TWO PAINTED STUCCO FACES FROM IJXMAL 



Two human faces molded in stucco and painted were discov- 

 ered in a small stone-lined chamber situated beneath one of the 

 end rooms of the Casa del Gobernador in the ruins of Uxmal, north- 

 ern Yucatan. The room was accidentally disclosed by the caving 

 in of a small part of its roof. One of its walls was covered, above a 

 stone cornice, by a frieze of hieroglyphs, and against this wall stood 

 a small square stone altar, each side of which had been decorated 

 with a human figure molded in stucco and painted. Unfortunately 

 these figures had fallen; the two heads here described are the best 

 preserved parts of them which remain. Describing the sculpture in 

 stone which adorns the outside of the Casa del Gobernador, Stevens 

 ventures the opinion that some of the heads were portraits of cele- 

 brated men of the period. 



The discovery of this chamber is extremely interesting, as it opens 

 up the possibility that many, if not all, of these vast substructures, 

 built apparently of solid stone, which throughout Yucatan support 

 more or less ruined buildings, may in fact be honeycombed with 

 chambers. Stevens first suggests the possibihty of this. Unfortu- 

 nately since Stevens's day little or nothing has been done tliroughout 

 Yucatan in the way of excavation to verify the truth of his surmise. 



Of the two heads now described, one probably represents a male, 

 the other a female; there is, moreover, a marked individuality about 

 each of them which renders it extremely probable that they are 

 portraits, possibly of some "Halach Uinic" (real man, or chief) of 

 Uxmal and his wife, during the palmy days of the triple alliance. 



Each face is painted black with white circles round the orbital 

 margin, red rims to the eyes, and brick-red oval patches at either 

 angle of the mouth. The center of each upper lip is decorated by 

 a figure 8 shaped labret, the lower portion of which has been broken 

 away in the male head. Over the bridge of each nose is a curious 

 ornament consisting of a small oblong object with rounded corners, 

 held in place by a loop passing down the median line of the bridge. 

 Over the center of the forehead in both faces hangs a pendant, that 

 of the male composed of four small round beads, that of the female 

 appearing as a rounded comblike excrescence. Traces of the head- 

 dresses remain as a few feathers above each forehead. Both heads 

 were probably held within widely distended animal jaws, as a part 

 of the lower jaw is seen below the chin in the male head, where also 

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