Radiography at Copán

Goal 1: To Establish a Radiographic Inventory of the Remains from the Hunal, Margarita, and Motmot Tombs

Between October 19 and 26, nearly 100 Polaroid (T-803 Film) x-rays were taken of remains from the Hunal, Margarita, and Motmot tombs. Because the films are limited in size (8 x 10 inches), composites of long bones required assembling on Adobe Photoshop at the University of New Mexico. While some clarity was sacrificed due to the presence of radiopaque cinnabar on certain bones, especially those from the Margarita tomb, we have compiled an overall archive. Copies (CD) of this working archive have been filed with the Instituto Hondureño de Antropología y Historia (IHAH: 2 copies) and the Early Copán Acropolis Project (ECAP: 1 copy). A master paper and CD archive is also maintained at the University of New Mexico. As examples of the x-rays submitted to IHAH and ECAP, we include here images of the Motmot skull (Figure 1); the Hunal inlaid teeth (Figure 2); and the Motmot right humerus (Figure 3).

On February 3, Dr. Ethan Braunstein, Staff Radiologist at the Mayo Clinic, Scottsdale, AZ and published expert in paleopathology was shown all images from the working archive. His comments are incorporated into the following discussion.

Click on image to enlarge.

Click on image to enlarge.

Click on image to enlarge.

Previous Page  |  Table of Contents  |  Next Page

Return to top of page