimate and reinforce the power of the ruler.