Harri Kettunen. Nasal motifs in Maya iconography: a methodological approach to the study of ancient Maya art.

Hammond, Norman

HARRI KETTUNEN. Nasal motifs in Maya iconography: a methodological approach to the study of ancient Maya art. 780 pages, 289 illustrations, 197 tables. 2006. Helsinki: Academia Scientiarum Fennica; 951-41-0994-5 hardback 50[euro].

From Pascal on Cleopatra to Rostand, Gogol and Shostakovich, the nose has been recognised as the focal feature of the human visage, sometimes as the organ tout seul, sometimes adorned. The size, shape, protuberance and hue of noses have been taken as conveying ethnic and behavioural information, often of an unflattering nature--think of Shakespeare's Bardolph as the Knight of the Burning Lamp.

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Harri Kettunen, in this exhaustive monograph from the Finnish Academy of Sciences, has taken ancient Maya noses with the seriousness they demand, something not done systematically since Proskouriakoff's classic study (1950), although Houston and Taube (2000) illuminatingly analysed certain nasal motifs in depth. By 'nasal motif', Kettunen means not just the organ itself (which is not in fact discussed in detail), bur 'motifs that are rendered around the nasal area (whether around a nose, snout, beak, or muzzle) of various characters and creatures in Maya art' (p. 18).

The primary focus 'is to examine representations of nasal motifs and their contextual implications', but also to expound the methodology involved, making 'the basic model of iconographic research ... transparent in order to establish a prototypical methodology that can be applied to any ... analysis of iconographic elements, motifs, and themes and their contextual implications' (p. 19). Such virtue is rare, but my suspicion is that most Mesoamericanists will use this book as a nasal vade mecum and not worry too much about the theory. While understandable--much of it is more suited to a dissertation than a book--they should pay some attention to the chapter on 'Method', if only to absorb Kettunen's specific use of the term 'agent', his explanation of how he uses Boolean statistics, and his 'focal idea' (relegated to a footnote) 'to isolate one single specific motif--or a series of related motifs--with a large amount of instances, and to build the survey based on this array of interrelated iconographic motifs with an extensive enough sample to validate statistical analyses' (p. 59).

He contrasts this approach with Proskouriakoff's (1950) method of using a multiplicity of motifs but only a few specimens of each. To get this large sample, Kettunen scans the entire published corpus of Maya sculpture, and also the massive database of looted pottery vessels, especially Late Classic narrative polychromes (and notably those in 'codex style' from the northern Peten), built up by Justin Kerr. Kettunen tries to impose some regional style groupings and periodisation to counter the laundering of contextual information by the antiquities market. Smaller corpora of excavated vessels from Uaxactun, Tikal and Copan allow some calibration of this. In addition, the few surviving Maya codices flora the Postclassic period are examined.

'Agents' include various categories of humans, including dwarves, deities, dragons, animals and less specific zoomorphic monsters: there is some conflict between etic definitions (scientifically-defined species) and emic ones as seen in the art--Kettunen takes issue with Grube, Nahm and others about the Maya 'centipede', which he sees as a chimerical conflation of several creatures. Nasal motifs are classified by form, from simple to complex, including ossiform, beadlike, and various geometrical shapes; these vary in their positioning around the nose, and Kettunen identifies an interesting chronological shift between motifs touching that organ and those placed in front of it but not attached (the built-up nasal bridge, notable especially ar Palenque, is here notably unremarked).

There are also temporal fashions in frequency, and marked differences across the map: relatively few sites, most of them large, and most in the eastern Maya lowlands, have a high frequency of nasal motifs in their art. Some classes of agent, notably deities, have a high (up to 40 per cent) incidence of nasal motifs, others such as dwarves very low (<2 per cent): many of these categories cross-cut and are duly tabulated.

Following the explicative sections, which are well-illustrated with details taken from the corpus, 440 of the volume's 750 pages contain a series of illustrated charts and tables which allow anybody to research Kettunen's database of some 3200 examples and reach their own conclusions: there are, however, odd lacunae--Tikal Stela 31 and Lamanai Stela 9 are among well-known monuments missing from Table 196-7 listing those with nasal-area damage. An index would have been invaluable, but onerous to construct.

Kettunen's conclusions include: (1) some nasal motifs are just portrayals of actual nose-ornaments; (2) some are integral parts of the iconography of the agents they abut; and (3) some express an abstract quality 'associated with the status, quality, or state' (p. 273) of the agent, especially if a deity. Nasal motifs do not express speech, nor the dying breath (both prior theses). In fact the converse applies: they are 'clearly associated with the life essence' (p. 307) and also to some extent with lofty status. Kettunen is to be congratulated on not forcing his data into firmer conclusions for the sake of it, and for providing scholars with an impressive range of evidence for further research.

References

PROSKOURIAKOFF, T. 1950. A study of Classic Maya sculpture (Carnegie Institution of Washington Publication 593). Washington, D.C.: Carnegie Institution.

HOUSTON, S. & K. TAUBE. 2000. An archaeology of the senses: perception and cultural expression in ancient Mesoamerica. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 10: 261-94.

NORMAN HAMMOND

Department of Archaeology,

Boston University, USA (Email: ndch@bu.edu)