We estimate this year’s 37 SIMPOSIO, 2024, will hopefully be in-person, live, in the beautiful new MUNAE. The museum underwent two years of repair to its roof. The capable new Director/Administrador, Christopher Martínez, totally redesigned the entire inside of the Museo Nacional de Arqueología y Etnología de Guatemala (MUNAE) in an impressive manner. I have visited the new MUNAE three times in recent months.
The frankly unexpected general theme of the July 2024 37 SIMPOSIO DE INVESTIGACIONES ARQUEOLÓGICAS EN GUATEMALA is: “DE MESOAMÉRICA A AMÉRICA: EL PRIMER CONTACTO ENTRE LOS PUEBLOS ORIGINARIOS DE GUATEMALA Y LOS ESPAÑOLES”
This ethnohistorical theme is precisely what I researched in the 1970’s, starting with documents in the Archivo General de Centro América (AGCA). In those years I lived in Zona 1, just about three blocks from that archive. Based on what I found there, I applied for a grant from the American Philosophical Society of Philadelphia to cover the costs of going to Sevilla, Spain to accomplish more research in the Archivo General de Indias. Since those years of archival ethnohistorical research are precisely the listed theme of the 37 SIMPOSIO, my topic was accepted and I look forward to seeing you in July 2024, hopefully in-person format.
This PowerPoint presentation will show scenes not available elsewhere.
If you are a student you will find topics for your BA thesis, MA thesis or your PhD dissertation.
If you are a professor this PPTx provides you digital rollouts by Nicholas Hellmuth that have never previously been published. You have permission to download any and all images from this lecture and add to your own presentations.
For the general public this full-color lecture will introduce you to aspects of Classic Maya art (including derived from Olmec art) and continuing into the Post Classic Dresden Codex.
So on the evening of January 22, join us for several thousand years of art, iconography, architecture plus epigraphy of hieroglyphs.
The attached document shows sample illustrations from the lecture.
Hellmuth, crocodile iconography lecture, jueves 27 de julio, Museo Popol Vuh, MPV, Universidad Francisco Marroquin, UFM, 9am to 9:40am, in person, en español.
This PowerPoint presentation will show painted scenes on ceramics where crocodiles are featured. All the crocodiles on stelae and altars of Copan Ruinas, Honduras will be shown.
God N or generic Old God will be shown inside the mouth of the crocodile (usually God N is in other water-related creatures: seashells, snails, turtles, etc.). Archaeologist Simon Martin has published excellent discussion of the Old-God-in-Crocodile-Mouth aspect.
Water in Maya wetlands ecosystems, water in Maya iconography, water management by the Maya for thousands of years. SIAG is a super-helpful conference with experienced organizers.
The focus will be on the “Starry Eyed Deer Crocodile” of the Cosmic Monster, usually with Quadripartite Badge Headdress deity face at the tail end.
Classic Maya art of Palenque, Quirigua, Comalcalco, Copan, Piedras Negras, Seibal (Ceibal), and lots of other sites will be shown.
If you are unable to attend in-person in Guatemala, this lecture can be presented in-person in your city anywhere in the world. In English, in Spanish, auf Deutsch, or simultaneously translated.
The SIAG event this week is amazing; experienced archaeologists, iconographers and epigraphers from Guatemala, Mexico, USA and around the world are showing and sharing the results from their research in Mesoamerica related to WATER. Water symbolism (iconography), water ecology, and how the ancient Maya handled water in their sites.
If you are in Guatemala City you can go to the Museo Popol Vuh, UFM, and watch all the presentations on a large screen (no cost to attend but parking fee for your vehicle outside is common in most areas of the city).
If you are at home anywhere in the world you can watch each presentation at no cost on Facebook Live. https://www.facebook.com/100063663332659/videos/1740470096371267/ 35th Simposio de Investigaciones Arqueológicas en Guatemala, Julio 17-21, 2023, Simposio Virtual.
Dr Nicholas Hellmuth will give his presentation on Thursday (it was originally scheduled for Friday but the organizers updated the schedule when several speakers were not available). So the WETLANDS of the Classic Maya conference will be Thursday, July 20, 2023, starting at 11:15am. You can attend via Facebook or you can go to the Museo Popol Vuh and watch it on a big-screen. But each speaker presents from their research office desk.
Water in Maya wetlands ecosystems, water in Maya iconography, water management by the Maya for thousands of years. SIAG is a super-helpful conference with experienced organizers.
Today in 2023 there are still thousands of photographers who need to scan their decades old 35mm color slides, B&W negatives, etc. There are many universities and museums whose photo archives from the previous century are still not scanned. Or, if scanned, are not at adequate resolution. So two of our teams are initiating a project to find the best scanner software and a good flatbed scanner.
This is a 10MB file, cropped from the photograph shown here. This was scanned with the entry-level SilverFast software (that comes included with an Epson Perfection V850 Pro flatbed scanner); the full strength higher level SilverFast would be even better, so we wish to test the complete options of the Premium level. We have a long-range research project to learn how to make it possible to have a server that can handle large files so that a student could do a thesis on how this was carved. When you enlarge this image (if you have a 32” 4K monitor or comparable) you can see how it was carved. Our photos of other parts of this stelae document that minimum of two different sculptors carved the bottom panel. But it takes high-resolution scans with top-of-the-line scanner software to achieve this quality. |
The resolution to post a photo on a web page is traditionally only about 100KB (or less); that is a start, but it is essential to have, minimally, two more formats for professors and students: download of good enough resolution to make a full-page image in your thesis or dissertation or also download to make full page image in your PowerPoint presentation for professors. 100 to 400kilobytes is useless for scholarly research in-depth.
Then a super-high resolution is needed so that epigraphers can see all the details of the affixes of the hieroglyphs; so iconographers can see the details and spot deities or other iconographic aspects that are good enough resolution to do a line drawing. For all sculptures and ceramics it helps to have a detailed line drawing, such as by David Stuart, Stephen Houston, Karl Taube, Simon Martin, Matthew Looper, Carolyn Tate, Peter Mathews, Heather Hurst, Danial Salazar, Linda Schele, Ian Graham, Merle Green Robertson, John Montgomery, and the many other capable epigraphers, iconographers and archaeologists.
In the previous decade FLAAR Photo Archive was donated two Creo/Creo Scitex/Kodak scanners, top-of-the-line quality, but in recent years their firmware and software can’t easily be updated so they don’t work on Macintosh computers of today. And the connecting cables are of a size, shape and kind that they don’t plug into most new models of Mac. So today we have two Epson Perfection V850 Pro flatbed scanners (one in USA; one in Guatemala). This is their best model. We tried one of the 600-series and decided the Epson Perfection V850 Pro was by far a better choice.
In our USA research center we have basic SilverFast scanner software. I know the SilverFast brand of software for over many decades. I have met and spoken with Karl-Heinz Zahorsky, LaserSoft Imaging CEO and president many decades ago. SilverFast is their brand name for their wide range of scanning software products. We would like to upgrade our SilverFast software to their complete top level options in USA and have the same premium level here in Guatemala (where we have only the basic Epson scanner software; you need SilverFast to have awesome scans). Here is the software we look forward to testing:
To see the results of at least entry-level SilverFast software, we have an entire new page. In the future we will show the results with their Premium Level and their other options.
While searching for the Guatemalan cactus that grows like a regular tree: solid trunk, bark, limbs, branches, leaves, treetop canopy, we noticed that the “road” was gravel on top of the old railway track that went from Guatemala City to Puerto Barrios. Since this train passed through the town of Quirigua, it was an easy way to reach the ruins of Quirigua in the 1960’s when I was eager to learn about Maya sculptures and hieroglyphs. So I took this train back-and-forth in the late 1960’s (just before it shut down).
In Guatemala, on the 30th of May, it's celebrated National Popol Vuh's Day. This special event commemorates the occasion when the text was declared a National Book in 1972 by the Guatemalan government.
To honor the 51st anniversary of such an important event, here is a compilation of archeological evidence that shows us how the history narrated in the Popol Vuh stands as an essential element of the Mayan culture within the different representations of the biodiversity associated with this region of Mesoamerica:
Urn with figures of a deer, one of the first animals to be mentioned in the creation of the world - FLAAR |
Painting from a plate with the image of a spider monkey, associated with the relatives of the Hero Twins - FLAAR |
The lid of an urn with the form of a frog, one of the animals mentioned as part of the messengers from Xibalba - FLAAR |
Vase with the representation of the reborn and young Maize God, this divinity is getting out from the shell of a turtle, this animal is associated with the earth - FLAAR |
The team at FLAAR are preparing a Powerpoint presentation on iconography of crocodiles in Maya art, including the crocodile as the front end of the Cosmic Monster (in earlier decades called the Bicephalic Monster).
This lecture will be July 27, 2023 (9am to 9:40am) in-person as part of the multi-day conference of the Museo Popol Vuh at the Universidad Francisco. Marroquin (UFM), Guatemala City.
Lots more on crocodiles of the Maya and crocodiles of the Olmec to come in June and July posts.
If you wish to donate your library on pre-Columbian Mesoamerica and related topics, FLAAR will be glad to receive your library and find a good home for it. Contact:
ReaderService@FLAAR.org