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Late Classic Architectural Sculpture Themes in Copan

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 October 2010

Barbara W. Fash
Barbara W. Fash
Affiliation:
Instituto Hondureño de Antropologia e Historia, Tegucigalpa, Honduras, and Department of Anthropology, Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, IL 60115, USA
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Abstract

The architectural sculpture legacy of Late Classic Copan provides a source for understanding the sociopolitical and ideological adaptations of the rulers of this ancient city. Fieldwork conducted since 1985 has been directed toward documentation and conservation of the tens of thousands of mosaic sculpture facade pieces covered for centuries by collapsed debris or lichens. Hypothetical reconstructions of motif configurations and their rearticulation within building facades compose larger iconographic themes. The iconological study of these compositions opens a window for analyzing the nature of the religious and political symbolism produced by the last four rulers of Copan. Using these data, a shift from the cosmological and fertility themes employed by the thirteenth and fourteenth rulers to the emphasis on warfare by the fifteenth and sixteenth rulers can be documented.

Resumen

El legado de la escultura arquitectónica del antiguo Copan proporciona una fuente para el entendimiento de las adaptaciones sociopolítícas e ideológicas de los gobernantes de esa ciudad. Trabajos de campo efectuados desde 1985 han sido enfocados en la investigatión y conservatión de los decenios de miles de fragmentos de esculturas mosaïcas de fachada encubiertos por escombros y liquenes por siglos. Reconstructciones hipotéticas de los complejos de diseños individuales y su unión en las fachadas de los edificios nos proveen temas iconográficas mas amplias. El estudio iconológico de estas composiciones nos permite analizar el simbolismo religioso y político utilizado por los últimos cuatro gobernantes de Copan. Estos datos eos permiten docementar un cambio de temas iconográficos cosmológicos y de fertilidad en los reinos de los décimotercer y décimocuarto gobernantes, a un énfasis en la guerra durante los mandatos de los décimoquinto y décimosexto reyes.

Type
Special Section: The Archaeology of Ancient Copan
Information
Ancient Mesoamerica , Volume 3 , Issue 1 , Spring 1992 , pp. 89 - 104
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1992

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