Mayan Royals, or ahaws, spent many years planning and preparing their own extravagant burials. A temple worshipping the deceased Royal was traditionally constructed directly atop the burial chamber. Submerged into the earth, burial chambers housed artifacts including ceramic pottery and ceremonial instruments. Perhaps the most carefully crafted of these artifacts is the jade mask adorning and overlaying the Royal face.
Intricate details on Mayan jade burial masks were created over hundreds of laborious hours. A talented craftsman carefully constructed this artificial skin imported from Mayan lowlands. Oftentimes, Mayan highlanders negotiated trades using jaguar pelts, tropical bird feathers, oils, drugs, spices, and cacao.
Thus, the client is conceivably the most crucial participant of this process: the craftsman. Across vast spatial expanses and through careful negotiation, the craftsman obtains jade. This jade is brought into a moderately-sized workspace; secluded, the individual craftsman constructs the mask. Following a Royal's death, the craftsman sees his creation to it's final destination: the claustrophobic burial chamber space.
Initially, the craftsman must interact with innumerous other Mexican inhabitants--travelers, neighboring villagers and merchants. He travels, talks, interacts, barters, travels... He returns to solitude, creating. Eventually his talent so highly valued by the ordinary Mayan manifests itself fully in a creation: the mask. He joins priests and Royal family members in a cramped space plunged into the earth. All are beholding objects of their affection for the last time before the space is sealed: the king and the mask.
Great narrative. Great incorporation of trade. What is the public space component (mass of people)? Is there a presentation of the mask?
ReplyDelete"Solidarity" does not mean to be alone, it means something more like "group support". Maybe you mean "solitary".