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Archaeological Research at Cotzumalhuapa, Guatemala
Monumental Sculptures
Three previously unknown monumental sculptures were photographed:
- Palo Verde Monument 7 (Figure 10, below): Dubbed "the sad tiger" by project members, this is a colossal tiger head distinguished by its closed eyes with hanging eyeballs. He wears a cloth diadem tied with a knot on front and circular earrings with pieces of cloth hanging from the center. The large round jaguar ears appear at either side of the diadem, while the teeth show between the open lips. This interesting sculpture was located in possession of a descendant of the former owner of the finca where the Palo Verde site is located. According to information provided by the current owner, it is possible that other unrecorded monuments from Palo Verde were removed from the site in the first part of the twentieth century. The hanging eyeballs are known elsewhere in Cotzumalhuapa art, especially in the horizontally-tenoned human heads from Pantaleón (Vreeland and Bransford, 1885; Chinchilla, 1996c).
Measurements: Height 65 cm; width 80 cm; thickness 55 cm.
Click on image to enlarge
- El Baúl Monument 71: A boulder carved with one side with the upper body of a monkey in frontal guise, with arms raised to either side. The monument is split approximately in half, and shows scars produced by recent plowing. This crude sculpture was located during the reconnaissance program, about 600 meters north of the El Baúl acropolis, very close to the original location of Monuments 66 and 67. The cluster of monuments suggests that this was an important area, perhaps with elite residences or religious facilities. Further research in the environs seems promising. The closest parallels to this representation are found on ceramic vessels reported by Thompson (1948: figure 24d-e). In fact, this is one of only a few iconographic features shared between Cotzumalhuapa sculpture and ceramics.
Measurements: 110×70 cm. Height
- Horizontally-tenoned head, possibly from El Baúl (Figure 11, below): A horizontally-tenoned human head with open mouth, short beard, hair combed to either side, and round earrings. This monument was located at a private residence in Santa Lucía Cotzumalguapa. The owner’s indication that it was found at his residence seems unreliable, especially considering that ten examples of this type of sculpture are known from the El Baúl site (Monuments 16, 45-49, 61, 62, 65, 66). It seems certain that the monument was removed from El Baúl during the extensive alterations suffered by the site’s major architectural compounds since 1996, when a large portion became urbanized. The frequency of human heads with open mouth at El Baúl is intriguing. Is this an attitude of aggression or pain? Most examples are known to originate from a sunken court located within the site’s Great Precinct, south of the main acropolis.
Measurements: Height 36 cm; width 35 cm; length including tenon 85 cm.
Click on image to enlarge
Further advances in the process of recording of monumental sculptures in the Cotzumalhuapa style included the following:
(a) Scanning of line drawings of monuments at a high resolution, for ease of manipulation, reproduction, and long-term storage.
(b) Sculptures that were previously unrecorded for reasons of accessibility, poor illumination or other were photographed. A case in point is Bilbao Monument 16, one of the few sculptures that remain in situ at the site (Figure 12, below). Because of its horizontal position in the middle of the sugarcane-planted site, this monument has proved difficult to photograph. In fact, no published photographs are available; the monument is known only through the nineteenth century drawings of Habel (1878) and Berendt (published in Chinchilla, 1996b), and a rubbing published by Parsons (1969: plate 42e). Considering its location, the best solution to photograph this important carving was to take advantage of sunlight very early in the morning. This could be done only during a short time after the sugarcane harvest, before the growing plants cast shadows over the sculpture. A ladder was used to achieve a perpendicular view of the carved surface. Although slightly slanted, the resulting photographs will provide an adequate basis for detailed line drawings (Figure 13, below).
Click on image to enlarge
Click on image to enlarge
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