Rollout of a polychrome Mayan bowl is enlarged to 14 feet long. How is it possible to achieve this quality in an enlargement when the film is rotating simultaneously photographing a round object which is also rotating? It is a wonder that such a moving picture turns out at all. This new technology is a tremendous help for Maya iconography, a crucial aspect of precolumbian art history and archaeology.

Board Member Max Holzheu of Museo Popol Vuh, Guatemala, visits FLAAR office in USA to learn digital imaging technology.

70mm film, enlarged in the one lab in the USA which can produce a print on 100-foot rolls of 24" photo paper. This is a traditional darkroom enlargement, not a digital enlargement.

This is the actual polychrome Mayan bowl from which the rollout was made. It is only about 5 inches tall.
The new FLAAR digital rollout system can also do a rollout of the interior of plates and wide bowls. We did a rollout of the planetary band inside this bowl.

We photographed the same Castillo Bowl also with the digital camera, or you can scan the 70mm film on a flatbed scanner.

Polychrome Maya vase showing naguals as jaguars. PSS hieroglyphics include Tikal emblem glyph.

14 feet long, world record for an enlargement of a Maya vase rollout. The same pot photographed with the digital camera is even larger!

 

Rollouts from home made cameras tend to have poor definition. This is akin to lack of focus but is actually a result of improper rotational coordination. This is a polite way of saying that the speed of the film is incorrect when it is estimated by guesswork.

It takes a computer to achieve accuracy.

Eduardo with rollouts equitpment
Eduardo with the equipment for rollout pictures at La Ruta Maya Conservation Foundation

 

Index and links to rollout photographs of polychrome Maya vases on www.maya-archaeology web site. Discussion of advanced technology of turntable rollout technology using sophisticated computer-controlled equipment.

 

Related links

Volunteer opportunities to study Maya iconography directly with ancient Maya art in Guatemalan museums

Woman and deities on a Codex Style vase

Results of another 70mm rollout camera, a system made in Belgium

Females on rollouts of polychrome Mayan vases

ENCAD enlargement of Maize God rollout and his two unclothed female assistants

Photo showing the actual rollout camera and the turntable system at work

Rollout of Tiquisate deity, Curly Face, one of the Tiquisate Trinity

Five different rollouts; review of good color printers to reproduce them

Warning, if you own an Epson printer or are considering buying one, read this review.

Rollout of Late Classic or possibly Terminal/Post Classic Tiquisate Escuintla vase, Guatemala

Gateway to Maya vase rollouts in Maya-archaeology

 

More FLAAR Reports

706082 D PES 2014 solvent eco solvent printers full exhibitor list Part I

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

MAYA EPIGRAPHY

MAYAN SOCIETIES, ORGANIZATIONS

FOODS OF THE MAYA ROOT CROPS

Q’eqchi’-Spanish-English Dictionary Segments

2012 Prophecies of the end Mayan calendar

3D Scanning Equipment Reviews For Field Work

Bibliography Mayan dye colorants

GigaPan Epic Pro System

Municipio de Livingston Izabal: places to visit

TECHNOLOGY, BOOK REVIEWS on Digital Imaging, especially 3D

Private Museums of Mayan Archaeology

Ixchel

Suchitepequez

Agriculture, diet, food

Maya Vase Rollouts

Trees of Mesoamerica

Mayan languages of Guatemala

Museums of Mayan Archaeology

Carlos Pellicer, Tabasco

Lectures on Maya topics Now available

Travel / Hotels

Guatemala City

Chichicastenango

Baja Verapaz

Archaeology of Iran

Visit other FLAAR sites

Flora and fauna

Educational Books