Visualizing Speech: Unfolding the Narrative of the Papaloapan Stela

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Coffee, Clever T-Shirts, and Papers in Honor of John S. Justeson" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

In this paper we examine the complex iconography of the Papaloapan Stela (originally labeled by Stirling as Cerro de las Mesas Stela 2) with a particular focus on the narrative integrity of the tableaux, the depiction of speech, and the relationship between the visualization of language and possible glyphic texts. Our analysis is based on 2022 fieldwork that resulted in photogrammetric models that permit fuller appreciation of particularly significant details on the stela. These were then compared with the Jorge Pérez de Lara’s high-resolution photographs that were part of John Justeson’s 2005 documentation project of Epi-Olmec script and imagery. In contrast to reading the iconography as distinct on each side, our results suggest linked scenes integrated by speech scrolls or cords, which originate from the dialogue between the two figures and a text block on the reverse of the monument, and continue to the figures on each of the other three sides. From this we conclude that the imagery was likely conceived of as a whole and that the presence of text and the depiction of language played a key role in the narrative composition of this unique monument.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)   •
• Coffee, Clever T-Shirts, and Papers in Honor of John S. Justeson

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 36245.0