Is it true that the photograph depicts God from the mythology of Maya?

In social networks, pictures of the statue supposedly depicting the Indian god bats, surprisingly similar to Batman, are common. We checked whether this is really so.

The photo, along with signatures like “Mayan’s Indians had his own brutal Batman” or “What if Batman came from those times ...” can be found in several popular publics in VKontakte, including History Porn, "World of Discovery", "Truth is somewhere nearby" And "Superhero Cafe". The picture accompanies publications about the Indian deity in Facebook, "Classmates" and other social networks.

Mayan really was Divine named Kamazotz. He was represented in the form of an anthropomorphic bat, personifying night and death. This was probably due to the fact that this animal lives in caves, which, according to the Mesoamerikans, were a gate to the underworld. She believed in Kamazotz only part of the Indian tribes in the territory of modern Guatemala.

However, the image popular in social networks has a very indirect attitude towards Kamazotz. In 2014, Warner Bros. and Mexican Design Museum Offered Artists participate in the exhibition "Batman through the prism of Mexican creativity." Artists from Kimbal studio were inspired by archaeological finds associated with Kamazotets and made Batman's bust in a similar stylistics.

The deity itself, judging by the artifacts that have reached our times, looked different. One of the Kamazotz statues depicting Kamazotz exhibited In the museum in Guatemala.

Separately note: No No evidence that the authors of the first comics about Batman were inspired by the mythology of the Mayan Indians. This character, judging by the memoirs of its creators, incorporated the features of a variety of heroes of Western culture, and the Mayan God in the image of a bat is nothing more than a coincidence.

Not true

What do our verdicts mean?

Read on the topic:

1. Snopes. Is this Ancient Mayan Sculpture of Batman?
2. Maya Archaeology. Bat Sculpture from Izabal or Alta Verapaz