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Dept. of Anth., Univ. of Nevada, Reno |
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Not historical archaeology, but an inspiring thread so here's my dos
centavos.
In 1987 I spent several months in Belize (south of the Yucatan region of
Mexico) as a volunteer for the governmental Department of Archaeology,
cataloguing and photographing a great array of ancient Maya artifacts.
These were all materials which had been returned from various
out-of-country institutions which had undertaken archaeological projects
and received temporary export permits on the artifacts for analysis,
subsequently returning them to the Belizian government for permanent
curation. Of all the artifacts I examined, representing dozens of
ancient Maya sites across the country, only once did I come across
something clearly non-Maya but definitely of ancient age. These were a
pair of large, gold-framed 'ear-dresses' inlaid with turquoise, with
three small gold bell-like dangles at the bottom of each. Their origin
was likely a thousand or more miles to the northwest, as the Maya seldom
worked gold (preferring jade) and then there was the turquoise to boot.
Thus the trade-networks in this area of Meso-America were certainly
extensive but of the Roman/Phonecian/and/orViking presence there was no
suggestion.
Of course, there was the infamous 'Crystal Skull' found at the site of
Lubaantun in the 1920s I believe, which was recovered by the daughter of
the project leader (I forget his name) who had apparently been something
of a world traveller/collector by this time. Some mysterious
connection with similar specimens he had seen earlier in India. In the
1980s the daughter still possessed the skull while living in Montreal,
not willing to return it to Belize but allowing it to be photographed
with the Belizian Archaeological Commissioner during a visit he made.
Certainly a part of Belizian history to be certain, ala 1920s, but I
don't think any scholar of Maya archaeology ever took it seriously as an
authentic artifact. Other than the project leader at Lubaantun, and his
daughter, of course.
Larry Buhr
Dept. of Anthropology
Univ. of Nevada, Reno
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