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Nicholas M. Hellmuth had beginner's luck to discover one of the most richly stocked royal burials of the entire ancient Maya realm. He accomplished this while still a student at Harvard, while working on the University of Pennsylvania archaeological project at Tikal, Guatemala. It is rare that an archaeologist has an opportunity to find the burial chamber of one of the great kings of an ancient civilization. Dr. Hellmuth has been invited to give this slide lecture more than 380 times around the world, in German, Spanish, and English, in museums throughout Canada, North America, and Central America, at the universities of Europe and most recently in Tokyo, Japan. Now this fascinating day-by-day archaeological adventure is available for your hometown. The front cover of Robert Sharer's revision of Sylvanus Morley's textbook "The Ancient Maya" features a treasure from this tomb; the December 1975 issue of National Geographic has pictured the same jade mosaic masterpiece. Yet seldom do people have an opportunity to see inside such a burial or to ask questions of the actual archaeologist who was in charge of the team and who personally excavated the entire grave lot. This slide show is available in English, German, or Spanish. Complete photographic exhibits are also available.
These remarkable slides bring the treasures of the Tomb of the Jade Jaguar to your auditorium in full color (the actual artifacts are still safely in Guatemala, many in the National Museum, other items in the site museum at Tikal). The tomb contained painted wooden bowls, a lidded wooden box of hematite paint, a baroque pearl necklace, two stingray spine bloodletting perforators, an "alabaster" bowl, a wooden vase sheathed in jade mosaic, a complete "diviner's kit" of shaman's utensils, plus at least two complete feline hides--sections of this leather were still stiff.
It took a month to excavate a tunnel deep into the pyramid. During this time Hellmuth took slides day by day as his team dug deep within the pyramid. Then ten days were taken to analyze how best to tackle recording the overfilled tomb chamber and its royal mortuary offerings. Every inch was photographed.
This and other lectures by Professor Hellmuth are available in English, German, or Spanish, anywhere in the world, any time of the year.Dr. Hellmuth can also present "Living Room Lectures," which are private slide shows in your home, at your business, or in your club, just for you, your family, and your personal guests. Often the lecturer stays two or three days to lecture at all the pertinent locations (the more lectures per-city, the less the cost per slide show--with over 40,000 slides to chose from, this speaker has enough different lecture topics). Other topics available include "Olmec Art & Archaeology," "Pre-Columbian Jade," "What were the Causes for the Collapse of Classic Maya Civilization," as well as Maya sports (see separate abstract). Professor Hellmuth can give a completely different and dynamic subject for each of these presentations. This ceramic vase probably held cacao drinkPhoto exhibits on Mayan archaeology are also available, as well as travel programs to the Maya ruins. For more information on Maya ceramics (funerary vases such as this) go to any FLAAR web site and look for the site index; in the site index look under "Maya ceramic art" or "Maya vase rollouts."
updated March 3, 1999; links added July 26, 1999; more links added May 6, 2000 |
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Ceramic vase discovered by Nicholas Hellmuth, Burial 196.Who warranted such a treasure? Epigraphers propose this was the tomb of Ruler B, son of Ruler A. Hieroglyphs on a vase in Burial 196 included the title of Batab and the Sky Family royal name of this Tikal dynasty.