The mural discoveries at Calakmul
Mike R
Archaeologist Carrasco Vargas and his team have been digging into 68
buried structures at Calakmul. They found a buried pyramid and dug a
tunnel to inspect the interior and have found an area that had been
remodeled many times over 600 years. And, in the process, have found
many murals painted between 620-700 CE. 30 murals have been documented
so far. They show the everyday life of the Maya and shed light on
virtually unknown aspects of Maya society. There is a man with a big
broad brimmed hat making maize gruel and another with an ornate
headdress drinks from a bowl of the gruel. A female tamale vendor
offers tamales to a man already eating some. There is a salt seller
and a tobacco seller and a pottery seller. The paintings are described
in a paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Was
this a series of paintings in a Maya marketplace? These murals have
opened up a new archaeological frontier in the area of Maya food and
goods and feasting.
MSNBC Cosmic Log has the report here with some good photos and
drawings of the murals;
http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2009/11/09/2123180.aspx
Mike Ruggeri
Mike Ruggeri's Maya Archaeology News and Links
http://tinyurl.com/atpsd9
Mike R
INAH has stated that the murals at Calakmul discovery reported in the
last few days have been known since 2004 and that INAH has been
studying the murals for 5 years. The INAH work on the murals has been
written about in: Veronica A. Vazquez article Pintura Mural y
Arquitectura como Medios de Transmision Ideologica en el Clasico
Temprano: la Acropolis de Chik Naab de la Antigua Calakmul (Mural
Painting and Architecture as Ideological Transmission Media in the
Early Classic: Chik Naab Acropolis of Ancient Calakmul) published by
the Campeche Autonomous University in 2006. And in the Mexican
magazine Arqueologia Mexicana published in its 75th volume
corresponding to September-October 2005, named Ultimos Descubrimientos
Mayas en Campeche (New Maya Findings at Campeche), an article written
by Carrasco Vargas and Marines Colon regarding the ancient city. The
INAH project involving the murals is called the Calakmul
Archaeological Project inlcludes archaeology, structural and ceramic
analysis and epigraphy. The largest mural has already undergone
restoration procedures for humidity and temperature control. INAH has
worked with the University of Florence to make sure the murals are
exactly the same now as they were 5 years ago.
(My note; A close reading of the report from yesterday does not claim
the discovery is a new one. It is a descriptive article about the
murals and not their discovery. The writers of the article should have
added the fact that these murals were uncovered my INAH 5 years ago.)
INAH has their correction here;
http://dti.inah.gob.mx/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogsection&id=3
9&Itemid=150
Mike Ruggeri
Mike Ruggeri's The Ancient America's Breaking News
http://web.mac.com/michaelruggeri