Secrets in Stone

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Secrets in Stone: Yokes, Hachas and Palmas From Southern Mesoamerica (Memoir 217)

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By Edwin M. Shook and Elayne Marquis
Year: 1996
Pages: 250
Binding Hardcover
ISBN 0871692171

Product Code: 0871692171

Description

Memoir 217
Yokes, hachas & palmas are three extraordinary pre-Columbian art forms that occur in a specific region of Mexico & Central Am. & apparently have no exact counterparts anywhere else. These stone objects have puzzled art historians & archaeologists since the mid-19th century & much of the puzzle is yet to be solved. During the early years many fanciful attributions wer given to these artifacts based solely on their shapes, from which they received their names. Although research proves that the names by which they are known have no bearing on their function, these misnomers have persisted. The practice of carving yokes, hachas & palmas originated in the state of Veracruz in Mexico where they have been fairly well documented & considered exclusive paraphernalia of the ceremonial pre-Columbian ballgames. The focus of this vol. is on the large number of yokes, hachas & palmas that authors Edwin M. Shook & Elayne Marquis documented from outside of Veracruz, in the peripheral Maya area of Southern Mesoamerica (Chiapas, Tabasco, Guatemala, Honduras & El Salvador). Illus.

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