Ellen Bell , "Building a Dynasty: A Look at Early Classic Kingship at Copán, Honduras"
The Classic Maya center of Copán, Honduras,
has long fascinated visitors with its picturesque setting, extensive architectural
remains, and strikingly sculpted free-standing monuments and building facades.
More interesting than these, however, are the stories of the people, places,
and events that created and shaped them. A unique program of tunneling
excavations within the core of the Acropolis has made it possible to corroborate
elements of the dynastic founding accounts with contemporaneous inscriptions
and to locate the buildings and plazas that might have served as its setting.
The excavations have also revealed two richly furnished tombs which may
contain the remains of the dynastic founder and his wife. In this talk,
she examined this extensive funerary complex to see how it was used by
the founder, his wife, and his successors to establish, legitimate, and
maintain political power within the polity.
Ms. Bell reviewed the history of the kingship at Copan and provided
a glimpse of some of the latest results from the University of Pennsylvania's
on-going research project. We learned that the remains thought to
be those of dynastic progenitor Yax Kuk Mo belong to a person who may have
come from the Maya Lowlands, not Copan (and, to the surprise of some, NOT
Teotihuacan). She examined the extensive funerary complex to see
how it was used by the founder, his wife, and his successors.
Ms Bell showed slides of many artifacts, and related that neutron activation
analysis has shown them to come from all over the Maya world:
Highland Mexico, the Peten, even western Honduras.
Biography:
Ellen Bell, a graduate student in Anthropology at
the University of Pennsylvania, is currently conducting dissertation research
at the Classic Period Maya center of Copán, Honduras, as part of
the Early Copán Acropolis Program, directed by Dr. Robert J. Sharer
of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.
Her research focuses on the form, function, and meaning of ritual deposits
and the objects they contain and includes the excavation and analysis of
the contents of two royal tombs buried deep within the Acropolis. The 2000
field season marks Ellen's 10th year of work in Honduras, which began while
she was an undergraduate at Kenyon College. It is also her final season
of dissertation research.