Perhaps the most iconic image of the ancient Maya world is the sarcophagus lid of K’inich Janaab Pakal (615–683), who ruled Palenque in southern Mexico for over 70 years. Buried beneath the Temple of the Inscriptions, it was uncovered by archaeologist Alberto Ruz Lhuillier in 1952.
In the 1960s, artist Merle Greene Robertson developed a method to capture to-scale impressions of Maya relief sculpture and carved hieroglyphic texts using ink and rice paper. Over her forty-year career, she made nearly 2,000 rubbings now held at the Latin American Library, including Pakal’s sarcophagus lid.
Tulane University’s centennial celebration marked the first public display of this remarkable piece. The 9 x 14-foot rubbing captures the physical mass and artistic magnificence of this funerary memorial to Palenque’s longest living monarch. Robertson’s rubbings are a visually striking example of the depth and variety of sources for the study of Maya cultures at the Latin American Library and the Middle American Research Institute. The rubbings on display in this exhibition demonstrate how Tulane continues to deepen and renew its original strengths as evolving technologies offer fresh perspectives for research.
This online exhibition shows the drawing of the same sarcophagus lid, rather than the rubbing.