[Aztlan] Maya Sunglasses question

[David Hixson]

Dear Sven,

The image you provided does not indicate sunglasses - nor should it be interpreted as a real depiction of a living human figure.  It is a representation of a supernatural - one where that eye treatment helps "mark" the figure's identity.  I will leave the in-depth discussion of this exact figure to others, but what one might call the "feathered eyelid" is found often in supernatural Maya figures, including the zoomorphic heads that adorn the headdresses or costuming of Maya kings (see Schele's "Blood of Kings" plate 119; or Justin Kerr's Portfolio #3316).  There are members of Aztlan that could go into great detail regarding the distribution of this eye treatment, but rest assured it does not represent Maya sunglasses.

But don't misunderstand - real humans did occasionally adorn eyeware in order to impersonate the aspects of supernaturals (see Kerr portfolio #6777).  However, the mundane use of such paraphanalia as sunglasses is not attested to in the available art, archaeology and literature of the Maya.

-Dave
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David R. Hixson
Ph.D. Candidate
Tulane University
chunchucmil at yahoo.com