Entering the sculpture museum
(new since we lived here in 1993), you follow a long tunnel reminiscent
of an archaologist's dig. At the end, pictured above, is a full size, full
color replica of the Rosalila temple that was found completely encased
within a newer building.
Stela B (Located on the Grand Plaza)
The temple itself was discovered
in 1989 and is still at the heart of Structure 16, the central building
of the Acropolis. Current thinking is that the building, dedicated to Moon
Jaguar - Copan's 10th ruler - was 'built over' rather than destroyed as
is usually the case because it was so sacred. Later excavations determined
that there is actually another temple buried inside Rosalila, named
Margarita.
A wall facade portraying skulls
Inside the museum are numerous
other pieces excavated from the site. Stela A (above) was brought inside
and a replica raised in its place because of worries about erosion. The
bat (below) and bird-monster (left) were recovered from inside existing
structures and moved into climate-controlled display cases.
The grounds themselves hold
so many interesting faces and expressions that it would be impossible to
display them all, but the jaguar is a perennial favorite. Everywhere one
looks, too, there are glyphs and symbols, raising a question of what might
have been contained in Mayan texts, now lost to antiquity...
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