After being closed to repair the roof for over a year, the Museo Nacional de Arqueología y Etnología (MUNAE) is now open to the public. The entire inside of the museum was redesigned by new museum Director/Administrator Christopher Martínez.
Machaquila stelae have large water lily flowers being nibbled on by fish. This is a very common headdress decoration and the Machaquila stelae are well-preserved so you can see the beauty of the Nymphaea ampla flower.
A stylized fish (with two long feathers extending past its tail) nibbles on the petals of the large water lily flower. Actually the fish wants the seeds inside the mature flower, but the artists and sculptors always show the flower in full bloom (no seed inside yet).
The stem of the water lily flower is wrapped around a rectangularized rendition of the water lily pad. There are so many of these headdresses that you can “read” what is intended if you have experience seeing all the “Lily Pad Headdress Monsters” and other stylized renditions.
Machaquila Stela 3, MUNAE, Museo Nacional de Arqueología y Etnología, Zona 13, Guatemala City, near the airport.
Closer view of the details of the fish, water lily flower, and rectangularized (stylized) water lily pad on Machaquila Stela 3, MUNAE. More than a dozen Maya stone stelae are on exhibit in the new displays organized by new museum Director/Administrator Christopher Martínez.
Young God N is in front of his conch shell home; a giant profile cross-section of a water lily flower is above. This remarkable scene is one of the new exhibits in MUNAE, Museo Nacional de Arqueología y Etnología. The new museum Director/Administrator is Christopher Martínez. He had available thousands of artifacts but he selected ones with dramatic images such as this God N-conch-water lily flower scene. It is perfectly preserved and the orange-yellow color contrasts with the black background. We are making a list of all flora and fauna that are presented in the new exhibits chosen by Director/Administrator Christopher Martínez. There are a dozen animals and for flowers mostly Nymphaea ampla, white water lily.
Posted April 1, 2024
Written by Nicholas Hellmuth.
