A New Exhibit Opens at Penn Museum
A new traveling exhibition opens today at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology: Painted Metaphors: Pottery and Politics of the Ancient Maya.
I had the opportunity to preview this exhibit last Monday and I really loved it -- I have a long-standing interest in the ancient Maya, their glyphs and drawings, so this collection, scheduled to be on display until January 31, 2010, intrigued me.
Focusing on ordinary people and their daily lives, the exhibit showcases the famous Chama painted pottery excavated nearly a century ago by the University of Pennsylvania.
Newly reinterpreted in light of recent research in the field, the pottery, which forms the centerpiece of the Painted Metaphors exhibit, yields new clues to understanding the everyday life -- and changing politics -- of the ancient Maya of Guatemala 1,300 years ago.
The almost two dozen recently conserved Maya painted vessels come from Chama, a Maya village in the highlands far from the more sophisticated lowland centers of Maya culture. Discovered by Penn Museum archaeologist Robert Burkitt, this vibrant painted pottery is unlike anything else the region ever produced.
Why is that, I wondered? Exhibition Curator Dr. Elin Danien, Research Associate at the Penn Museum, suggests these are "painted metaphors", or pictorial narratives, reflecting the sudden introduction of people and ideas from the Maya lowlands. Interesting.
One thing that really impressed me about the exhibit was the way many of the pots are displayed. Nestled between two panes of glass, the pots can be closely viewed from both sides, enabling visitors to see the work involved when they were cleaned and put back together by conservators at the museum. One of the displays in the exhibit, "From the Dig to the Laboratory: A Major Part of Archaeology Begins Here", explains and shows the steps involved in this meticulous reassembly process.
Upon entering the exhibit, a video and several displays orient you to the time, place and landscape of the ancient people who made these pots. A few of the other exhibits examine:
- Who were the ancient Maya of the Chixoy Valley?
- Figurine fragments - the closest things we have to portraits of these ancient people
- The making of an ocarina (with a display of several other musical instruments)
There is also a fascinating display called "Finding Traces of Chocolate", explaining how Dr. Jeffrey Hurst, Senior Food Scientist with Hershey Foods Corporation conducted residue analysis on the inside surfaces of the pots. He found two elements that occur in cacao seeds, suggesting the pots held chocolate at some point. Chocolate-lovers, read more about this here.
Kids will have fun here, too. One area of the exhibit, "Create Your Own Painted Metaphor", allows kids to experiment with rubber stamps of ancient Mayan designs to create their own artwork.
For those of you in the Philadelphia area, there will be an opening celebration today from 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm with a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 1:15 pm; His Excellency Francisco Villagrán de León, Ambassador, Republic of Guatemala will be join in.
Note: The Spring 2009 issue of Expedition magazine, the museum's publication, focuses on the ancient Maya. With articles such as "Bullfights in Mayaland -- How Rural Yucatecans Reinvented 'Death in the Afternoon'", "Out of the Past and Into the Night -- Ancient Mythical Dwarfs in Modern Yucatan", as well as a special feature on the Painted Metaphors Exhibit, this is a great issue. You can pick up a copy at the museum in one of the shops.
Also, if you're interested in the ancient Maya see Penn Museum's reading list. Young people who want to learn more about the Maya should check out these kid-friendly websites. Adults, here's a list for you.
Photos courtesy of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.
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