Interpreting Mayan culture, one piece at a time

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Not just for weeks or months, but for years, Lynn Grant has been working on puzzle pieces that had been waiting 1,300 years for her expert -- and gentle -- touch.

Grant, acting head conservator at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, even gave nicknames to the fragmented pieces she was working so intensely to reconstruct. "It gave me something to smile about," said Grant during the recent press preview for a major exhibition at the museum.

"Painted Metaphors: Pottery and Politics of the Ancient Maya," this collection of ancient Maya painted pottery, excavated by a museum team led by Robert Burkitt almost a century ago, has been reinterpreted in view of recent research in the field. According to the exhibition's curator, Dr. Elin Danien, there was always curiosity about how these unusual pieces came to be made in a rural region that is now the region of Guatemala, Mexico, Belize and Honduras, and it was not until modern science allowed investigation that some answers surfaced.

"The region was a stop along the trade route, and was rich in cocoa beans, so it was not insignificant in the ancient world," explained Danien. "Through these pieces, we have a new appreciation of the Maya culture and everyday life from 1,300 years ago."

Danien also commended the University Museum scholars for their "stewardship" of these important ancient finds, and observed that, "when the field work ends, the important work of archaeologists begins."

In a large gallery, the fruits of so many scholars and researchers' labors can be seen, complete with excellent labeling to make the artifacts more meaningful to visitors.

For Lynn Grant, some of the most daunting challenges of exhibition pieces came from their fragility. "Sometimes, I would pick up a piece and it would disintegrate almost into dust in my hands," she said. "Luckily, modern science has provided us with wonderful adhesives that will now give these pieces permanence."

While other museums may fill in the cracks in ancient pieces, the University Museum wants the cracks to show. "The real history is in those cracks," said Lynn Grant.

"The Painted Metaphors" exhibition's centerpiece is a display case holding nearly two dozen vessels of richly colored rusts and cinnamons, while other display cases contain religious objects, pots, incense burners and pieces with political symbolism. Many have animal motifs, and on careful examination, reveal the representations of jaguars or monkeys and even "messengers from the underworld."

A "duck pot," so named because of its shape -- was ingeniously designed so that the user could grasp its handles and avoid hand injury. Implements, bowls, and a model of weavers at work are all part of the exhibition, along with several watercolor "rollouts" painted by a Museum artist in 1926. A splendid jade carving and several stone necklaces tell the story of adornment for the socially privileged of the era. Also exhibited are burial urns, weaving implements and even musical instruments.

In one corner of the gallery, there are the ink-pad type stamping devices that allow visitors to create their own designs -- diverting not only for kids, but clearly for adults as well, as the recent press group proved.

Dr. C. Brian Rose, deputy director of the Penn Museum, summed up the importance of the exhibit, which will begin a multi-city national tour after it leaves Philadelphia in January, 2010.

"Ancient Maya was one of the great civilizations of the world. We all feel great pride in this very important collection which provides a small piece of the great Mayan story."