Free FLAAR Reports on Maya Achaeology

Maya Archaeology of Mesoamerica

Mayan archaeology program expands in 2009-2010, adding portable 3D laser scanning technology.

Our major programs in 2010 will be 3D scanning for preservation and documentation of cultural heritage. We are working with companies in Europe and the US to train our staff in Guatemala. FLAAR Mesoamerica will thus be the first local 3D scanning resource center in-situ in Central America (other scanners come down for a few weeks, and then go back to the US or Europe). FLAAR feels that the scanners should also be operated by Guatemalans, both professors and students, so that this technology will not merely belong to US and European institutions.

Three Guatemalan biologists work with FLAAR full-time in-house on staff. They are preparing a list of fruits, vegetables, and animals to 3D scan as well. First will be pataxte and cacao pods, for a research project on Dr Nicholas Hellmuth to document the differences between pataxte form of cacao among the Mayas compared with the normal cacao. Pataxte and cacao pods look similar in some respects but other aspects of their ethnobotany are completely different.

FLAAR works at providing Guatemalan students opportunities to learn new technology, so flew two from Guatemala for training near Boston.

Trends Updates – UV, Textile, and Latex: Present & Future Wide-format Inkjet Innovations, Completely New Wide-Format Ink Recipes, Faster UV-Cured Flatbed Printers, Innovative Textile Inks

by Nicholas Hellmuth

Thursday 25, 3:00 to 4:30 pm

(English lecture).

¿Cómo determinar que impresora plana de UV de Gran Formato es la correcta para las necesidades de su trabajo?

por Nicholas Hellmuth
Viernes 26, 11:30 am a 1:00 pm

(Conferencia en español).

3D scanning of archaeological sculpture

Late Classic Cotzumalhuapa style sculpture from the Bilbao area of Escuintla, Guatemala, an area influenced first by the Olmec, then Teotihuacan, then Toltec and Aztec. But why do these three portraits (over a thousand years old) look like what you would expect from the Mediterranean region rather than the Pacific piedmont area of Guatemala? The Atlantic Ocean is a long long way from the Cotzumalhuapa area (naturally no serious archaeologists trained at a major university accept Mediterranean (or Chinese or Outer Space), including myself (trained at Harvard and then Yale). Nonetheless the bearded face (at the right) does not look particularly Toltec, Aztec, or Cotzumalhuapan either.

Maya Ethnobotany studies continue at FLAAR for 2010

We have added a new site to FLAAR network: 3d-scanners-3d-software- reviews.org, where you find reviews and evaluations on reliable 3d laser equipment, laser scanners, both handheld and portable scanner, digitizer, for creating 3d models, 3d modeling, with reviews of 3d modeling software, metrology, including for reverse engineering, prototyping: the whole world of virtual 3d.

Now that we have a 22-megapixel camera to add to our digital arsenel, we are launching additional projects in high quality photography of Maya ethnobotany. These are long-range programs, but here are some of the initial photographs on waterlily research (much of my PhD dissertation was on this subject, especially on the water lily. Our current work (for 2007-2010) is on achiote (a red color to falvor cacao), naturally cacao itself; ceiba trees (especially the spines), copal pom, and incense in general (since copal is only one of more than five kinds of Maya incense).

In 2009-2010 we are expanding coverage of palo de lagarto, palo sangre de drago and all the key trees which were mentioned in the Popol Vuh or pictured in Mayan murals, vase paintings, incensarios, etc.

This web site Maya-archaeology.org covers primarily Mayan, Olmec, Teotihuacan art, architecture, deities, hieroglyphic writing and the latest digital photography, 35mm film and flatbed scanner technology for recording the artifacts and pyramid-temple and palace architectural remains of these fascinating ancient civilizations. Our strength is digital photography, especially for professional photography in museums or on archaeological expeditions (lighting, 4x5 inch large format cameras for studio photography as well as are portable for location photography, etc). But we are also interested in the archaeology of Xochicalco, Classic Veracruz (El Tajin, for example), Toltec and Aztec art, artifacts and architectural history.

To make it easier to figure out what digital imaging hardware and software is best for archaeologists out in the field and for curators in museums, we offer our experience. Our reviews and recommendations will make it easier for you to equip your entrance into the new millennium of digital imaging (see also www.digital-photography.org). For example, archaeologists can now do all their drawings with a large format color plotter, a digital wide format inkjet printer, instead of by hand.

First rollout of a Quiche urn by Nicholas Hellmuth and Tanja Rathjen, Universidad Francisco Marroquin; urn courtesy of Museo Popol Vuh.

Current anthropology projects in Latin America

Anthropology is the broadest term to cover a diverse range of scholarly disciplines that include ethnography, ethnology, archaeology, epigraphy, art and architectural history. In European universities Greek or Roman archaeology is taught either in an institute of archaeology or in art history departments. In Europe the archaeology of pre-Columbian Mesoamerica tends to be taught in a language department or department of “ancient America.” In the US, the archaeology of Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico tends to be taught in a department of anthropology. In American departments of archaeology, or departments of art history, the studies tend to focus on Greco-Roman civilizations. Exceptions exist, but the FLAAR director has two degrees in anthropology (Harvard and then Brown University) and then an advanced degree in art history (in Europe, where pre-Columbian iconography happened to be a personal interest to the Kunstgesichte faculty of a university in Austria).

As a result of our international background, at FLAAR we are multi-disciplinary, so we don’t pigeon-hole our anthropological and archaeological research. Our current long-range programs are dedicated to encouraging higher quality digital photographic recording and utilization of higher quality photographs in publication in all fields of anthropology by means of employing advanced digital imaging technology.

Current FLAAR projects in anthropology are well-balanced to reflect current reality in Latin America today: we prefer projects that are meaningful and useful. We also are interested in applying our experience and capabilities in areas that are devoid of applications of sensible digital imaging technology. Our largest on-going anthropological research is dedicated to preparing an encyclopedic inventory of the natural resources of Guatemala, Belize, and adjacent portions of Honduras and Mexico, as well as pertinent parts of El Salvador and Costa Rica that interacted with the Mesoamerican civilizations from 2000 BC through to the time of the Spanish conquest in the 15 th-16 th centuries.

We include under the rubric of natural resources the plants, animals, minerals that were utilized by indigenous peoples in the daily life, rituals, religious beliefs, myths, and trading with other peoples.

Mayan ethno-botanical research

Iconography of ethno-zoology

Inventory of minerals used by pre-Columbian peoples

Improved photography of hieroglyphic inscriptions as an aid for epigraphers

Archaeology museum makeover

FLAAR does research to evaluate technology that can assist archaeology and art history

Here Dr Nicholas Hellmuth does test scan of the two halves of the maps of Yaxha, El Peten, Guatemala, mapped by FLAAR in the1970's.

FLAAR has been headquartered on the campus of Bowling Green State University for about seven years. The advantages are to both parties: FLAAR brings about half a million dollars worth of advanced digital imaging technology: so during this period BGSU was one of perhaps three universities in the world with an 80-megapixel digital camera (the Cruse giclee scanner-camera, all $112,000 worth of it).

But then the university tore down the building that housed everything. So a year later FLAAR moved its office back to St Louis. So we are open to additional opportunities for joint projects, including with universities in Europe. Our main office has been in Guatemala the entire time.

FLAAR also has two extremely powerful flatbed scanners, such as a 5700 true optical dpi Kodak CreoScitex EverSmart Supreme. This $45,000 scanner is available to digitize the 50,000 images in the FLAAR Photo Archive.

FLAAR has an enviable arsenal of digital cameras, such as two 48-megapixel BetterLight large format scan-backs. These are both digital systems that can do rollout photography at extremely high precision. We would like to donate one of these and provide training to them as well.

Dr Nicholas Hellmuth also has a Canon EOS 5D, a 13-megapixel Kodak SLR/n, a Nikon D100, and a Nikon D300.

All this equipment is available to utilize at reasonable cost-basis to museums and universities in the US and Canada, and to archaeological projects in Mesoamerica. We also have Leica and Nikon 35mm (film, not digital) cameras that we would like to donate to archaeologists in Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, or Belize who prefer the benefits of film over the downsides of digital.

FLAAR also has more than 23 wide format inkjet printers. We donated one Epson 5500 desktop printer to the El Mirador Project (of Dr Richard Hansen).

FLAAR Mesoamerica, a separate but obviously related institute, is permanently headquartered in Guatemala, and offers reasonable budget priced but high professional quality digital photography and scanning, both in Guatemala City as well as out on location anywhere in Mesoamerica.

Since BGSU has no anthropology department, and no museum on campus (and since the building that housed the FLAAR Photo Archive and testing facilities for digital imaging equipment was torn down three years ago), for 2010 FLAAR is looking for a more appropriate home elsewhere for its photo archive of 50,000 images of pre-Columbian artifacts photographed over the last 40 years in museums and collections all over the world.

About a quarter of a million dollars worth of advanced digital imaging equipment is also looking for a new home, such as our most recent addition, a 22-megapixel Phase One P25+ medium format digital camera.
Our contact e-mail is ReaderService@FLAAR.org.

Technology

Continued Research on Digital Imaging Technology to Aid Mayan Archaeological Research.

FLAAR is engaged in researching 3D printing technologies (3D rapid prototypers), 2D CO/2 laser engravers and laser cutting technology, and 3D scanning technology to assist Mayan archaeologists and others who are working in other parts of pre-hispanic Mesoamerica.

FLAAR engages in research on how digital imaging (photography and digital printing), can improve documentation for scholars, museums, and the general public about archaeological art, artifacts and ancient architecture.

FLAAR provides research reports on "how to" use digital cameras, scanners, and inkjet printers in this increasingly digital era. FLAAR gives lectures worldwide in three languages relative to our core research, educational experiences and capabilities, especially on how new printing technologies can assist museums to better display materials and provide educational signage in the museum as well as outside in archaeological parks. This popular website, Maya-archaeology, is read by over 120,000 people a year. Our web site on digital photography is read by over a quarter of a million photographers. Our FLAAR Reports on wide-format inkjet printers are read by over a million people around the world.

MUSEO IXCHEL:

Each museum is an ideal classroom, so this web site features several museums. The access possible on the Internet provides an awareness of the educational potential within each museum. Pictured here (to the rigth) is the Museo Ixchel, facing the Museo Popol Vuh.
Not only will people of many countries learn about the existence of these museums in these Web pages, but we hope to encourage people to visit these archaeology museums in person when they travel to Mexico, Guatemala, and Honduras.

This web site

We provide information about Mayan ethnobotany, ethnozoology, iconography, epigraphy, architectural history, art history and Archaeology with links to Maya-Art and Books, digital photography, and cameras and scanning. FLAAR also has additional web sites on wide format printers, scanners and laser printers.

Brought to you by Dr. Nicholas Hellmuth, the Asociación FLAAR Mesoamerica, and the Foundation for Latin American Anthropological Research (FLAAR).

FLAAR research in pre-Columbian civilizations of Mesoamerica is dedicated to a standard of academic excellence which may be defined as scholarship in the European university tradition. For centuries, academics was based on simple classroom presentations, as we all remember from our own school years. But today, technology impinges upon both student and faculty alike. In the 21st century, digital technology will offer improvement in instructional methods that will make chalk, blackboards, and even slide projectors look like the Paleolithic era. The goal of the FLAAR Digital Imaging Technology Center is to make information available today about the digital imaging tools of scholarly research of tomorrow.