Abstract
DR. A. V. KIDDEB, reporting on the work of the Division of Historical Research of the Carnegie Institution, Washington, D.C. (Year Book, Carnegie Institution of Washington, 1935), in Central America during the year 1935, records two additions to the already wide range of subjects embraced in the Institution's scheme of correlated research in the archaeology, ethnography, physical anthropology and human ecology of Yucatan and Honduras. The new activities are the Copan Project and the Maize Survey. The Copan Project is a joint undertaking with the Government of Honduras to conserve and make available for scientific study and lay observation outstanding examples of the architectural and sculptural art of the ancient Maya. Similar work has already been carried out by the Institution on the temples of Chichen Itza and the stelae of Quirigua. Copan is a centre in which are the finest products of the art of the Old Empire of the ancient Maya. It has the added interest that not only was it one of the first sites investigated by those pioneers of Central American archaeology, Stevens and Catherwood, in the earlier half of the nineteenth century, but it was also the site from which A. P. Maudslay obtained, at his own expense and with immense difficulty and labour, his famous collection of plaster casts of architectural and artistic detail, of which examples are now displayed in the British Museum, after many years of neglect. The operations of the Institution at Copan began in 1935 under Mr. Gustav Stromwik, and have already produced important chronological data relating to pottery found at the base of reconditioned stelae.
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Central American Studies: The Copan Project. Nature 138, 1089–1090 (1936). https://doi.org/10.1038/1381089d0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/1381089d0