[Aztlan] The whereabouts of the Tortuguero ear plug

[Wayeb [Sven Gronemeyer]]

Dear listeros,

in connection with the discussion on the 13 Bak'tun event, one particular
text from Tortuguero has many times been cited: the famous Monument 6. Yet,
the corpus of Tortuguero still holds other inscriptions of interest, one
being the so-called "ear plug". It likely mentions its dedication in one row
of glyphs and "Star War" events against Comalcalco and Ox Te' K'uh in a
second one.
Unfortunately, after Ian Graham has sketched the object in the 1960s, the
traces of this object got lost and its present location or collection is
unknown. I would like to use the community of Aztlan in the hope to find a
path to this important artefact. Any hints or existing photographs are of
use, not only to eventually rediscover this object, but also to redefine its
iconographic and epigraphic content which is only very scantily reported by
Graham's sketch.
I will provide here the relevant information gathered for my book on the
Tortuguero inscriptions (Sven Gronemeyer: The Maya Site of Tortuguero,
Tabasco, Mexico. Its History and Inscriptions. Acta Mesoamericana, Vol. 17.
Markt Schwaben: Verlag Anton Saurwein, 2006). I hope that some of these
information my provide additional hints to anyone that may lead to photos or
the object itself. Anything is highly welcome!

Many thanks in advance,

Sven Gronemeyer




Provenance and History: The object was found by Frans Blom in 1922 while
conducting a survey on the artificial terraces at the foot of the Cerro de
Macuspana (Blom 1924: 409-410, 413) [1]. Ian Graham (in a letter from April
15, 2003) was able to provide the following information: He was able to
sketch the jade object in the home of Jean-Louis Sonnery in Mexico City
around 1965. Sonnery claimed to have purchased the jade from Frances Pratt,
an art dealer from New York City. A personal inquiry by Graham (by telephone
on April 15, 2003) and questionings by Kornelia Kurbjuhn (July 2003) in the
circumstances at the time following Frances Pratt’s death raised the
suspicion that she has not sold the jade to Sonnery. According to Donald
Hales (in a letter from December 3, 2004), the art dealer Edward Merrin from
New York City may have been involved in the sale of the jade. Sonnery died
around 1996 in Paris, but there are no further information as to the present
whereabouts of the jade. Gérald Berjonneau, who administered Sonnery’s
estate, declared (in a letter to Kornelia Kurbjuhn from June 13, 2003) that
he did not have the object in his inventory of the estate.

Material: Greenish jade.

Dimensions: Height: ~ 14 cm, diameter: ~ 12 cm.

Description: The object is a cylindrical hollow body that ends in a bulge at
the top. The bulge seems to be partially massive, partly the bottom appears
to be hollowed out. The bulge is not totally round, but forms some kind of
tenon at one point. The wall of the cylinder also seems not to be equally
thick. The exterior features a circumferential notch at the upper and lower
fringes, delimiting a raised central area. The underside of the buldge and
the flange likely have six drillings, the bottom of the cylinder two ones.
Sculptured areas: The flange and the central outside of the cylindrical
hollow body. Whether there were decorations at other parts cannot be
clarified with the sketch at hand.

Sculpture techniques: All decorations are incised.

Epigraphy: The text comprises of a total of 23 hieroglyphic blocks,
distributed in two text fields. The text runs single row in both fields. Row
A is located on the bulge, row B undulates around iconographic elements on
the central area of the hollow cylinder.

Iconography: The central area of the hollow cylinder features at least two
half ovals into which a hooked element is embedded. A direct reference to a
certain motive is not recognizable, but it may be the suggestion of a water
band (Elisabeth Wagner, pers. communication, May 2004) as it is known for
instance from several tombs in Río Azul. The budge seems to be decorated
with irregularly spread oval shapes additional to row A, eventually the
imitation of a spotted jaguar pelt.

Remarks: Since there are no photographs available, all existing drawings
base on Ian Graham’s sketch made during the 1960s, also used in this study.
Unless stated otherwise, all descriptions are the author’s own
interpretation of this sketch. However, at least several photographs
apparently must have existed, as Joyce Marcus (1976: 109) [2] reports a
"jade object from Chiapas(?)" by Dumbarton Oaks photographs. Kornelia
Kurbjuhn (in a letter from June 13, 2003) also stated that she once saw the
jade in a photograph.
In Ian Graham’s opinion (in a letter from April 15, 2003), the object could
be an earspool according to its shape. Since he had no measuring instrument
with him while sketching the jade, there are no exact dimensions available.
The information given above are estimations by Kornelia Kurbjuhn (in a
letter from June 5, 2003). Graham could remember that the object weighed
about 0.8 kg and doubts the actual use as an earspool because of the heavy
weight. The same doubts have also been voiced by others (Kornelia Kurbjuhn
in a letter from June 10, 2003, Elisabeth Wagner, pers. communication, June
2003) and are also shared by the author. The intended use remains uncertain.
According to Elisabeth Wagner (pers. communication, December 2005), the
object once may have been the end piece of a staff, sceptre or ceremonial
bar. The supposed drillings would argue in favour of attaching and tying the
jade to something.

[1] Blom, Frans: Notes from the Maya Area. American Anthropologist 26(3):
403-413
[2] Marcus, Joyce: Emblem and State in the Classic Maya Lowlands.
Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks