Photos and Video of 11/5 Archaeology Distinguished Lecture: “A Mercurial Connection: How cinnabar shaped relations between the ancient Maya and Highland Mexico”
Click here for Echo video recording of the talk.
Photo of the event, click here.
Boston University Archaeology Distinguished Lecture in honor of Norman Hammond, keynote speaker, Barbara Fash, Director of the Corpus of Maya Hieroglyphic Inscriptions Program (CMHI) at the Peabody Museum of Harvard University. Talk Tuesday, November 5, 6pm, Stone Science, room B50, followed by a reception at the Castle.
Sponsored by the Boston University Center for the Humanities. Thank you to Michael Hamilton for all the beautiful photos and to the BU Learning & Event Technology Services for the video and technical set up of the talk.
Abstract:
Although controversies continue to arise and evolve over the mercurial nature, and routes of exchange that influenced the unpredictable relations between the ancient Maya and Highland Mexico, particularly with the metropolis and ritual center of Teotihuacan, it is clear that both areas placed tremendous importance on the use of shiny objects in their rituals. Cinnabar, a vibrant red mineral that embodied the blood and heat of life, was used throughout Mesoamerica to animate objects and the dead since Preclassic times (100–250 CE). When heated it also magically produced the reflective liquid mercury, a substance used in Maya accession ceremonies. Tracking the procurement and uses of the enigmatic mineral sheds fresh light on its significance in this complex dynamic of the ancient past. Barbara Fash is Director of the Corpus of Maya Hieroglyphic Inscriptions Program (CMHI) at the Peabody Museum of Harvard University since 1976 she has combined specialties in art, art history, archaeological illustration, documentation, conservation, and 3D scanning, towards the interpretation of Maya sculpture, bas reliefs, stucco, murals, and ceramic production at the archaeological sites of Copan, Honduras, Chalcatzingo, and Teotihuacan, Mexico. She received the Orden del Pop (Order of the Mat) in July 2015, from the Museum Popol Vuh, and Francisco Marroquin University, Guatemala, and in December 2017 the Long-Term Research Award from the Shanghai Archaeology Forum. Presently, she divides her time in and out of the field preparing CMHI volumes, the PAAC publications, and analysis of the recently discovered Maya mural fragments from the Project Plaza of the Columns Complex (PPCC), Teotihuacan, Mexico.
Bio:
Barbara Fash is Director of the Corpus of Maya Hieroglyphic Inscriptions Program (CMHI) at the Peabody Museum of Harvard University, for which she is preparing publications on the monuments of Yaxchilan, Edzna, Wa’ka’, and the Copan Hieroglyphic Stairway. Since 1976 she has combined specialties in art, art history, archaeological illustration, documentation, conservation, and 3D scanning, towards the interpretation of Maya sculpture, bas reliefs, stucco, murals, and ceramic production at the archaeological sites of Copan, Honduras, Chalcatzingo, and Teotihuacan, Mexico. She authored, The Copan Sculpture Museum: Ancient Maya Art in Stucco and Stone (2011), edited Precolumbian Water Management: Ideology, Ritual and Power, with Lisa Lucero (2006), and CMHI, Cotzumalhuapa, Vol. 10.1 with Oswaldo Chinchilla (2017),in addition to publishing numerous professional articles, curating exhibitions, and directing research projects. She is co-founder of the Copan Mosaics Project, Sculpture Coordinator for the Proyecto Arqueológico Acrópolis Copán (PAAC), and co-directs the Santander Program for Research and Conservation of Maya Sculpture, which includes regional and local training and community projects in Honduras and Guatemala. Recently, she was featured in the BBC Civilizations 8-part series documentary. In 2008, Barbara received the Hoja del Laurel de Oro (Golden Laurel Leaf ) award from the Government of Honduras, in recognition of her more than thirty years of service in the preservation, interpretation and documentation of the cultural heritage of Honduras. She received the Orden del Pop (Order of the Mat) in July 2015, from the Museum Popol Vuh, and Francisco Marroquin University, Guatemala, and in December 2017 the Long-Term Research Award from the Shanghai Archaeology Forum. Presently, she divides her time in and out of the field preparing CMHI volumes, the PAAC publications, and analysis of the recently discovered Maya mural fragments from the Project Plaza of the Columns Complex (PPCC), Teotihuacan, Mexico.