2023-09-30 13:22:20
It is an important discovery which took place on the site of Palenque, a famous Mayan city in the Mexican state of Chiapas. For the first time, a human bone nasal ornament has been found at the site in a ritual deposit area dating to the Late Classic period (AD 600-850). This type of body ornament was intended for ruling people, but also for those who had a major religious place in society, such as priests.
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For the first time, a Mayan nasal ornament made of human bone was discovered at the archaeological site of Palenque where excavations are still taking place today. This exceptional small sculpted object announced by the Mexican government via l’Inah, National Institute of Anthropology and History, was found in a ritual deposit corresponding to the end of the construction of a building at the end of the classical era.
An object found in a deposit
The object was found in a hole 26 centimeters in diameter and 30 centimeters deep. It was necessary to sift the various elements found inside this deposit made up of very dark earth. Large quantities of charcoal were found as well as obsidian blades. This glassy and black volcanic rock is regularly found in Meoamerican culture both for weaponry and for the creation of luxury objects. Still at the bottom of this deposit were found seeds or fish bones, turtle remains and finally the small nasal ornament approximately 6 centimeters long.
A high quality ornament
This type of ornament was not part of the daily life of Mayan individuals before the arrival of the colonists, it was reserved for people of high rank or with a marked ritual practice in the culture in question. The object, of great finesse, was taken and sculpted from a human tibia, and more particularly the lower part of the tibia, so that the shape might fit the bridge of its owner’s nose. On the left part of the jewel is a sculpted man with a bird’s head headdress as well as jewelry.
The character carries with him a funerary bundle designated by the presence of a skull and tissue at the level of his feet, elements which make archaeologists think that the link with the funerary world was important for the wearer of this jewel. The Mayans showed on numerous occasions their great qualities in the work of monumental sculpture. Here, they show their know-how on fragile and complex materials to work with.
The nose, an important part of the body
Called yacatlthe nose represents a highly symbolic part of the body for Mayan elites and religious. Its ornament might take the form of a jewel placed at the level of the pierced septum, in particular during a royal enthronement where the nose of the future ruler was pierced in its center with a bird’s claw or a jaguar bone. It is not excluded that the nose is compared to the ranks of those who lead both in war and in worship since the Náhualt vocabulary allows these few connections to be made.
However, the nasal ornament can also be related to the desire to personify a god in a ritual context. Indeed, Inah addresses this question by evoking the idea that such an object might be used to represent a divinity linked to corn, a food of great importance for this region of the world. This idea would be associated with physically resembling the deity characterized by a very elongated skull and a long nose. If it is possible from birth to artificially modify the shape of skulls as can be seen in pre-Columbian archaeology, in certain countries, the nose might have been characterized by the ornament in question. In addition, the Mayans were very focused on adorning the body from the head, to the feet, including the teeth.
But this remains a hypothesis, and this exceptional object once once more proves the high quality work of the Mayans and their rich palette of motifs on small objects dedicated to the care of the body both from an aesthetic point of view perhaps, but above all functional within the framework of a society with well-defined roles for each individual according to their social rank. At the moment, no one knows who owns this ornament and why it was placed in this repository.
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