Antiquities Exhibits

This unusual vase shows a human head of which all but the area of the eyes, nose, and mouth is enclosed in the head of an animal. The softness of the pelt is indicated by the way in which it tightly fits the human head. The small ears and spots are further animal attributes. It is difficult to identify the figure. It may possibly be a very Egyptianized interpretation of Herakles wearing the lion skin. - Metropolitan Museum of Art This vessel caught my attention because it reminded me very much of ancient pre-Columbian American art.  All major Mesoamerican civilizations prominently featured a jaguar god, and for many, such as the Olmec, the jaguar was an important part of shamanism. The jaguar's formidable size, reputation as a predator, and its evolved capacities to survive in the jungle made it an animal to be revered. The Olmec and the Maya witnessed this animal's habits, adopting the jaguar as an authoritative and martial symbol, and incorporated the animal into their mythol...

Maya Classic Period rule (250-900 CE) was centred on the concept of the "divine king", who acted as a mediator between mortals and the supernatural realm. Kingship was patrilineal, and power would normally pass to the eldest son. A prospective king was also expected to be a successful war leader. Maya politics was dominated by a closed system of patronage, although the exact political make-up of a kingdom varied from city-state to city-state. By the Late Classic, the aristocracy had greatly increased, resulting in the corresponding reduction in the exclusive power of the divine king. The Classic period Maya political landscape has been likened to that of Renaissance Italy or Classical Greece, with multiple city-states engaged in a complex network of alliances and enmities. The largest cities had populations numbering 50,000 to 120,000 and were linked to networks of subsidiary sites. In 378 CE, Teotihuacan decisively intervened at Tikal and other nearby cities, deposed their r...

Mesoamerica gave rise to a group of stratified, culturally related agrarian civilizations spanning an approximately 3,000-year period before European arrival.  This assortment of ancient cultures that shared religious beliefs, art, architecture, and technology included the Olmec, Teotihuacan, Maya, Zapotec, Mixtec, Huastec, Purepecha (also known as the Tarascans), Toltec, and Mexica/Aztecs.  These indigenous civilizations built pyramid-temples, and developed mathematics,  astronomy, medicine, a unique writing system, highly accurate calendars, fine arts, intensive agriculture, engineering, an abacus calculator, and complex theology.  Their number system was base 20 and included zero.  While many city-states, kingdoms, and empires competed with one another for power and prestige, they consolidated power and distributed influence in matters of trade, art, politics, technology, and theology.  Evidence of trade routes starting as far north as the Mexico Central...

Jade Death Mask of 7th century CE Mayan ruler Pakal the Great courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Wolfgang Sauber CC BY SA 3.0 The use of jade in Mesoamerica for symbolic and ideological ritual was highly influenced by its rarity and value among pre-Columbian Mesoamerican cultures, such as the Olmec, the Maya, and the various groups in the Valley of Mexico.  Jade was shaped into a variety of objects including, but not limited to, figurines, celts, ear spools (circular earrings with a large hole in the center), and teeth inlays (small decorative pieces inserted into the incisors). Mosaic pieces of various sizes were used to decorate belts and pectoral coverings.  Jade sculpture often depicted deities, people, shamanic transformations, animals and plants, and various abstract forms. Sculptures varied in size from single beads, used for jewelry and other decorations, to large carvings, such as the 4.42 kilogram head of the Maya sun god found at Altun Ha. The Maya pla...

Maya: The Exhibit March 14 - September 7, 2020 at the Cincinnati Museum Center. With over 300 artifacts, discover the astronomers, mathematicians, inventors and gods who dominated the Mayan civilization with their inventions and traditions like the number zero, the production of vulcanized rubber, and the delicious taste of chocolate. The exhibit includes not only original artifacts but precisely reproduced artwork that can be e xplored tactiley by visitors. Image: One of the few known examples of large, three-dimensional stucco sculptures discovered with its original colors still preserved. The jaguar-masked figure is believed to represent a mythological feline being – either a high-ranking noble in the guise of a jaguar deity or one of the feline figures from the diverse pantheon of classic Maya deities. It measures over 9 feet long and 2 feet high (Height: 66 cm; Length: 266 cm; Width: 105 cm). Maya Lowlands, Peten, Guatemala, Early Classic period (ca. 250-600 CE). Fund...

Museum of History of the Yucatan and Mayan culture in the Palacio Canton in Merida, Yucatan, Mexico. The Palacio Canton was originally designed for General Francisco Canton in the early 1900s as his residence. Canton fought in the Caste War against rebel Mayan forces. He was also a successful cattle rancher, railroad entrepreneur, and governor of Yucatan between 1898-1902. The National Institute of Anthropology and History p urchased the building and, after an extensive rennovation in 2015, it is now considered one of the best regional museums about the Yucatan and Mayan Culture. Current exhibits include Mexicas, Chosen from the Sun, 120 sculptures, vases, reliefs, tombstones and ritual objects from the National Museum of Anthropology, Mexico City’s Templo Mayor, and the museum's own permanent collection. Image: Monumental sculpture in the Mexicas, Chosen from the Sun exhibit, courtesy of the museum.

Newly reimagined Mexico and Central America Gallery at the University of Pennsylvania's Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology to open November 16, 2019. University of Pennsylvania’s work in Mexico and Central America began more than a century ago and In the following decades, Penn archaeologists led excavations at sites such as Piedras Negras, Guatemala and Sitio Conte, Panama, unearthing remnants of the powerful cultures that once dominated these lands including a 1,200-year-old limestone monument dubbed “Stela 14,” which played a key role in the decipherment of Maya glyph writing. The Penn's collection of Maya monuments are considered the largest and finest in the U.S. These sculptures will be accompanied by Aztec and Olmec artifacts on long-term loan from the Philadelphia Museum of Art and a rotating array of 20th-century textiles from Guatemala. The next phase of the Building Transformation Campaign, a complete renovation of the Egypt and Nubia Galleries ha...

Transformation: Art of the Americas through October 6, 2019 at The Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, Maryland. Transformation features approximately 20 works from indigenous American cultures, dating from 1200 bce to 1500 ce, that illustrate the metamorphosis of body and spirit. People of the indigenous Americas radically modified their bodies in the belief that altering their physical selves would transform them into deities and  supernatural beings. The objects on view, including gold jewelry, stone sculptures, musical instruments, and a painted ceramic burial urn, powerfully illustrate a fundamental worldview of the ancient Americas: that states of being—human, animal, and divine—were fluid and interchangeable. Image: Maya Polychrome Lidded Urn with Seated Figure 600-900 CE courtesy of the Walters Art Museum.

Pre-Columbian art from the Maya, Aztecs, Zapotecs, and Olmecs.  Ongoing.  At the Amparo Museum in Puebla, Mexico.  At the Amparo Museum, one of Mexico's most important but least-visited  archaeologocial museums, you can see Mayan stelae depicting the mythological story of the creation of the world, sculptures of rabbit-headed scribe gods, stone representations of Totonac gods of death, ceramic statues of powerful Zapotec lords, and numerous Aztec sculptures of animals like Xoloitzcuintle dogs, spider monkeys, jaguars, coyotes, and snakes. Image:  Ceramic religious sculpture of a mythological beast.  Classical Period.  Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Éclusette.

Jade Death Mask of Pakal the Great and other Mayan Treasures, ongoing, at the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City.  When the jade death mask of Mayan King, Pakal the Great, was discovered in 1952 during an excavation of the Temple of Inscriptions in the ruined Mayan city of Palenque (modern-day Mexico), this intricate jade death mask had been lying in a darkened tomb chamber for over a thousand years, covering a skull. Inscriptions on the walls indicated that the skull belonged to none other than the Mayan king K’inich Janaab’ Pakal, known today as Pakal the Great.  This mask along with a replica of the great king's tomb are one of the highlights of the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City. The museum's collections include the Stone of the Sun, giant stone heads of the Olmec civilization that were found in the jungles of Tabasco and Veracruz, and treasures recovered from the Mayan civilization at the Sacred Cenote at Chichen Itza. Image: Funerary ...

Antiquities and Pre-Columbian Art at the New Orleans Museum of Art in New Orleans, Louisiana. Paintings, drawings and prints, and decorative arts including Greek ceramics survey the development of Western Civilization from the pre-Christian era to the present. A unique Arts of the Americas collection showcases the cultural heritage of North, Central and South America from the pre-Columbian period through the Spanish Colonial era. This collection is especially rich in objects from the great Mayan culture of Mexico and Central America, and in painting and sculpture from Cuzco, the fabulous Spanish capital of Peru. Image: Articulated terracotta figure from the Vera Cruz culture of Vera Cruz, Mexico 700-900 CE. Image courtesy of the New Orleans Museum of Art.