Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-tf8b9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-28T04:22:40.485Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The occurrence of tortoiseshell on a pre-Hispanic Maya mosaic mask

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Jack Frazier  and
Reiko Ishihara-Brito
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The Dumbarton Oaks Maya mosaic mask is shown to have included tortoiseshell on an earlobe—remarkable since this is the only demonstrated use of this material in pre-Hispanic Mesoamerica. The authors present diagnostic evidence for the presence of tortoiseshell, account for its absence in pre-Hispanic artefacts because of decay, and propose its use (in the mask) as being symbolic of the ocean.

Keywords

MesoamericaMayaK&inich AjawPostclassicthirteenth–fourteenth century ADmarine turtletortoiseshellmasksea symbolismtaphonomykeratin
Type
Research article
Information
Antiquity , Volume 86 , Issue 333 , September 2012 , pp. 825 - 837
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 2012 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

Both authors contributed equally to this work.

References

Adams, R.E.W. 1999. Río Azul: an ancient Maya city. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.Google Scholar
Aiken, A. 1840. On horn and tortoiseshell. Journal of the Franklin Institute 26(4): 256–63.Google Scholar
Alcina Franch, J. 1983. Pre-columbian art. New York: Abrams.Google Scholar
Allan, S. 1991. The shape of the turtle: myth, art, and cosmos in early China. Albany: State University of New York.Google Scholar
Andrews, A.P. 1986. La fauna arqueol´ogica de El Meco, in Andrews, A.P. & Robles, F. C. (coord.) Excavaciones arqueológicas en El Meco, Quintana Roo, 1977: 67–75. Mexico City: Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia.Google Scholar
Andrews, C.A.R. 1981. Catalogue of Egyptian antiquities in the British Museum, Vol. 6: Jewellery I. From the earliest times to the Seventeenth Dynasty. London: British Museum.Google Scholar
Anonymous. 1984. The smuggling business: the mysterious Mayan mask. The Weekly Sun 7(30): 36.Google Scholar
Bell, E.E. 2007. Early Classic ritual deposits within the Copan acropolis: the material foundations of political power at a Classic period Maya center. Unpublished PhD dissertation, University of Pennsylvania.Google Scholar
Benson, E. 1969. Supplement to the Handbook of the Robert Woods Bliss Collection of pre-Columbian art. Washington, DC: Dumbarton Oaks, Trustees for Harvard University.Google Scholar
Blasco, R., Blain, H.-A., Rosell, J., Díez, J.C., Huguet, R., Rodríguez, J., Arsuaga, J.L., Bermúdez De Castro, J.M. & Carbonell, E.. 2011. Earliest evidence for human consumption of tortoises in the European Early Pleistocene from Sima del Elefante, Sierra de Atapuerca, Spain. Journal of Human Evolution 61: 503–509.Google Scholar
Braun, D.R., Harris, J.W.K., Levin, N.E., Mckoy, J.T., Herries, A.I.R., Bamford, M.K., Bishop, L.C., Richmond, B.G. & Kibunjia, M.. 2010. Early hominin diet included diverse terrestrial and aquatic animals 1.95 Ma in East Turkana, Kenya. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 107(22): 10002–10007.Google Scholar
Carr, H.S. 1989. Non-molluscan faunal remains (of Isla Cerritos, Yucatan). Unpublished manuscript submitted to the Isla Cerritos Project, 1989.Google Scholar
Carr, H.S. 1991. The Maya medicinal turtle, Xkokak, and a suggested alternate reading of two Yucatec ethnomedical texts. Journal of Ethnobiology 11(2): 187–92.Google Scholar
Casson, L. 1989. The Periplus Maris Erythraei. Princeton (NJ): Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
De Ciudad Real, A., De San Juan, A., Metcalfe, G. & Guerrero, R.. 1872. Relación breve y verdadera de algunas cosas de las muchas que sucedieron al padre fray Alonso Ponce en las provincias de la Nueva España, Vol. 2 (Colección de documentos inéditos para la historia de España 58). Madrid: Imprenta de la Viuda de Calero.Google Scholar
Coe, S.D. & Coe, M.D.. 1996. The true history of chocolate. New York: Thames & Hudson.Google Scholar
Coggins, C. (ed.) 1992. Artifacts from the Cenote of Sacrifice, Chichen Itza, Yucatan (Memoirs of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology 10). Cambridge (MA): Harvard University.Google Scholar
Colop, S. 2008. Popol Wuj. Guatemala City: Cholsamaj.Google Scholar
Daly, P. 1969. Approaches to faunal analysis in archaeology. American Antiquity 34(2): 146–53.Google Scholar
Dow, W., Eckert, K., Palmer, M. & Kramer, P.. 2007. An atlas of sea turtle nesting habitat for the wider Caribbean region (WIDECAST Technical Report 6). Beaufort (NC): The Wider Caribbean Sea Turtle Conservation Network and the Nature Conservancy. Available at: http://seamap.env.duke.edu/seamap2.5/widecast/references/Dow_et_al_2007.pdf (accessed 1 February 2012).Google Scholar
Edwards, H.G.M, Hunt, D.E. & Sibley, M.G.. 1998. FT-ramanspectroscopic study of keratotic materials: horn, hoof and tortoiseshell. Spectrochimica Acta Part A 54: 745–57.Google Scholar
Edwards, H. G.M, Hassan, N.F.N. & Wilson, A.S.. 2004. Raman spectroscopic analysis of preserved historical specimens of human hair attributed to Robert Stephenson and Sir Isaac Newton. The Analyst 129: 956–62.Google Scholar
Emery, K.F. (ed.) 2004. Maya zooarchaeology: new directions in method and theory (Monograph 51). Los Angeles: Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, University of California.Google Scholar
Espinoza, E.O., Baker, B.W. & Berry, C.A.. 2007. The analysis of sea turtle and bovid keratin artefacts using DRIFT spectroscopy and discriminant analysis. Archaeometry 49(4): 685–98.Google Scholar
Finamore, D. & Houston, S.D. (ed.). 2010. Fiery pool: the Maya and the mythic sea. Salem (MA): Peabody Essex Museum; New Haven (CT): Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Frazier, J. 2003. Prehistoric and ancient historic interactions between humans and marine turtles, in Lutz, P., Musick, J. & Wyneaken, J. (ed.) The biology of sea turtles, Vol. 2: 1–38. Boca Raton (FL): CRC Press.Google Scholar
Frazier, J. 2005. Marine turtles: the ultimate tool kit. A review of worked bones in marine turtles, in Luik, H., Choyke, A.M., Batey, C.E. & Lõugas, L. (ed.) From hooves to horns, from mollusc to mammoth: manufacture and use of bone artefacts from prehistoric times to the present: 359–82. Tallinn: Ajaloo Instituut.Google Scholar
Freeman-Grenville, G.S.P. (ed.) 1962. The East African coast: select documents from the first to the earlier nineteenth century. Oxford: Clarendon.Google Scholar
Gallenkamp, C. 1985. Maya: the riddle and rediscovery of a lost civilization. New York: Viking.Google Scholar
Götz, C.M. 2008. Coastal and inland patterns of faunal exploitation in the prehispanic northern Maya lowlands. Quaternary International 191: 154–69.Google Scholar
Hainschwang, T. & Leggio, L.. 2006. The characterization of tortoise shell and its imitations. Gems & Gemology 42(1): 36–52.Google Scholar
Hall, G.D. 1987. The discovery of Tomb 23 and results of other tomb investigations at Río Azul, season of 1985, in Adams, R.E.W. (ed.) Río Azul reports, number 3, the 1985 season: 107–51. San Antonio: Center for Archaeological Research, University of Texas.Google Scholar
Hamblin, N.L. 1984. Animal use by the Cozumel Maya. Tucson: University of Arizona Press.Google Scholar
Hodgins, G. 2010. Radiocarbon dating of a Maya mask (PC. B.557). Report on file. Washington, DC: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection.Google Scholar
Hourani, G.F. & Carwell, J.. 1995. Arab seafaring in the Indian Ocean in ancient and early medieval times. Princeton (NJ): Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Ishihara, R. 2008. Rising clouds, blowing winds: Late Classic Maya rain rituals in the Main Chasm, Aguateca, Guatemala. World Archaeology 40(2): 169–89.Google Scholar
Ishihara, R. 2009. Bridging the chasm between religion and politics: archaeological investigations of the Grietas (Chasms) at the Late Classic Maya site of Aguateca, Peten, Guatemala. Saarbrücken: VDM.Google Scholar
Ishihara-Brito, R. 2010. Report on X-ray fluorescence analysis, UV light examination, and stereomicroscopic examination of the Dumbarton Oaks Maya mosaic mask conducted at the Freer Gallery of Art. Report on file. Washington, DC: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection.Google Scholar
Ishihara-Brito, R. & Taube, K.A.. 2012. Mosaic mask, in Pillsbury, J., Doutriaux, M., Ishihara-Brito, R. & Tokovinine, A. (ed.) Ancient Maya art at Dumbarton Oaks: 464–74. Washington, DC: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection.Google Scholar
Kirkman, J.S. (ed.) 1961. The Portuguese period in East Africa by Justus Strandes. Translated by Wallwork, J.F.. Nairobi: East African Literature Bureau.Google Scholar
R.L. (assumed Lankester, E.R.). 1899. The trade in tortoiseshell. Nature 59(1531): 425–26.Google Scholar
Lebrun, D. 2008. Breaking the Maya code. New York: First Run Features.Google Scholar
Li, X., Harbottle, G., Zhang, J. & Wang, C.. 2003. The earliest writing? Sign use in the seventh millennium BC at Jiahu, Henan Province, China. Antiquity 77: 31–44.Google Scholar
Masson, M.A. & Peraza Lope, C.. 2008. Animal use at the Postclassic Maya center of Mayapán. Quaternary International 191: 170–83.Google Scholar
Mathew, G. 1975. The dating and significance of the Periplus of the Erythrean Sea , in Chittick, H.N. & Rotberg, R.I. (ed.) East Africa and the Orient: cultural syntheses in pre-colonial times: 147–63. New York: Africana.Google Scholar
Mckillop, H. 1995 Underwater archaeology, salt production, and coastal Maya trade at Stingray Lagoon, Belize. Latin American Antiquity 6(3): 214–28.Google Scholar
Mckillop, H. & Healy, P.F. (ed.). 1989. Coastal Maya trade. Peterborough: Trent University.Google Scholar
Meyer, K.E. 1973. The plundered past. New York: Atheneum.Google Scholar
Miller, A.G. 1982. On the edge of the sea: mural painting at Tancah-Tulum, Quintana Roo, Mexico. Washington, DC: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection.Google Scholar
Miller, M.E. & Taube, K.A.. 1993. The gods and symbols of ancient Mexico and the Maya: an illustrated dictionary of Mesoamerican religion. New York: Thames & Hudson.Google Scholar
Moholy-Nagy, H. & Coe, W.R.. 2008. The artifacts of Tikal: ornamental and ceremonial artifacts and unworked material (Tikal Report 27, pt. A. University Museum Monograph 127). Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.Google Scholar
Morehart, CH. T., Awe, J.J., Mirro, M.J., Owen, V.A. & Helmke, CH. G.. 2004. Ancient textile remains from Barton Creek Cave, Cayo District, Belize. Mexicon 26(3): 50–56.Google Scholar
Munro, N.D. & Grosman, L.. 2010. Early evidence (ca. 12,000 BP) for feasting at a burial cave in Israel. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 107(35): 15362–66.Google Scholar
Needler, W. 1984. Predynastic and archaic Egypt in the Brooklyn Museum (Wilbour Monographs 9). New York: Brooklyn Museum.Google Scholar
O’connor, S. 1987. The identification of osseous and keratinaceous materials at York, in Starling, K. & Watkinson, D. (ed.) Archaeological bone, antler and ivory (Occasional Papers 5): 9–21. London: United Kingdom Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works of Art.Google Scholar
Paris, C., Lecomte, S. & Coupry, C.. 2005. ATR-FTIR spectroscopy as a way to identify natural protein-based materials, tortoiseshell and horn from their protein-based imitation, galalith. Spectrochimica Acta Part A 62: 532–38.Google Scholar
Parsons, J.J. 1972. The hawksbill turtle and the tortoise shell trade, in Hubert, B. (ed.) Études de géographie tropicale offertes a Pierre Gourou: 45–60. Paris: Mouton.Google Scholar
Patel, S. 2005. Pilgrimage and caves on Cozumel, in Prufer, K.M. & Brady, J.E. (ed.) Stone houses and earth lords: Maya religion in the cave context: 91–112. Boulder: University Press of Colorado.Google Scholar
Phillips, D.A. Jr. 1979. Material culture and trade of the Postclassic Maya. Unpublished PhD dissertation, University of Arizona.Google Scholar
Pohl, M.E. 1983. Maya ritual faunas: vertebrate remains from burials, caches, caves, and cenotes in the Maya lowlands, in Leventhal, R.M. & Kolata, A.L. (ed.) Civilization in the ancient Americas: essays in honor of Gordon R. Willey: 55–103. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.Google Scholar
Poyer, L. 1993. The Ngatik massacre. History and identity on a Micronesian atoll. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press.Google Scholar
Randel, W. 1966. Master in the Art News. Art News November: 20.Google Scholar
Ruz Lhuillier, A. 1973. El Templo de las Inscripciones, Palenque (Colección científica 7). Mexico City: Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia.Google Scholar
De Sahagún, B.. c. 1540-1588 [1981]. Historia general de las cosas de la Nueva España. Edited and annotated by Angel María Garibay K. Mexico City: Editorial Porrúa.Google Scholar
De Sahagún, B.. c. 1558-1561 [1997]. Primeros memoriales. Translated by Sullivan, T.D.. Revised and edited by Nicholson, H.B., Anderson, A.J.O., Dibble, C.E., Quiñones Keber, E. & Ruwet, W.. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.Google Scholar
Scholes, F.V., Roys, R.L., Adams, E.B. & Chamberlain, R.S.. 1948. The Maya Chontal Indians of Acalan-Tixchel: a contribution to the history and ethnography of the Yucatan Peninsula (Carnegie Institution of Washington publication 560). Washington, DC: Carnegie Institution of Washington.Google Scholar
Standley, P.C. & Steyermark, J.A.. 1958. Flora of Guatemala (Fieldiana. Botany 24, pt. 1). Chicago (IL): Chicago Natural History Museum.Google Scholar
Taube, K.A. 1988. A prehispanic Maya katun wheel. Journal of Anthropological Research 44(2): 183–203.Google Scholar
Taube, K.A. 2010 At dawn's edge: Tulúm, Santa Rita and floral symbolism in the international style of Postclassic Mesoamerica, in Vail, G. & Hernández, C. (ed.) Astronomers, scribes and priests: intellectual interchange between the northern Maya lowlands and highland Mexico in the Late Postclassic period: 145–91. Washington, DC: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection.Google Scholar
Taube, K.A., Saturno, W.A., Stuart, D. & Hurst, H.. 2010. The murals of San Bartolo, El Petén, Guatemala. Part 2: the west wall (Ancient America 10). Barnardsville (NC): Boundary End Archaeology Research Center.Google Scholar
Taube, K.A. & Ishihara-Brito, R.. 2012. From stone to jewel: jade in ancient Maya religion and rulership, in Pillsbury, J., Doutriaux, M., Ishihara-Brito, R. & Tokovinine, A. (ed.) Ancient Maya art at Dumbarton Oaks: 135–53. Washington, DC: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection.Google Scholar
Tedlock, D. 1986. Popol Vuh. The Mayan book of the dawn of life. New York: Simon & Schuster.Google Scholar
Tedlock, D. 1991 Breath on the mirror: mythic voices and visions of the living Maya. San Francisco (CA): Harper.Google Scholar
Thode-Arora, H. 2001. Tapa und Tiki: die Polynesian-Sammlung des Rautenstrauch- Joest-Museums. Cologne: Rautenstrauch- Joest-Museums der Stadt Köln.Google Scholar
Thompson, J.E.S. 1966. The rise and fall of Maya civilization. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.Google Scholar
Thompson, J.E.S. 1970 Maya history and religion. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.Google Scholar
Tozzer, A.M. & Allen, G.M.. 1910. Animal figures in the Maya codices. Papers of the Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology 4(3): 276–374.Google Scholar
Trimingham, J.S. 1975. The Arab geographers and the East African coast, in Chittick, H.N. & Rotberg, R.I. (ed.) East Africa and the Orient: cultural syntheses in pre-colonial times: 115–46. New York: Africana.Google Scholar
Wheatley, P. 1975. Analecta Sino-Africana recensa, in Chittick, H.N. & Rotberg, R.I. (ed.) East Africa and the Orient: cultural syntheses in pre-colonial times: 76–114. New York: Africana.Google Scholar
Wilson, A.S., Dodson, H.I., Janaway, R.C., Pollard, A.M. & Tobin, D.J.. 2007. Selective biodegradation in hair shafts derived from archaeological, forensic and experimental contexts. British Journal of Dermatology 157: 450–57.Google Scholar
Von Winning, H. 1968. Pre-Columbian art of Mexico and Central America. New York: H.N. Abrams.Google Scholar
Zender, M. 2006. Teasing the turtle from its shell: AHK and MAHK in Maya writing. The PARI Journal 6(3): 1–14.Google Scholar