The mystery of the lost Maya sculpture
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Loading... - Finn Meijer
- 19 Jul 2022
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A Maya Universe in Stone offers a new take on the familiar tale of adventure and archaeological discovery. Rather than telling the story of an intrepid explorer venturing off into the jungle, facing dangerous wildlife or river rapids, and finding a lost city and hidden treasure, the authors set off on an intellectual expedition. Their quest concerns a Maya carving that has already been found – first by such explorers in 1950 and then by looters.
They trace its path on to the art market, mourn the loss of knowledge that was a consequence of these clandestine activities and attempt to reconstruct what can still be known about this missing masterpiece, before concluding that its current whereabouts are seemingly unknown. In the acknowledgments, the book’s editor (and one of its authors), Stephen Houston, states his motivations for producing this volume: ‘Is expanding knowledge enough, or must there be some final result, such as the repatriation of an art object to its country of origin? The mind may be satisfied with the first goal, but a sense of ethics demands the second.’ This is, therefore, a timely and important story.
As public discussions of looting and repatriations of art grow more common and as collectors and institutions address such issues more openly, this book belongs to a scholarly genre that will only grow. It is essential for these accounts to be written down in order to confront what took place all over the world – what is still taking place in some parts of the world – so that those who follow us may try to avoid repeating it.
Nonetheless, as the authors acknowledge, it remains a difficult story to tell. The book focuses on an intricately carved lintel – the top portion of a door frame – created in AD 773. It was first photographed in situ along with a second lintel by the explorer Dana Lamb in 1950 at a site he came to call Laxtunich. The authors lament, however, that Lamb never precisely logged where the site was; he only circled a large area between Mexico and Guatemala on a map.
They reconstruct his trek through the forest using his field notebook, a letter he wrote to his wife Ginger and notes scrawled on the backs of photographs – all of which present conflicting information. The authors ask: ‘What stratagem lay behind such pointless deceit?’ Certainly, he had his reasons. In 2014, Andrew Scherer and Omar Alcover Firpi tried to repeat his journey, taking into account distances and reported landmarks.
This impressive endeavour has led them to believe that Laxtunich is most likely a site known as El Túnel, in Guatemala. What might eventually clinch the identification would be finding the backsides of the carvings – called ‘carcasses’ in the field – which were sawn off by the looters to lighten the heavy stones and were presumably dumped nearby. Read More…
