Graphic and Photographic Documentation - Reed College

and art history. After a list of the factors that affect what is and what is not recorded in
any image, the authors write:
“Above all, the underlying rationale for the image, its commissioning, function, and
intended audience will all determine the limits of what it once meant and what it may
mean now. These conventions need to be understood if the imaging of archaeological
knowledge is to be properly considered, and they apply with equal force to all
categories of its visual representation.” (pp.1-2).
They correctly note that “art history, for all its sophistication as a means of
investigating visual culture, has not made any sustained effort to consider the
importance of images to archaeology . . . . The characteristic reference points for
each discipline do not share much common ground” (p.3).
N
Norfolk, Simon
“Built to Awe: Mesoamerica’s Grand Monuments.” National Geographic, Vol. 212, No. 2
(August 2007), 86-95, and fold-out photo on pp. 68-69, and “On Assisgnment: Shedding
Light on the Subject”, p. 154.
For a Society that, in the past, has funded highly informative color reconstructions of
Maya architecture and sculpture, it is difficult to know what was intended by these
photographs that approximate most closely son et lumière performances. One
photograph of the night sky above the Pyramid of the Magician, taken as a time
exposure showing the paths of several stars, suggests the Maya devotion to the
heavens and their careful observation of the stars and planets. The other
photographs, taken at night by powerful flood lights hidden behind walls and in rooms,
do not approximate the way these monuments look today or at any time in the past,
nor do they help us in anyway to understand the Maya.
Norman, B. M.
Rambles in Yucatan including A Visit to the Remarkable Ruins of Chi-Chen, Kabah, Zayi,
Uxmal &c. New York: J. & H. G. Langley, 1843.
Various images from this volume are reproduced on this web site.
http://academic.reed.edu/uxmal/galleries/thumbnails/drawings/Drawings-Norman.htm
publications. The frontispiece, is given the caption ”Moon Light Uxmal Ruins”, but only
with considerable effort can one see that it is intended to suggest a view of the major
structures looking north from behind the Pyramid of the Old Woman. There are 4
prints of Uxmal, 1 of Sayil, and 1 of a local Indian house, none of which could serve as
evidence. All prints are identified as drawn by the author. There is a schematic “Plan
of the Ruins of Uxmal” and a map of the Yucatan “Shewing the geographical position
of the Ruins”, which is more accurate than any of the author’s drawings.
42