It is an important discovery that took place at the site of Palenque, a famous Mayan city in the Mexican state of Chiapas. For the first time, a nose ornament made of human bone was found at this site in a Late Classic period (600–850 AD) ritual deposit area. This type of body jewelry was intended for ruling people, but also for people who occupied an important religious place in society, such as priests.
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For the first time, a Mayan nose ornament made from human bone was discovered at the archaeological site of Palenque, where excavations are still ongoing today. Announced by the Mexican government through Inah, Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, this extraordinary small sculptural object was found in a ritual dump corresponding to the end of the construction of a building at the end of the classical era.
An item 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 in this deposit of very dark earth. Large quantities of charcoal and obsidian blades were found. This glassy and black volcanic rock is regularly used in Meoamerican culture for both weapons and the manufacture of luxury items. Seeds or fish bones, turtle remains and finally the small nose ornament, about 6 centimeters long, were found at the bottom of this deposit.
A high quality ornament
This type of ornament was not part of Mayan daily life before the arrival of the colonists, but was reserved for people of high rank or those with strong ritual practice in the respective culture. The object of great delicacy was taken and molded from a human shinbone, particularly the lower part of the shinbone, so that the shape could be adapted to the bridge of its owner’s nose. On the left side of the piece is a man with a bird headdress and jewelry.
The figure carries with him a burial bundle characterized by the presence of a skull and tissue at the level of his feet. These elements lead archaeologists to believe that the connection to the funerary world was important to the wearer of this jewel. The Mayans demonstrated on numerous occasions their great qualities in the work of monumental sculptures. Here they show their know-how about fragile and complex materials with which they can work.
The nose, an important part of the body
The nose, called Yacatl, represents a highly symbolic body part for the Mayan elites and religious people. Its adornment could take the form of a jewel placed at the level of the pierced septum, especially during a royal enthronement in which the nose of the future ruler was pierced in the middle with a bird’s claw or a jaguar bone. It is not impossible that the nose is compared to the ranks of those who are leaders in both war and worship, since the Náhualt vocabulary allows these few connections to be made.
However, the nose decoration can also be related to the desire to personify a god in a ritual context. In fact, Inah addresses this question by evoking the idea that such an object could be used to represent a deity associated with corn, a food of great importance to this region of the world. This idea would be associated with a physical resemblance to the deity, characterized by a very elongated skull and a long nose. If it is possible to artificially change the shape of skulls from birth, as pre-Columbian archeology shows, in certain countries the nose may have been marked by the ornament in question. In addition, the Mayans paid great attention to the decoration of the body from the head to the feet, including the teeth.
But that remains a hypothesis, and this extraordinary object proves once again the high quality of the work of the Mayans and their rich range of motifs on small objects dedicated to the care of the body, perhaps from an aesthetic point of view, but above all from a functional point of view Framework of a society with clearly defined roles for each individual according to their social rank. At the moment no one knows who this ornament belongs to and why it was kept in this depot.
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