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MERLE'S CORNER
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I have received an e-mail from Harvey Bricker, our PARI member and colleague of mine at Tulane University, with some very interesting information about the recent passing of David A. Rosenthal, the eminent Maya archaeoastronomer. As Harvey was a good friend of his, I think that his message to me will convey the information about the accomplishments of David Rosenthal much better than I can, so here are Harvey's words:
I learned recently that David A. Rosenthal, a colleague and collaborator in Maya archaeoastronomy, had died last year in California at age 58 after five years of combat against cancer. Dave was a physicist in the R&D division of the Naval Air Weapons Station at China Lake, but his interests and activities extended far beyond his formal job. One of these interests was astronomy, especially the astronomy of the ancient Maya, an interest nurtured by trips to Yucatan and Tony Aveni's Skywatchers of Ancient Mexico. I first "met" Dave when he telephoned me at my office full of enthusiasm about the Venus alignment of the Governor's Palace at Uxmal, concerning which Vicki and I had recently published an article. Dave was anxious to get photographic documentation of one of these Venus-extreme horizon events, and he made several field trips to Yucatan, most recently in 2005, to do this, with the cooperation of INAH personnel. This was hard work, full of frustrations, but he succeeded, and I have been using his superb graphic documentation in my teaching and lecturing. (I took Dave's problems with short-lived but pervasive dawn ground fog as a cautionary tale about the dangers of "retrodicting" observation events from computer programs!) Dave did some special-request photography for me at several Yucatecan sites, and his wonderful photos of total solar eclipses as seen from Mexico, South America, and Europe have appeared in several publications (and my lectures!). Some of the best of his work can be seen at his website, www.ridgenet.net/~n6tst. Maya archaeoastronomy was an earnest but small part of Dave's life. In addition to being a research physicist, he had been a decorated combat helicopter pilot in Vietnam, a medevac helicopter pilot with NATO forces in Bosnia, a science reporter for CNN and other media, and a much respected civic leader in his local community. Dave is survived by his wife, Donna McCrohan Rosenthal, a professional travel writer. Although you may not have known Dave personally, as Vicki and I did, it is appropriate that we note his passing. He followed closely new research in our field, and he employed his exceptional talents in the creation of a visual record of the phenomena we study. _ . _ The announcement this summer that Chichen Itza is now listed as one of the "New Seven Wonders of the World" has opened up all kinds of "Who owns what" and "Who should own what" world-wide opinions on Chichen. I have worked at Chichen for the past thirty years, knowing that the Barbachanos owned certain portions of the site, but as it didn't alter anything, just dismissed it as something that wasn't that important. The ruins were being taken care of properly, that is up until a few years ago. Now there are not nearly enough guards to even begin to protect it. You see adult kids on top of buildings that could topple with one wrong step, the entire site has been take over by souvenir tradespeople, not even the locals, but hundreds from as far away as Nicaragua, only two latrines in the entire site, so filthy, impossible to use. One has to wait to get back to the Museum, and there the line is so long that it is just as bad. Last season when I was going to work at Chichen Viejo in an INAH truck, these peddlers had so taken over the road that tourists had to jump down the bank to let the truck go forward. Did the peddlers move their stuff? Of course not. There was no one to make them do it. Now the issue is, "Who should own Chichen Itza?" — the Barbachanos, the INAH, or the Federal Government. I know my friend Belisa Barbachano's main efforts are in preserving the site. She cooperates with the INAH and helps in every way. This must be a difficult time for her. My friend Dr. Eduardo Perez de Heredia who is now head of the INAH at Chichen has said (as quoted from the Christian Science Monitor), "How can one protect something that is not yours"? I disagree with Eduardo in that everyone of us can do just that. I always pick up my left-over debris after work, never mar a stone, pick up other people's junk where I am working, and so on. There are many others who do the same. How about Africa where millions are starving? It has to be people of the world, who of course do not own Africa, where protection comes from. Or New Orleans, where the only help they can count on for protection of their city has to come from others who do not own it. What I would like to say is, whatever the outcome of this fiasco, my hope is that enough people will be hired so that Chichen can be adequately protected, and that the artifact peddlers will be sent home. _ . _ As most portraits of Maya people on monuments, ceramics, and murals show their faces in profile, even if their bodies may be straight on, it seems to me that if Maya faces are drawn straight on, they should look like Maya faces. In the National Geographic magazine, August 2007, in the article "The Maya Glory and Ruin," I will have to point out that this is not the case. Vania Zouravliov is a fine artist but is apparently unfamiliar with the Maya people. A case in point is the paintings on pages 80, 100-101, and 107. On page 80, where a masked priest sacrifices a young king, the young king looks like a girl. His features are non-Maya—without the broad nose of the Maya, lips much too thin, and even in frontal view there should be some indication of the slanting nose that goes back into the forehead in a slanted line. Even a young Maya lord would not have worn his hair hanging uncared for down his chest. On pages 100-101, with the three figures—one a dwarf—at the crease between the pages, the non-Maya nose is especially apparent. Instead of the nose going at a slant into the forehead, there is a distinct indentation at the break of the nose at the forehead. The woman on the far left of the painting looks like any young damsel today, very feminine. The young man with the bowl at his mouth also looks like a woman—again non-Maya features. All of the figures on page 107 look like women although they are supposed to be portraying men. The figure on the right with the spear cutting in front of his face sports a hair style that would never have been worn by a Maya man. Other than these non-Maya characteristics, the paintings are very good, as is the whole article. My good friend Ken Garrett has done some spectacular photographs for this same article. I remember his bearing down on me with all of his lights at the site museum in Palenque while I was doing a rubbing of the Temple XIX platform. I've been a subscriber to the NGS for 30 years, and I think I will keep on. I just renewed my subscription today. _ . _ For all of you brilliant young archaeologists and serious Mesoamericanists in general who manage to get into all of the sites, especially new ones, here is some advice: Keep a journal! But there is more to keeping a journal than just jotting down where you have been and what you saw (and learned) or questioned. It boils down to, will it be of use to you or others forty years from now? Now here is the important part: Put the date on every day's entry, not just "May 15," but "May 15, 2007." The year is the important part. And the second is question is, can you read it, or can anyone else without taking a course in medical penmanship like you get for the pharmacy? Now, how did I happen to come up with stupid advice like this? Well. I just came from Tulane University where my Archives are being kept, and they want dates of every place I have been to. Easy? That's what I'm slaving away at now, going through every journal I or my husband Bob wrote during my days working in the jungles of Guatemala, Belize, and Mexico. Do they all have dates? NO. I then have to cross reference everything else to come up with the correct date. That's all? No! Why couldn't I have written so anybody could read my writing? Yes, it is pretty bad, but by working hard I am more or less getting it translated. Now take Ed Shook... Yes, I know you young guys didn't know him, but at age twenty-one his field notes were works of perfection, penmanship perfect, neatness perfect, consistency perfect. And then there was Sylvanus Morley. I have see his handwritten text for "The Inscriptions of Copan," a stack of letter-size pages five inches deep, every line, every word beautifully written. I don't know how he did it. It resides in the Morley Museum at the University of Santa Fe. How much easier it would have been for me if, like most of you fellows, I'd had a computer that I carted everywhere I went. Voila! Don't have to remember the date—it's on the computer. Wouldn't have to make legible writing—the computer takes care of that also. SO, I guess you don't need my advice after all! _ . _ One of our long-time members, and friend of so many of us, Dr. Khristaan Villela has been awarded the endowed chair, the Eugene V. Thaw Professorship of Art History at the College of Santa Fe. Professor Villela, who is the Director of the college's Art History Program, will be the first recipient of the professorship. Khristaan is a rising expert in the field of Mesoamerican Art. He is the author of many articles on Mexican and Mesoamerican Art including "Contemporary Mexican Architecture and Design," 2003, and is currently at work on a book about the Aztec Calendar Stone and one on how Pre-Columbian art was used for nationalistic ends in Mexico during the nineteenth century, as well as one on the History of Yucatan. Khristaan has worked with PARI on the Chichen Viejo Project in Yucatan and the Bacab Project with us during two seasons. On the lighter side, he and his wife are awaiting a litter of little chocolate lab puppies this week. _ . _ Mark Van Stone, another PARI member has now returned from his teaching season in Florence, Italy, and is again at his teaching job at Southwestern College. One of our members, Isabel Barbachano Gonzales, wants to go to Florence with Mark as her teacher. She couldn't find a better one. If any of you would be intrested in joining Mark and Izzy for a study time in Florence, please contact either Merle at pari-merle@mindspring.com or Mark Van Stone at akalmonab@earthlink.net. If a small group can be put together a rare opportunity is a possibility. _ . _ The sad and shocking news is that Kathryn Josserand passed away at Palenque on the evening of July 19, 2006, of what is reported to have been a massive brain hemorrhage while taking a shower before dinner. She was 64 years old, at the height of her illustrious career, way too young to have been taken away. As soon as the Mexican papers are finalized, Nick will take her to Gloucestor, Virginia, where she will be buried in the Hopkins family plot at Ware Episcopal Church. Kathryn and Nick had been in Mexico for a month taking three students around for orientation and writing up some of the Chol material with the long-time friend and co-worker Ausencio "Chencho" Cruz, who is also a friend of everyone who has ever been to a Palenque Mesa Redonda, and my constant assistant during all of my work at Palenque. Kathryn's part in the Mesas Redondas de Palenque was significant—from presenting papers, to the Spanish sessions given by Kathryn and Nick every afternoon in the town for the citizens of Palenque. How they loved this. It just shows one of the many ways that she gave of herself on her own time, just because she wanted to help others. Kathryn had a Fulbright Fellowship to do six months of research in Guatemala. She and Nick were to leave for Antigua at the beginning of January where they would have a large house to be be headquarters for this study. Kathryn will forever be remembered for her selfless giving of herself to others. The way she took over when I had two broken elbows and my husband Bob died at the same time, is friendship way beyond what could be expected of friendship. Nick told me that just a couple of weeks ago they went to Bob's grave in the Palenque cemetary to see if it was cared for. It was not, so they had more dirt filled in the plot, everything cleaned up and flowers planted. Just another example. Then just a week ago on the way home from Uxmal, they stopped to see Willie Folan in Campeche, where he was in the final throes of writing a paper for the ICA conference in Seville, Spain. Instead of proceeding directly home to Palenque as was the plan, Kathryn spent several hours making Folan's text intelligible to the ordinary human. I could go on and on about her "giving to others." The last time I saw Kathryn was at the Annual Texas meetings in Austin in March. My memories of her, however, will be of so many wonderful times we had together at Palenque, cooking Thanksgiving dinner for what must have been half of Palenque, getting together with Chencho putting Chol names on all of the trees and plants, and just sitting on the back patio of Na Chan-Bahlum with good friends having rum and coke and discussing everything about Palenque. _ . _ Have you read the seven-page article in the prestigious Archaeology Magazine (July/August 2006) by Semir Osmanagic? Well, if you haven't, you will be in for quite an awakening. It seems as though there is this mountain (ancient pyramid he claims) that he proposes to excavate in the small Bosnian town of Visoko. He says he has spent fifteen years of "independent research" that has resulted in publications like The World of the Maya which claims the Maya were descendants of aliens from the Pleiades by way of Atlantis. He ridicules standard archaeology as work of "Masonic cliques." Osmanagic comes from Houston where he is a metalwork contractor. _ . _ Also, did you know that the Masonic Order originated in Palenque? That is what one of the guides tells us, indicating that the proof is carved in the base of a House D pier with the repeated upside down V's. He carries a Masonic book along to show to people. _ . _ Now this is true! I have seen all the pictures of the earliest eastbound Manila gallleon shipwreck lost in 1576 along the desert shore of Baja, California. The Manila galleon "San Felipe" was discovered by Edward Von der Porten, a naval historian, nautical archaeologist, and museum director, and Sheldon Breiner, who is a preeminent geophysicist who has devoted decades to locating hidden arhaeological sites. Both are members of The Explorers Club where I listened to Von der Porten explain how the waters of Baja have receded since 1576 and how the artifacts and remains of the galleon are now strewn along the barren beach that looks all alike for mile upon mile upon mile. Work is being done with a crew from Mexcio and the US, but just where has been kept a secret for fear looters will be right there with bulldozers. _ . _
Karl Herbert Mayer has written an article in Mexicon (Vol. 24, No. 3, Oct. 2005) about a new Museo Regional del Sureste de Peten Dolores, Guatemala, that includes a picture of the new Museo. This is amazing. In 1970 when I started working at Ixtutz with my students from RLS (Robert Louis Stevenson School), Dolores, then a one street village, was where all of my workers came from. One of my chief workmen was Mirando Huil Obando, who I had known from Tikal, and it was at his house in Dolores where I stayed the first night. His little six-year-old daughter took me by the hand to go to the end of the village to meet her grandparents. Every house we passed meant more children hanging on to this blonde aunt of Ofelia's, until by the time we reached the end of the street I must have had fifteen little kids following this "pied piper." On our second season at Ixtutz every male in Dolores wanted to work with us. When we uncovered the unusual but well preserved glyph blocks of Temple II, a government helicopter was supposed to come and get them to take them to Dolores for safekeeping before they were stolen. It did not come, so we covered them well with trees and left one of our trusted workmen with them until we could get them to Dolores. We then left money for food to be taken in to our guardian, and for transporting the blocks to Dolores. About this time Ian Graham, who I had told about Ixtutz came in and turned over Stela 4 dicovering the beautiful carved double column of glyphs. We had dug all around it, and as nothing was within a foot of the under edge, we incorrectly assumed it was blank. Ian had the blocks taken to Dolores, but the citizens of Dolores would not release them to go any place else. When I talked to Karl the other day, he answered my question about the location of the Ixtutz glyph blocks, he told me that yes, the blocks were in the new Regional Museum along with other artifacts from Ixtuta, Machaquila, and other nearby sites. How wonderful it is to see the natives themselves proud of their heritage and willing to go all-out to preserve it. _ . _ Did you know that there is still not only smuggling of illegal Maya artifacts into this country, but animals as well from Mesoamerica, Central and South America, Australia and Africa? Banded parrots (conurus), as well as new-born babies, offspring of the wild conurus have been showing up here in San Francisco by the hundreds. Right across the street from me, in Huntington Park, they can be seen every day devouring the bits of food tossed to them by little children. Some are red or cherry-headed and others have bluish-green feathers. These wild parrots have been properly recorded in a beautiful way by Mark Bittner. _ . _ Don't forget that when you buy books from Amazon via links from Merle's Corner, a percentage of the sale goes to our archaeological project in Palenque. Some new books that you definitely don't want to miss are:
The Madrid Codex
The Olmecs
Ancient Mexico and Central America
The New Catalog of Maya Hieroglyphs: Vol. 1
Courtly Art of the Ancient Maya _ . _ The governments of Cambodia and the United States have stepped up efforts to protect Cambodia's ancient Khmer sites — Angkor in particular — from rampant pillage, which has increased dramatically over the past several years. Just three years ago when Claudine Marken and I were there, this had not started. Everything was as it had been in ancient times, although by then overgrown by tropical jungle. It was wonderful, an artist's paradise. _ . _
A lot of you have been asking, "Why is the Temple of Inscriptions off limits now?" Well, in Palenque last year I met with former site director Juan Antonio Ferrer Aguilar, and he told me the reason for the closing of the Temple of Inscriptions. The water seepage into the temple has long been a major concern, and it has been getting worse. A chemical company that deals with cements and its properties was hired to access the problem of water seepage into the temple It was determined that the plaster (he referred to it as cement) used by the ancient Maya is now as hard as cement and allows no water to escape through it. Consequently, all of the water trapped in the structure stays there and accumulates more and more. This company's solution was to remove the cement in the structure and replace it with stucco, which allows water to escape. So this is what is going on now — the long process of removing the cement. This is why, when you are at Palenque and looking at the Temple of the Inscriptions, you see white covering all of the piers and the top of the temple roof and roofcomb. _ . _
The Great Maya Droughts |
MERLE'S CARTOONS
