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Mayan World Museum
The Mayan World Museum of Mérida is a modern Mayan cultural museum in the north of Mérida with many exhibits of art, handicrafts and history.
Mérida
2023
15
The spectacular design of the building based on the universe that the Mayan cosmogony structured in three levels: sky, earth and underworld.
This is the entrance area of the museum with changing exhibitions.
Section 2 contains exhibits from contemporary Mayan life.
Section 3 shows the "Mayas of Yesterday". The facade of the church of Uayma, was reproduced to be presented. It's decorated with the double-headed eagle as symbol of the royal power of the Spanish crown.
The history of the ancient Maya is shown in section 4. The divine twins on this plate initiate a struggle against the Lords of the Underworld (polychrome ceramic, Late Classic, 600-900).
These zoomorphic sculptures from Chichén Itzá are a clear display of the importance of nature in Maya thought. They represent Kukulcan, a mythical being, half reptile and half bird (Yucatán, Chichén Itzá, Early Postclassic, 1000-1250).
The classic period Mayas (250-950) venerated almost fifty deities with benevolent, adverse, or dualistic powers, with variants in the way they were designes and their iconography.
The behavior of the stars and nature correspondend to the major gods, while demand of living beings and things, to other lesser deities.
A censer clay effigy of the corn god, Hun Nal Yeh. It comes from Mayapán (Late Postclassic, 1250-1527).
The treatment of the human body in Maya visual arts denotes a profund quest to capture the body´s scale, portions, movement and power (Late Classic, 600-900).
In the Mesoamerican worldview, the jaguar (in the middle of room) symbolized the nighttime sun, war and souvereighty over land (Early Postclassic, 1000-1250).
...and so, since the early classic, higher deities and Maya rulers exerted their power on a low set covered with a jaguar pelt. In late images, the seat assumed the overall shape of the feline, either standing or with two heads.
Chocolate beverages were popular among the ancient Mayas, who used special recipients to serve it. The inscription of this vessel records its function for drinking a specific type of cacao (Acanceh, Yucatán, ceramic, Late Classic, 600-900).
Masks formed part of the funerary trappings of certain Maya rulers and they were the portrait blending the individual's features with divine attributes (Yucatán, Oxkintok, from jade, shell and obsidian, Late Classic, 600-900).
The mask shown before is the last object on display. This is where the tour of the museum ends.
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