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Collecting in Corozal: Late Postclassic Maya Effigy Censers from Belize In Collectiong in Corazal: Late Postclassic Maya Effigy Censers from Belize in the Danish National Museum (1860-1865) JESPER NIELSEN 1 BENTE JUHL ANDERSEN 2 ABSTRACT sible identificar varios dioses, incluyendo dioses ma- yas como Chaak, K’awiil e Itzamnaaj, y dioses de Mé- Seventeen fragments of Late Postclassic effigy xico central como Xipe Totec y Quetzalcoatl. Desafor- censers from Belize have recently been rediscovered tunadamente, la falta de información contextual no at the National Museum of Copenhagen, Denmark. nos permite hacer ninguna conclusión al respecto de The censers was collected by Dr. Matthias Levy, con- la función ritual de los incensarios. Aun así, un exa- sul for Denmark, as early as the 1860’s. The majority men general de los incensarios antropomorfos de of censers are from Santa Rita Corozal and have clo- Santa Rita Corozal sugiere que esta ciudad fue centro se resemblances to the Postclassic censers of Maya- de un culto dedicado a Itzamnaaj, pudiendo quizás es- pán. It has been possible to identify a number of tablecerse un paralelo con el culto a Ix Chel —la diosa gods – Mayan as well as Mexican – including Chaak, maya de creación— en Cozumel, más norte en la cos- K’awiil, Itzamnaaj, Xipe Totec and Quetzalcoatl. Un- ta este de Yucatán. fortunately, the lack of contextual information does not allow us to draw any conclusions about the ritual Palabras clave: Periodo Posclásico Tardío, incensarios function of the censers. However, a general survey antropomorfos, Santa Rita Corozal, «Redes de Infor- of effigy censers from Santa Rita Corozal suggests mación», Itzamnaaj. that the site may have been home to a specialized cult to Itzamnaaj, perhaps constituting a parallel to the cult of the female creator deity Ix Chel at Cozu- INTRODUCTION mel further north on the Carribean coast of the Yu- catan peninsula. New excavations are not always necessary to re- trieve new information about archaeological sites. This Key words: Late Postclassic Maya, effigy censers, San- article is the result of the surprising find of 17 frag- ta Rita Corozal, «Information Network», Itzamnaaj. ments of Late Postclassic effigy censers and a single effigy vessel from northern Belize in the storing facili- ties of the National Museum in Brede, north of Co- RESUMEN penhagen, Denmark. Most of the censers are from Santa Rita Corozal, one of the main cities of the pe- En este artículo se examinan diecisiete fragmentos riod, while a few are from Indian Church (Lamanai). de incensarios antropomorfos del periodo Posclásico The censers stand out because they were collected Tardío procedentes Belice, que se encuentran actual- more than 30 years before Thomas Gann began his mente en el Museo Nacional de Dinamarca, Copenha- work at Santa Rita Corozal. In this article we give a gue. Los incensarios proceden de la colección de Matt- short introduction to the site and to the use of effigy hias Levy, que fue cónsul de Dinamarca en Belice, y censers in general, followed by an analysis of the re- fueron recogidos en fecha tan temprana como el año discovered censers. In spite of the limited size of the 1860. La mayoría de los incensarios son de Santa Rita collection several gods can be identified, including Corozal y tienen muchas semejanzas con los famo- Chaak, K’awiil, Itzamnaaj, Xipe Totec and Quetzalcoatl. sos incensarios posclásicos de Mayapán. Ha sido po- Most significantly the collection indicates that Itzam- 1 Department of American Indian Languages and Cultures, University of Copenhagen, Artillerivej 86, 2300 Kbh.S - DK 2 Holbæk Museum, Klosterstræde 18, 4300 Holbæk – DK. Mayab 17 (2004): pp. 84-98 JESPER NIELSEN Y BENTE JUHL ANDERSEN 85 naaj held special importance in Santa Rita Corozal and close to the ruins of Lamanai is evidence of similar testifies that Mexican gods like Xipe Totec were also attempts further south, and the fact that Levy’s collec- worshipped in this region in the Late Postclassic. To tion includes censer fragments from «Indian Church» begin with, however, we will try to unravel how the may also suggest that the sugar industry was of some censers made their way to the Danish National Mu- interest to Levy. seum. Clearly, Corozal was far from being a safe place, but Matthias Levy must have spent considerable time here, since the censer fragments now in the DR. MATTHIAS LEVY AND HIS «COLLECTION museum are all dated to the years between 1860 to OF AZTEC IDOLS» 1865. When Levy resigned in 1869 he sent the ef- figy censers, which he refers to as «my little collec- We know from the archives and protocols of the tion of Aztec idols», to the Ethnographic Collection of Danish National Museum that the effigy censers were the Danish National Museum. The Ethnographic Co- a gift from Dr. Matthias Levy, who served as a consul llection of this museum was unique to its time. It for Denmark and thus represented the Danish king in had its roots in private and royal collections that Belize (formerly British Honduras) during the early went back as far as the 17th century, and we know 1860’s. By the time Matthias Levy was appointed that from the 1830’s onwards the collection of ob- consul, he had already been in Belize for «a longer jects gradually became more systematized. People period of time» and was one of the partners in the with ties to the museum were working hard to im- trade and shipping company of A. and M. Levy 3. We prove the ethnographic section and sometimes as- do not know exactly what type of business the com- ked official representatives and merchants to collect pany was involved in, but logwood —especially ma- ethnographic objects from other parts of the world. hogany— was the main attraction of the region, and The impressive advance at the museum was un- the primary reason why the Englishmen settled there doubtedly due to the efforts of Christian Jürgensen in the first place. In the 1830’s and 1840’s there was a Thomsen, who was also the first to use the Three major rise in the European demand for mahogany Age System and divide his collections in objects be- which was used for building rail roads (Bollard 1977: longing to the Stone —Bronze— and Iron Ages res- 120), and it is tempting to suggest that Matthias Levy pectively. Another pioneer was C.C. Rafn, secretary somehow gained financially from the increased ex- of «Det Kongelige Nordiske Oldskriftselskab» (the port. Royal Nordic Society of Old Writings), who recruited In northern Belize, this was a time of unrest. The new members for the society and created contacts Caste War had been ravaging the bordering provinces throughout the world (Jensen 1992: 177-86). The Eth- of Mexico since 1848, causing a large number of refu- nographic Collection, including the American Cabi- gees and deserters to cross the Río Hondo. During net, was opened to the public in 1841 and is one of the year of 1857, more than 2.000 refugees arrived to the oldest in Europe, only outdone by the museums Corozal, a small ramshackle town at the time. The in- in Leiden from 1837 and in St. Petersburg from 1836 habitants of Belize tried to remain neutral in the con- (Jensen 1992: 194-95). flict, but were at the same time selling supplies to the It remains uncertain if the collection came in Matt- rebel Cruzo’ob Maya. Contraband trade between Beli- hias Levy’s possession on his own initiative. In that ze and Yucatan was an everyday occurrence, and se- case, he must have had an interest in the prehistory of veral incidents of fighting and warlike battles took pla- the region that was unusually strong for his time. ce along the Río Hondo and further south (Reed 1964: None of the preserved letters between Levy and the 114-119, 170-173). Agriculture played a minor role in Danish authorities deal with the matter, but it seems Belize at this time, but small-scale cultivation of sugar more likely that he was encouraged by Rafn or others cane was attempted in the 1850’s in the Northern Dis- to collect and ship the artifacts. Levy also had diplo- trict, including the surroundings of Corozal, where the matic ties to Belgium, and he sent a similar collection crop had been introduced by the refugees from the of artifacts to the National Museum in Brussels where Caste War (Bollard 1977: 140; Grant 1976: 17-18). The they may still be, though we have not been able to picturesque ruins of a sugar mill from 1868 located confirm this. 3 Matthias Levy in a letter to the Danish king, Frederik VII, dated November 15th, 1860 (now in Rigsarkivet, the record office of the Danish state). Mayab 17 (2004): pp. 84-98 86 MAYAB SANTA RITA COROZAL IN THE LATE toric sources suggest that Santa Rita Corozal may POSTCLASSIC PERIOD have exported cacao, honey, wax, and marine pro- ducts in return for the prestigious status wares (Vail When the Spanish invaders first arrived in Yucatan, 1988: 103,128). the peninsula was divided into a number of Maya pro- The earliest recorded archaeological work at the site vinces. By studying written accounts from the colo- was carried out by Thomas Gann, «a doctor of medi- nial era, Chase and Chase (1988: 65-68) have reached cine by profession and an archaeological explorer by the conclusion that Santa Rita Corozal is probably avocation» (Wauchope 1965: 266), who stayed in Co- identical to the town of Chetumal, capital of the Che- rozal in 1893. During his stay, the ruins were discove- tumal province that stretched out along the yucate- red by one of the local landowners, and Gann did a can east cost.
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