Copan Ruinas – Part two
As promised, here is part two of our trip to the ancient Mayan city of Copan, Honduras. The first covered the city itself, and this one is about the collocated museum, which houses many of the significant carvings and sculptures found in Copan.
The museum itself is quite beautiful and very much worth the visit. Upon entering, visitors follow a long stone tunnel that is designed to give the feel of an archeologist's investigative tunnel. This opens suddenly to a large open space with a recreation of a remarkably well preserved pyramid that archeologists found buried within another, later pyramid (first picture). This was common practice in the Maya world: upon the death of the king, the Maya considered that an age had ended and that a new one, with new ideas, should begin. They thus buried their pyramids under new, larger ones every couple generations.
The rest of the pictures, in order, are:
- A detail of the recreation of the pyramid
- A detail of an altar to the first king of Copan. The sculpture depicts the sun god (center) surrounded by the Maya symbol for death. This probably is meant to honor the king's skill as a warrior.
- A detail of the altar showing the death symbols, which look like stylized skulls.
- A bat. The signs at the museum suggest he was the Xibalba, god of the underworld, but other sources seem to associate him with the fire god Camazotz.
- Two heads with headdress.
- An incense burner. Smoke came out of the open mouth of the (fish?)
- A head with a headdress depicting a bird capturing a fish. Once adorned the facade of a pyramid later buried under another.
- A warrior, sitting with headdress.
- Maya hieroglyphs.
- A close up of what the Maya considered an ideal head. Note that it features a flattened forehead, large nose, crossed eyes, pierced ears and nose and the large teeth that would have been painted green to represent the jade tooth implants that Maya elites had done. All of these are features that Maya culture thought beautiful.
- The next seven are details of a bench carved with the Maya zodiac.
- The head of an eagle
- A relief of a monkey
- The original sculptures from one of the structures in the king's residence, set in a modern reconstruction.
- The famous "Alter Q", a sacrificial alter carved under the reign of the 16th and last king of Copan. It shows the first king passing the regalia of power to the last king with the 14 other kings watching. It's circular composition suggests that the final king may have known that he was the last.
- The original sculptures from the council building set in a modern reconstruction.
- Detail of above
- A man sitting. The sculpture shows clear Olmec influence (facial and body features, oversized head).
- A glyph
- A sculpture of an old man, possibly a rain god. This oversized head (about 70 cm tall) is the largest depiction of a human at Copan.
- A reproduction of one of the oldest sculptures found in Copan (5th century), showing a scene from the Popol Vuh Twin Myth in which the evil god Seven Macaw ripped off the arm of one of the hero Twins . The original is entirely in stucco (see part one for a discussion of the transition from stucco to stone carving) and is not displayed because its original paint is intact and very fragile.
- A detail of the above.
- Chac, the god of Rain. This was on the corner of the rain temple.
- An eagle that once overlooked Copan's ball court.
- Detail of above
