A Corpus of Cotzumalhuapa-Style Sculpture, Guatemala
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Research Year:  1997
Culture:  Maya
Chronology:  Late Classic
Location:  Highlands Guatemala
Site:  Cotzumalhuapa

Table of Contents

Introduction
Inventory of Sculptures
Advances in Photographic Recording
Advances in Drawing
Documentation of Newly-Discovered Sculptures
Plans for Publication
List of Drawings
Sources Cited
Annex: Checklist of Cotzumalhuapa-Style Sculptures
Table  1.   Bilbao
Table  2.   El Castillo
able  3.   El Baúl
Table  4.   Other Nuclear Zone Locations
Table  5.   Other Sites
Table  6.   Sculptures of Unknown Provenance

Introduction

Cotzumalhuapa-style sculptures from the Pacific coast and central highlands of Guatemala conform one of the most distinctive corpuses of ancient Mesoamerican art. It is also one of the least studied, although it has been known to scholars since the nineteenth century. Both the art style and the archaeological sites where it originated have received only sporadic attention, and their published record remains poor. Archaeological reports derived from research conducted by J. Eric S. Thompson (1948) and Lee A. Parsons (1967; 1969) are the major sources on Cotzumalhuapa art, adding substantially to earlier works by Habel (1878), Bastian (1881), Eisen (1888), Vreeland and Bransford (1885), E. Seler (1892) and C. Seler (1900). More recent publications by Greene et al. (1972) and Hatch (1989) also include photographs and rubbings of selected pieces. Yet, most sculptures are published in very small formats, often photographed at oblique angles, and very few have been drawn in detail.

This project aims to produce a comprehensive set of photographs and detailed drawings of Cotzumalhuapa sculpture that will provide students with a reliable source for iconographic and epigraphic analysis, together with basic documentation of archaeological contexts. It is part of a wider research program that includes archaeological research at Cotzumalhuapa as well as documentary research on early archaeological sources and Colonial-period documents related to the ancient societies of the area (Chinchilla, 1996a; 1996b; 1996c; 1997b; n.d.a; n.d.b; n.d.c).

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Submitted 05/01/1998 by: