Maya, Aztec monument casts get the shake-out, dust-off

Submitted by coldrum on Monday, 08 October 2007 Page Views: 957

Plaster reproductions of Maya and Aztec carvings, which preserve precious details now lost on the originals, are leaving dusty, haphazard storage for cleaning, cataloging, and crating that will prepare them for a new era of usefulness and relevance.

Made more than a century ago, the plaster casts, housed at the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, re-create the elaborate stone carvings that adorned Maya and Aztec cities that once buzzed with life across Central America.
The original carvings held images of rulers and rituals as well as examples of script that have proven key to deciphering the Maya’s written language, a process ongoing today.
Over the years, some museum staff considered the casts a poor second to the original monuments, and they were nearly forgotten. Their odd sizes made them difficult to store, and the casts lay stacked along walls and corridors in the Peabody Museum’s annex.
But time has taken its toll on the originals left in the field. Driving rain and searing tropical heat have eroded the monuments, vandals have broken pieces off, and thieves have carted some away entirely.
The casts provide scholars an invaluable resource, preserving monuments that are gone and tiny details lost on those that remain. Those details can influence a glyph’s meaning, making the plaster casts an invaluable resource for scholars seeking to understand the written ancient Mayan language and what it tells us about their history and culture.
The five-month project marks the first time in 30 years the plaster cast collection has been tended to in a systematic way. Museum curators, students, and others working on the project have until Feb. 28 to remove all 700 casts from storage, clean them off, and assess their condition. They’ll also be prepared for 18 months’ temporary storage, after which they’ll be moved into a new, renovated home in the former High Energy Physics Laboratory.
Senior Collections Manager David Schafer and Head Conservator T. Rose Holdcraft said the project involves an unusual level of collaboration and coordination for the Peabody’s staff. The Peabody holds 1.2 million artifacts, so the 700 casts make up just a small part of the collection. They present an unusual challenge, however, because most of the Peabody’s artifacts are small, while many of the casts are quite large, requiring more than one person to move them.
“It’s been on our conservation priority list for many years,” Holdcraft said.
The project entails more than just cleaning and physical conservation of the collection. By its completion, the casts will begin a new era of usefulness.
As the casts are brought out of storage, Barbara Fash, director of the Corpus of Maya Hieroglyphic Inscriptions Program, is examining each one, updating its catalog information, and, for the many that are in several pieces, putting them back together. The catalog will be updated with scholarly data as well as practical information, such as how much each one weighs and how many people it will take to move it.
For more, see http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2007/10.04/19-castwork.html

Note: Old plaster casts cataloged and available for study as original stonework is damaged, looted, or inaccessible.

Contributor Bio for coldrum: Based in Milkyway, contributing since 2002. Favourite site: Avebury.

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