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.
