All 3 species of Crocodiles of Guatemala together with Iconography of Crocodiles and Cosmic Monster

Posted July 26, 2023
by Nicholas Hellmuth, FLAAR Reports

Hellmuth, crocodile iconography lecture, jueves 27 de julio, Museo Popol Vuh, MPV, Universidad Francisco Marroquin, UFM, 9am to 9:40am, in person, en español.

https://noticias.ufm.edu/2023/07/explora-el-legado-de-la-escritura-maya-vi-seminario-internacional-de-epigrafia-maya-en-guatemala/

This PowerPoint presentation will show painted scenes on ceramics where crocodiles are featured. All the crocodiles on stelae and altars of Copan Ruinas, Honduras will be shown.

God N or generic Old God will be shown inside the mouth of the crocodile (usually God N is in other water-related creatures: seashells, snails, turtles, etc.). Archaeologist Simon Martin has published excellent discussion of the Old-God-in-Crocodile-Mouth aspect.

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Water in Maya wetlands ecosystems, water in Maya iconography, water management by the Maya for thousands of years. SIAG is a super-helpful conference with experienced organizers.

The focus will be on the “Starry Eyed Deer Crocodile” of the Cosmic Monster, usually with Quadripartite Badge Headdress deity face at the tail end.

Classic Maya art of Palenque, Quirigua, Comalcalco, Copan, Piedras Negras, Seibal (Ceibal), and lots of other sites will be shown.

If you are unable to attend in-person in Guatemala, this lecture can be presented in-person in your city anywhere in the world. In English, in Spanish, auf Deutsch, or simultaneously translated.

Be sure to tune in, to learn about advances in Maya archaeology

Posted July 17, 2023
by Nicholas Hellmuth, FLAAR Reports

The SIAG event this week is amazing; experienced archaeologists, iconographers and epigraphers from Guatemala, Mexico, USA and around the world are showing and sharing the results from their research in Mesoamerica related to WATER. Water symbolism (iconography), water ecology, and how the ancient Maya handled water in their sites.

If you are in Guatemala City you can go to the Museo Popol Vuh, UFM, and watch all the presentations on a large screen (no cost to attend but parking fee for your vehicle outside is common in most areas of the city).

If you are at home anywhere in the world you can watch each presentation at no cost on Facebook Live. https://www.facebook.com/100063663332659/videos/1740470096371267/ 35th Simposio de Investigaciones Arqueológicas en Guatemala, Julio 17-21, 2023, Simposio Virtual.

Dr Nicholas Hellmuth will give his presentation on Thursday (it was originally scheduled for Friday but the organizers updated the schedule when several speakers were not available). So the WETLANDS of the Classic Maya conference will be Thursday, July 20, 2023, starting at 11:15am. You can attend via Facebook or you can go to the Museo Popol Vuh and watch it on a big-screen. But each speaker presents from their research office desk.

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We will let YOU explore the never-before-studied savannas of the far southeast part of Parque Nacional Laguna del Tigre (PNLT). The FLAAR (USA) and FLAAR Mesoamerica (Guatemala) teams hike long distances through the rain forests, then launch their aerial camera system plus also achieve panorama photos from the ground. Plus every flower is photographed with macro digital cameras. Aerial photo with FLAAR Mavic 2 Pro by Emanuel Chocooj, June 3, 2022.

Water in Maya wetlands ecosystems, water in Maya iconography, water management by the Maya for thousands of years. SIAG is a super-helpful conference with experienced organizers.

To rescue your old 35mm color slides, what is the best flatbed scanner and scanner software?

Posted July 12, 2023
by Nicholas Hellmuth, FLAAR Reports

Today in 2023 there are still thousands of photographers who need to scan their decades old 35mm color slides, B&W negatives, etc. There are many universities and museums whose photo archives from the previous century are still not scanned. Or, if scanned, are not at adequate resolution. So two of our teams are initiating a project to find the best scanner software and a good flatbed scanner.

This is a 10MB file, cropped from the photograph shown here. This was scanned with the entry-level SilverFast software (that comes included with an Epson Perfection V850 Pro flatbed scanner); the full strength higher level SilverFast would be even better, so we wish to test the complete options of the Premium level. We have a long-range research project to learn how to make it possible to have a server that can handle large files so that a student could do a thesis on how this was carved. When you enlarge this image (if you have a 32” 4K monitor or comparable) you can see how it was carved. Our photos of other parts of this stelae document that minimum of two different sculptors carved the bottom panel. But it takes high-resolution scans with top-of-the-line scanner software to achieve this quality.

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The resolution to post a photo on a web page is traditionally only about 100KB (or less); that is a start, but it is essential to have, minimally, two more formats for professors and students: download of good enough resolution to make a full-page image in your thesis or dissertation or also download to make full page image in your PowerPoint presentation for professors. 100 to 400kilobytes is useless for scholarly research in-depth.

Then a super-high resolution is needed so that epigraphers can see all the details of the affixes of the hieroglyphs; so iconographers can see the details and spot deities or other iconographic aspects that are good enough resolution to do a line drawing. For all sculptures and ceramics it helps to have a detailed line drawing, such as by David Stuart, Stephen Houston, Karl Taube, Simon Martin, Matthew Looper, Carolyn Tate, Peter Mathews, Heather Hurst, Danial Salazar, Linda Schele, Ian Graham, Merle Green Robertson, John Montgomery, and the many other capable epigraphers, iconographers and archaeologists.

In the previous decade FLAAR Photo Archive was donated two Creo/Creo Scitex/Kodak scanners, top-of-the-line quality, but in recent years their firmware and software can’t easily be updated so they don’t work on Macintosh computers of today. And the connecting cables are of a size, shape and kind that they don’t plug into most new models of Mac. So today we have two Epson Perfection V850 Pro flatbed scanners (one in USA; one in Guatemala). This is their best model. We tried one of the 600-series and decided the Epson Perfection V850 Pro was by far a better choice.

In our USA research center we have basic SilverFast scanner software. I know the SilverFast brand of software for over many decades. I have met and spoken with Karl-Heinz Zahorsky, LaserSoft Imaging CEO and president many decades ago. SilverFast is their brand name for their wide range of scanning software products. We would like to upgrade our SilverFast software to their complete top level options in USA and have the same premium level here in Guatemala (where we have only the basic Epson scanner software; you need SilverFast to have awesome scans). Here is the software we look forward to testing:

• SilverFast HDR Studio, Premium
• SilverFast Ai Studio, Premium
• SilverFast SRDx, Photoshop Plug-in
• SilverFast Archive Suite
  or if all that is in SilverFast All-in-One that might be the solution

To see the results of at least entry-level SilverFast software, we have an entire new page. In the future we will show the results with their Premium Level and their other options.

Remembering the old railroad, Guatemala City to Quirigua archaeological site

Posted June 14, 2023.
Written by Nicholas Hellmuth

While searching for the Guatemalan cactus that grows like a regular tree: solid trunk, bark, limbs, branches, leaves, treetop canopy, we noticed that the “road” was gravel on top of the old railway track that went from Guatemala City to Puerto Barrios. Since this train passed through the town of Quirigua, it was an easy way to reach the ruins of Quirigua in the 1960’s when I was eager to learn about Maya sculptures and hieroglyphs. So I took this train back-and-forth in the late 1960’s (just before it shut down).

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Popol Vuh National Day

Posted June 02, 2023.
Written by Roberto Aguiar
Edited by Vivian Hurtado

In Guatemala, on the 30th of May, it's celebrated National Popol Vuh's Day. This special event commemorates the occasion when the text was declared a National Book in 1972 by the Guatemalan government.

To honor the 51st anniversary of such an important event, here is a compilation of archeological evidence that shows us how the history narrated in the Popol Vuh stands as an essential element of the Mayan culture within the different representations of the biodiversity associated with this region of Mesoamerica:

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Urn with figures of a deer, one of the first animals to be mentioned in the creation of the world - FLAAR

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Painting from a plate with the image of a spider monkey, associated with the relatives of the Hero Twins - FLAAR

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The lid of an urn with the form of a frog, one of the animals mentioned as part of the messengers from Xibalba - FLAAR

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Plate with the image of a Jaguar, an animal related to the underworld - FLAAR

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The sculpture of a “ kamasotz' ”, a winged beast with the form of an enormous bat, is mentioned in the text, as the same one that decapitates the head of “Junajpu” during the passing at the “Bat House” in Xibalba - FLAAR

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Vase with the representation of the reborn and young Maize God, this divinity is getting out from the shell of a turtle, this animal is associated with the earth - FLAAR

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The Young Corn God with maize foliage in the celestial canoe - K762 - Justin Kerr

• COLOP, Sam
• 2008
• Popol Wuj. CHOLSAMAJ. Pages: 226.

Maya Iconography of Crocodiles including Cosmic Monster

Posted May 30, 2023 by Nicholas Hellmuth

The team at FLAAR are preparing a Powerpoint presentation on iconography of crocodiles in Maya art, including the crocodile as the front end of the Cosmic Monster (in earlier decades called the Bicephalic Monster).

This lecture will be July 27, 2023 (9am to 9:40am) in-person as part of the multi-day conference of the Museo Popol Vuh at the Universidad Francisco. Marroquin (UFM), Guatemala City.

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Crocodile head is at the middle; has front legs visible. It is rare in paintings on vases or plates to have a crocodile even this close to naturalistic. Fish is at upper middle. Water lily flower to left of the fish (above the crocodile). Water lily pad under the fish. Two deity heads are the “roots and stock” from which the water lily grows. Rows of circles are Classic Maya symbols of the Surface of the Underwaterworld (Hellmuth PhD dissertation 1986, published as Monster und Menschen in 1987, ADEVA, Graz, Austria). The lecture in July will show the entire plate including the wonderful water lily resurrection scene in the center. This plate was published by Hellmuth in the 1980’s.

Lots more on crocodiles of the Maya and crocodiles of the Olmec to come in June and July posts.

Sonidos Ancestrales, excellent exhibit of Classic Maya ceramic artifacts that show Maya musical instruments

Posted March 17, 2023 by Nicholas Hellmuth

The impressive exhibit, SONIDOS ANCESTRALES, opened on March 15, 2023, at the spacious facility of the Colegio Interamericano, Guatemala City. This exhibit is courtesy of ceramic artifacts from Fundacion La Ruta Maya. There was a gala opening dinner with Fernando Paiz and Sofia Parades of the collection of Fundacion La Ruta Maya, plus hundreds of other people. There was an hour of presentations by a series of enthusiastic speakers (each one 5 to 10 minutes). Both Fernando Paiz and Sofia Parades spoke, as did other individuals.

The exhibit itself is helpful because instead of the usual museum exhibit of large bright-colored art, this is a scientific exhibit of artifacts. So musical instruments are included even though small and with no paint on this. I like this kind of true archaeological exhibit. Since everything was under glass, not realistic to photograph (and obviously photos already exist) so I show just one example. You need two photos of each musical artifact: where the sound comes out (as we show here) and where you put your lips to blow into the inner chamber.

Worth visiting, and if your museum anywhere in the world would like to have this kind of exhibit, simply contact the Fundacion La Ruta Maya. You can see more by the video of when these works of art were exhibited in Antigua Guatemala:
www.larutamaya.com.gt/recorrido-virtual-por-la-exposicion-sonidos-ancestrales/

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Crocodiles need more study in iconography of Classic Maya art

Posted February 22, 2022 by Nicholas Hellmuth

There are two species of crocodiles and one species of caiman in Guatemala and surrounding countries of Mesoamerica. Crocodiles are known from 3D sculptures at Yaxchilan and rock outcrops near Copan. Crocodile trees are well known from proto-Maya stelae of Izapa, Chiapas, Mexico and from Early Classic and Late Classic scenes on ceramics.

But rarely do iconographers or archaeologists identify (and document) which species it is. Thus the team at FLAAR (USA) and FLAAR Mesoamerica (Guatemala) are dedicated to photographing the different species at different angles so that iconographers and archaeologists can see the details.

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This is the crocodile that you see in many rivers and lakes of Peten. I estimate this is the in-land crocodile, Crocodylus moreletii. But the sign said it was the other crocodile, Crocodylus acutus. But this croc in front of me does not have a longer head that is the indicator for a Crocodylus acutus. Crocodylus acutus is found in brackish water close to the Caribbean Sea. It is a challenge to identify the species when they are not in their original wild habitat. The third species, Caiman crocodilus, is found in swamps parallel to the Pacific Ocean. This is a crocodilian but not a crocodile. We find and photograph crocodiles when exploring swamps and seasonally inundated savannas in Peten. We see crocodiles many times a year but do not want to get too close. So to get a “close-up” photo, we go to the Parque Zoológico Nacional La Aurora. Photo by Nicholas Hellmuth, February 23, 2023, with iPhone 14 Pro Max, FLAAR Photo Archive.

Iconography of Snakes of Guatemala in Classic Maya Art

Posted February 21, 2022 by Nicholas Hellmuth

The Classic Maya pictured hundreds of giant snakes of various different genera and species. Snakes are most common on stelae, lintels (especially at Yaxchilan, Chiapas, Mexico), murals and ceramics. A few have been misidentified as centipedes (but centipedes do exist in the art of Mesoamerica). So our long range goal is to photograph all the pertinent snakes of Guatemala and make these photos available to iconographers, epigraphers, archaeologists and ethnozoologists.

We have been photographing whatever snakes that we happen to see along the trails as we hike deep into remote areas of Peten. But out in the wild it’s a challenge to get macro photos to show details up-close. So to get better photos we do photography in the zoos of Guatemala. The zoo administration and zoo herpetologists assist us.

Today we went to the zoo to check and see what snakes would be available to study in the future. So we post this snapshot.

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Boa constrictor imperator, Daudin 1803, mazacuata, photographed in Parque Zoológico La Aurora. Photo by Nicholas Hellmuth, iPhone 14 Pro Max, February 23, 2023, FLAAR Photo Archive.

To see more views, we show boa constrictors on our www.Maya-ethnozoology.org web site.