Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1910-05-21
FINE SPECIMENS
ON EXHIBITION
No One Should Fail to Visit
Puye Room This
Week
AN INTERESTING COLLECTION
One Would Have to Go to Larg-
est Cities to See the
Like.

The Museum of New Mexico offers
as its special exhibit for the coming
week an interesting collection Of
minor antiquities, chiefly from the
region of the Maya Culture in south
ern Mexico. The specimens to be ex-
hibited are for the most part examples
of the pOtter's art such as clay heads,
incense burners, whistle and bowl
The collection, however, also includes
a small copper bell not unlike the
modern sleigh-bell in form, and a
shoulder blade beautifully carved with
hieroglyphics. The latter is not the
bone of a man, put or some fairly
good-sized animal, probably the deer.
Originally the band of sculptured hier-
oglyphics had been painted red; faint
traces Of the coloring still appear.
Undoubtedly the finest piece in the
collection is the cast of seated hu-
man figure made from the original an
cient mold now in the Peabody Mus
cum of American Archaeology and
Ethnology, Haryary University. The
discovery of this ancient mold, a few
years ago, shed new light on an i'm
portant industry of which we had no
previous knowledge. The Mayes were
preeminently a stone cutting people,
1t is in sculpture as applied 10 archi-
tectural decoration and establishment
that they chiefly eXcelled. That they
were skilled potters as well, was also
known from the character of the
! bowls found in the area they occupied; !;
but that they made molds for casting
objects, such as the statuette to be ex-
! hibited, was unknown. The material
of the mold from which the present
cast was made is of a very fine clay
without grit. The mold had been
baked to insure hardness. The smooth
ness of the surface and the delicacy
of the lines of this mold may be judg-
ed from the beauty of the cast, which
! it was possible to make.
| The statuette itself is of a seated
human figure, with its legs crossed
| underneath it, Turk fashion. The left
hand rests on the knee, while the right
hand holds an object like a fan. The
figure is clothed in a robe, the woven
character of which clearly appears.
There is a necklace around the
neck, fillet just above the forehead
and the hair is tied together on top
! hon hao in n tI1ft
the left.
Other interesting specimens are two
clay heads which originally formed
the chief ornaments, of two incense
burners. The Maya incense burner
was a small, rather shallow bowl OF
dish, on the outside of which was
fastened a grotesque head. The in
icense used, an aromatic gum, called
copal, which burns with dense BLACK
smoke of considerable fragrance, was
iplaced in the bowl and lighted; at the
same time, fragments of food corn
beans, and also tobacco, usually il
each case the first of the seasons crol
to be harvested, were placed on the
lower protruding lip of the grotesqut
head on the outside of the bowl. This
rite was accompanied by singing ant
jchanting, and was a thank offering tt
the gods for their bounty and goot
will in permitting the various crops tt
mature The larger of the two heads
is ancient, having been taken from thu
middle of pyramid at Mayapan, IL
the state of Yucatan, Mexico Th'
smaller head is from a modern III
!cense burner, used by the Lacandone
or unchristianized Indians of thu
states of Chiapas and Tobasco, Mex
leo, in their ceremonies.
This collection will be on exhibition
one week only commencing next Mon