Emilie Carreón
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UNHAFTING A PROPOSAL
STUCK BETWEEN A CHEN MUL MODELED CENSER AND AN EFFIGY IDOL Emilie Carreón
This research focuses on an object today kept at Harvard University´s Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology under catalogue number C4780 that was dredged from the Chichen Itza Cenote of Sacrifice in the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico by Edward Herbert Thompson between 1904 and 1907. Its aim is to underline the value of archaeometry, the methodologies and laboratory techniques indispensable to technological and provenance research of ancient objects, providing archaeology with auxiliary research strategies that can make full proof identifications of archaeological materials, and to show beyond doubt that object number C4780 is in fact made up of the parts of two different objects: a ceramic censer and a wood sculpture. It is the outcome of an offering ritual in which a fragment from the headdress of a Chen Mul modeled effigy ceramic censer became attached to the stick arm of a wood sculpture of a human figure ornamented with copal, rubber and maya blue.
ANTECEDENTS
Object catalogue number C4780 measuring length 8.8 cm; width 1.5 cm and thickness 0.7 cm with an attachment measuring 4 cm in length by 1.4 cm in width was identified as a hafted axe “herramienta de piedra amarrada a un mango de madera con gruesas bandas de hule” by M. Tarkanian and D. Hosler in “La elaboración de hule en Mesoamérica”, 2000, 8(44): 54-57, in earlier Hosler et al “Prehistoric Polymers: Rubber Processing in Ancient Mesoamerica 1999p.1988, n.9 and repeatedly by Tarkinian in his un published MA thesis Prehistoric Polymer Engineering: A Study of Rubber Technology in the Americas 2003, p.59-60. In the context of research carried out at MIT that “examines the history of rubber technology in Mesoamerica and the South American continent. through an examination of ethnohistoric documents, ethnographic research, botanical evidence, and archaeological data pertaining to rubber use and processing in the Americas”, the survey of artifacts found in the Peabody Museum (p.49), identified object catalogue number C4780 as a “tool”, described as a “… a stone blade [that]was attached to a wooden handle by wrapping a rubber band around the two components.” Finding, “The tool also has a layer of rubber between the blade and the handle, possible to act as a shock absorber.”
Tarkanian identifies object catalogue number C4780 as a tool, an axe, to provide backing to his discovery of apreviously archaeologically – unknown utilitarian application for rubber, and while this presentation does not deny latex rubber was used to join different materials and to fabricate the handle of a weapon or tool such as a knife or axe; moreover, it points out the inaccuracy of his identification of the materials that compose the object to encourage scholarship from disciplines working in the field of Americanist studies, to engage in multi-layered examinations. In this case to go beyond visual examination and consider the objects´ materiality through the unbiased results of non-destructive analytical techniques, in this case the results of archaeological ceramic studies to obtain precise information on the composition of an object before reaching conclusions.
OBJECT OF STUDY
A CHEN MUL EFFIGY CENSER
The Chen Mul modeled type, belongs to the Unslipped Panaba Group of Mayapán Unslipped Ware of the Tases ceramic complex AD 1250/1300–1450 (Smith 1971; Milbrath 2007; Milbrath et al 2008, 2013). They are effigy censers. The modeled anthropomorphic figure, attached to a cylindrical vase, with a mold made face, stands with bent elbows and outstretched hands, fingers and fingernails, holding offerings. The paste color varies from gray to cinnamon and is described as having a limestone temper. It is registered that several censers have a calcareous coat, thought to be the base coat for the colors black, white, red, orange, yellow, blue, green, and turquoise. Pérez et al (2023) carried out a material study of the pigments and the ceramic paste of a sample made up from 72 archaeological sherds, using a combination of spectroscopic and imaging techniques, hyperspectral imaging (HSI) analysis and other spectroscopic techniques, X-ray fluorescence (XRF) spectroscopy and fiber optic reflectance spectroscopy (FORS) and provide and important control group information for comparison.
A WOOD FIGURE IDOL
The carved wood statue had stick limbs. The wood body, made of pine wood has notches that are angled toward the center, or “waist,” of the figure, and it is most likely that the limbs were “jointed,” or made up of two pieces of wood, stuck to the block of wood with copal and that the figure sat with knees up and arms bent. The wood body was covered with resinous copal and a dark rubber covering and a top coating of Maya blue color. The Peabody collection holds 16 wood figure bodies, and 27 limbs. Two sculptures still had their limbs attached when they were dredged from the cenote and this collection yields relevant data as to the sculptures´ configuration.
HYPOTHESIS
During the offering ritual that took place at the Cenote of Sacrifice in the Late Postclassic period, sometime between AC 1200 and AC 1500, while the ancient Maya burned copal in the ceramic censer to offer incense smoke to their deities, the wood figure was burned, causing the copal and black rubber covering to softly melt, making possible the joining of fragments of the ceramic censer and pieces of the wood sculpture. Like other artifacts made of gold, jade and copper as well as human beings and animals, which were sacrificed and offered, the ceramic censer and the wood figure, stuck together by the sticky substance, were cast into the Cenote, where once they hit the water surface, they were destroyed. The ceramic censer and the wood effigy broke in parts, the wood arm and the ceramic headdress bonded together, sinking and settling in the blue sludge.
This is the manner how the fragment of a Chen Mul modeled effigy censer, characteristic to the Maya late Postclassic period for burning incense in a variety of different ceremonies got stuck to a piece of a human figure carved in wood. In other words, Peabody Museum of Harvard University object catalogue number C4780 is not a composite object, -two objects combined or joined together to create a new, a distinct entity- and is not a rubber hafted stone axe.
METHODOLOGY
To show how the joining of a fragment of a Chen Mul modeled effigy censer and a part of a wood statue took place and to better apprehend how a ritual operation took place the production of models, 3D scanning, modeling, design and simulation was carried out. A replica of a Chen Mul censer was modeled in clay and a replica of the sitting human figure carved in wood, with stick arms and legs and covered with copal, rubber and blue, was fabricated. Both objects were then scanned and printed 3 D to following conceive a virtual reality simulation of the ritual operation where they were destroyed by fire, cast into the Cenote waters and joined.
The experimental approach, to replicate shapes and forms, coats and strata, textures and colors in an effort to understand symbolization processes to perceive them by the making of models, abiding the fact that for the ancient Maya the choice of materials was not made at random and different materials together constitute meaning, is grounded on theoretical research focused on the way images produce, create and build meaning (Boehm 2016; Hinterwaldner 2017), taking into account the intrinsic characteristics of the image that provide the observer with knowledge.
CONCLUSION
Peabody Museum object catalogue number C4780 is not an axe: a wood “handle [hafted to a] right angle-shaped blade” made of stone. To prove that it is not a composite object, and that the so-called blade is not made of stone but is a ceramic potsherd, it should be subjected to tests; a full proof approach to follow and we rest attendant to the opportunity to do so. While there is certainty to the fact and the report by Ball and Ladd on “Ceramics” published in the book edited by Coggins studying the Artefacts from the Cenote of Sacrifice Chichen Itza, Yucatan, 1992, p. 230, fig 7.47; p.298, fig. 8.68 and pp.300-302 states the fact, the results of non-destructive analytical techniques of archaeometry will corroborate their findings.
Pursuant its purpose, this research shows that object number C4780 is in fact made up of the parts of two different objects: a ceramic censer and a wood sculpture, the outcome of a burning ritual offering that was cast into the waters of the Cenote of Sacrifice and the result of the fortuitous joining of a Chen Mul modeled effigy censer and a carved anthropomorphic wood sculpture covered with copal, rubber and maya blue. To un haft a proposal, it provides an explanation of how a fragment of the headdress of an effigy ceramic censer came to be stuck to the melted rubber that coated the wood arm of a statue.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The research behind this paper received funding from a PASPA, DGAPA, UNAM, 2025 sabbatical leave scholarship and was carried out at the Institut für Kunstgeschichte, KIT, Karlsruhe hosted by Prof. Dr. Inge Hinterwaldner. Additional support was granted by Prof. Dr. Javier Iñañez & Dr. Saúl Guerrero Rivero from the Built Heritage Research Group (GPAC), Department of Geography, Prehistory and Archaeology, University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), Spain. 3D scanning, modeling and design by Dr. René G. Cepeda.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Boehm, G. (2016) ¿Cómo generan sentido las imágenes?, UNAM, IIE, Mexico. Carreón E. (2014) “Un giro alrededor del ixiptla”, Los estatutos de la imagen, creación-manifestación-percepción, pp. 247-273, UNAM, IIE, Mexico. Coggins C., ed. (1992) Artefacts from the Cenote of Sacrifice Chichen Itza, Yucatan, Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University.Hinterwaldner I. (2017) The Systemic Image: A New Theory of Interactive Real-Time Simulations, MIT Press: Cambridge MA/London. Hinterwaldner I. (2021) “Artefactos irritantes. Cómo se manifiesta la virtualidad relacionada con la acción en los modelos”, Mundos de vida virtuales, pp. 181-206, Gruyter: Berlín. Hosler D., S.L. Burkett & M.J. Tarkanian (1999) “Prehistoric Polymers: Rubber Processing in Ancient Mesoamerica”. Science 284: 1988-1991. Milbrath, S., J. Aimers, C., Peraza Lope & L. Florey-Folan (2008) “Effigy Censers of the Chen Mul Modeled Ceramic System and Their Implications for Late Postclassic Maya Interregional Interaction”, Mexicon (30) 104–112; Milbrath, S. & C. Peraza Lope (2013) Mayapán’s Chen Mul Modeled Effigy Censers. Ancient Maya Pottery, pp. 203–225. University Press of Florida, Gainesville. Pérez, M., O. G. de Lucio, A. Mitrani, C. Peraza Lope, W. Cruz Alvarado & S. Ortiz Ruiz. (2023) “Material Characterization of Mayapán’s Effigy Censers’ Sherds”, Minerals 13 (7) 974, p.1-17. Smith, R.E. (1971) The Pottery of Mayapan Including Studies of Ceramic Material from Uxmal, Kabah, and Chichen Itza, Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University: Cambridge, MA. Tarkanian M.J. (2003) Prehistoric Polymer Engineering: A Study of Rubber Technology in the Americas, MA thesis, Massachussetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge; Tarkanian M.J. & D. Hosler (2000) “La elaboración de hule en Mesoamérica”. Arqueología Mexicana 8(44): 54-57; Tarkanian M.J. & D. Hosler (2011) “America’s First Polymer Scientists: Rubber Processing, Use and Transport in Mesoamerica”, Latin American Antiquity 22(4):469-486.
Measurements L. wood 8.8 cm; W. 1.5 cm; Th. 0.7 cm
Rene G. Cepeda 