In mid-August 2003, three mysterious boxes labeled "Trik" surfaced in
the
Tikal Archives. Simultaneously an archivist's dream and nightmare,
the
boxes held more than 2,700 images, as well as letters, documents, and
drawings belonging to Aubrey Trik. The story of how the boxes
arrived at
the Museum and who took the photos is still unfolding. The photographs
are
some of the most remarkably preserved color images of Penn's excavations
at
Tikal, for which Trik served as field director. The collection
also
includes stunning images of other Maya sites, Guatemala in the 1950s
and
60s, Mexico, Greece, Turkey, Pakistan, Iran, Iraq, China, and Hong
Kong.
(Trik got around.) Using images from this collection for the
first time,
Ms. Misdea discussed the Penn Tikal Project - through the eyes of Aubrey
and Helen Trik. She also covered the Triks' careers, the archival
challenges presented by the location of this material, an update on
the
Tikal Digital Access Project, and recent news from Tikal.
Sharon Aponte Misdea is a Research Associate in the American Section
of the
University of Pennsylvania Museum and Project Manager for the Tikal
Digital
Access Project, which will make the entire archives from the University
Museum's 15 years of historic research at Tikal, Guatemala, openly
available
on the web. She is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Anthropology
at
Penn and has been doing field research in Guatemala and Belize for
almost a
decade. Before that, she participated in field research in New
Jersey,
Wyoming, and South Dakota. Her current research examines how
social memory
and history are used to establish, maintain, and disrupt relationships
between epicentral Tikal and its minor urban centers. Her most
recent
fieldwork has been with the Proyecto Triangulo, under the direction
of Dr.
Vilma Fialko of the Guatemalan Instituto de Antropologia e Historia,
at
Uolantun, just 4 km to the southeast of downtown Tikal.