the Yucatán Peninsula was a volatile place having been the scene of a political rebellion known as the Caste War of Yucatán one of the outcomes of the conflict was that peoples of Maya descent formed the independent nation of Chan Santa Cruz in the modern state of Quintana Roo and even established diplomatic relations with Mexico and the United Kingdom.) Lespinasse arrived in the middle of a tense situation between native Yukatek Maya speakers and landowners who were largely foreigners The Yucatán was also gaining fame in the nineteenth century as the setting for the florescence of ancient Maya civilization The widely read account Incidents of Travel in Yucatán published in 1843 by John Lloyd Stephens with illustrations by Frederick Catherwood thrust the plant-covered ruins of Maya cities such as Chichen Itza and Uxmal into the spotlight of popular culture (fig These abandoned cities in the northern Yucatán had always formed an integral part of the social landscape and were included in descriptions and images from the earliest surviving Spanish colonial documents the site of Uxmal caught the attention of scholars and travelers alike with its exceptionally well-preserved standing architecture covered with complex sculpted mosaics showing images of rulers "Portion of a Building Called Las Monjas at Uxmal," by Frederick Catherwood By the time Lespinasse began his diplomatic post Many early historians of the ancient Maya besides Stephens and Catherwood visited and recorded the ruins of Uxmal in the nineteenth and early twentieth century Charles-Étienne Brasseur de Bourbourg (1865) The visits of Charnay and the Le Plongeons to Uxmal were pivotal in the recording of Maya art and architecture as they were the first to successfully photograph the ruins which pioneered the way for later photographic methods (fig Augustus Le Plongeon photographing the ruins of Uxmal on a ladder Getty Research Institute (2004.M.18-b15.18) Alphonse Lespinasse offered an architectural fragment from Uxmal to the fledgling Metropolitan Museum not yet at its current Fifth Avenue location: The House of the Governor (Casa del Gobernador) received its name from a seventeenth-century Spanish visitor who named the Uxmal buildings after European counterparts; the Pyramid of the Magician and the House of the Pigeons are other nicknames The sculpted block sent by Lespinasse to New York is carved in deep relief and shows an upside-down u-shaped element terminating in volutes on either side (fig Inside the negative space of the central shape rise three discs with indentations Rising from the volutes on either side are two loop-like shapes and below the center is trapezoidal protrusion flanked by deep arch-shaped voids The main bulk of the stone behind the relief is long and tapered similar to other sculptures intended to be inserted into walls as tenoned decoration Fig. 3. Fragmentary Relief who offered the stone to the Metropolitan Museum on his behalf noted that the stone was similar to a keystone at the summit of an arch A reanalysis of the architectural sculpture recorded at Uxmal in the years after the consul's original visit reveals that the Met's block formed part of a monumental mosaic "mask," an anthropomorphic portrait of a mountain deity Mountains were central to Lowland Maya cosmology; the ancient Maya actually viewed their pyramidal buildings as mountains from which water and sustenance emerged the builders of ancient Maya temples and carvers of ancient Maya sculptures marked architecture and places with what is known as the witz monster These fantastic creatures are often portrayed with enlarged snouts and gaping jaws which represented overhangs and watery caves beneath mountains kings and queens often stand atop witz monsters signaling their powers to mediate between the realm of mountainous nature and the human world (fig Rather than creating one giant sculptured portrait of the witz monster which would have been difficult and structurally unsound Maya architects often created a series of stacked portraits in the corners of buildings This approach allowed visitors to such a building to behold multiple mountain faces from all directions thus underscoring the sacred nature of the constructed temple The style of stacking witz heads is especially prevalent in the late eighth and ninth centuries The monsters' eyebrows are highlighted in blue Returning to the Met's fragment reportedly from the House of the Governor it probably came from a collapsed witz monster portrait such as the many documented in situ on the façades at Uxmal The Stephens 1843 publication includes Catherwood's drawing of such an ornamented portrait described as "one of the masks of the frieze," included in Seler's 1917 publication on Uxmal contains more accurate representations of the proportions and details of each piece of the sculpture (fig The 1913 Spinden photograph of the unrestored façade and a close-up picture of the modern consolidated façade confirm that the Met's fragment was likely embedded as the eyebrow and pendant lid of a witz portrait (fig Its Subject Matter and Historical Development" (Pl Maya artists and sculptors at Uxmal mixed geometric designs reminiscent of woven textiles with conventionalized and naturalistic portraiture to transform a palace building within a mountainless landscape into a mythological mountainous location for courtly life and ritual Doing so cast the kings and queens of Uxmal as providers voices in the liminal space between the natural and the manmade Resources and Additional ReadingBarrera Rubio University of Pittsburgh Latin American Archaeology Reports No Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Department of Anthropology "Rapport sur les ruines de Mayapan et d'Uxmal au Yucatán (Mexique)." Archives de la Commission Scientifique du Méxique Views of Ancient Monuments in Central America "Archaeological Studies among the Ancient Cities of Mexico Publication 8." Anthropological Series "Monuments of Yucatán." Chicago: Field Museum House of the Governor: A Maya Palace at Uxmal Past Presented: Archaeological Illustration and the Ancient Americas Rhyne, Charles S. Architecture, Restoration, and Imaging of the Maya Cities of Uxmal, Kabah, Sayil, and Labná, 2008. http://academic.reed.edu/uxmal/ Schele, Linda. Linda Schele Drawing Collection. Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies, Inc, 2000. http://research.famsi.org/schele.html "Die Ruinen von Uxmal." Abhandlungen der Königlich Preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften Sellen, Adam T., and Lynneth S. Lowe. "Las antiguas colecciones arqueológicas de Yucatán en el Museo Americano de Historia Natural." Estudios de Cultura Maya, No. 33 (2009): 53–71. http://www.scielo.org.mx/pdf/ecm/v33/v33a3.pdf Its Subject Matter and Historical Development." Memoirs of the Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology Reading Maya Art: A Hieroglyphic Guide to Ancient Maya Painting and Sculpture "Some Notes on Ritual Caves among the Ancient and Modern Maya." 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You have 82.8% of this article left to read Lecture du Monde en cours sur un autre appareil Vous pouvez lire Le Monde sur un seul appareil à la fois Ce message s’affichera sur l’autre appareil Parce qu’une autre personne (ou vous) est en train de lire Le Monde avec ce compte sur un autre appareil Vous ne pouvez lire Le Monde que sur un seul appareil à la fois (ordinateur En cliquant sur « Continuer à lire ici » et en vous assurant que vous êtes la seule personne à consulter Le Monde avec ce compte Que se passera-t-il si vous continuez à lire ici Ce dernier restera connecté avec ce compte Vous pouvez vous connecter avec votre compte sur autant d’appareils que vous le souhaitez mais en les utilisant à des moments différents Nous vous conseillons de modifier votre mot de passe Votre abonnement n’autorise pas la lecture de cet article merci de contacter notre service commercial The New Saints FC Academy travelled to Northern France to compete in the Bourbourg U13 Tournoi It’s the third consecutive year that our football club have been invited to compete in this prestigious International Tournament due to how well we have competed in the past Joining us in the tournament were West Ham and Kent Schools from England Lots of top teams from the French first division make up the tournament also The tournament is split in to a group stage initially where you compete for a final placement between 1st and 40th The draw was made the week prior with a very difficult group for our travelling Saints We faced two of the top French division sides Needless to say the boys were excited for the challenge ahead We departed from The Venue early on Friday morning to catch our Ferry in Dover We were all extremely excited to face off against top European opposition in an International setting The boys were in great spirit and I don’t think they stopped chatting all the way to Dover I was delighted to hear them socialising together so well Soon Saturday arrived and the day we all had been looking forward too With our first game not beginning until 3pm we had a relaxed breakfast before a team meeting with the players and roles and responsibilities in and out of possession for each position We challenged the players to set their non-negotiables – the standards that they set themselves and must all aim to keep too Not just looking to remain true to our football philosophy but we had answers like outwork the opposition and encourage each other We got the players in groups and then they had to present their answers back to the room with the audience asking questions to create a mini debate I was delighted at the way the group took to the challenge and the answers given consisting of three grass pitches and one 3G We had a few games of header tennis before lunch and then our attention turned to our first game against Stade De Reims The top two from the group go into the final 16 We spoke to the boys about starting brightly and couldn’t have hoped for a better start Louis Croft picked the ball up straight from kick-off before finishing to put us in the lead within 8 seconds when James Rainbird played an excellent weighted through ball for Louis to finish with confidence We couldn’t have asked for a better start from our young Saints Game two soon came around against As Marck We made friends with an elderly French Gentleman at the Loon-Plage tournament back in Easter He followed us last time and supported every game He also gave us information about the opposition which was very handy He told us that Marck were a very strong team who played excellent passing football We wanted to build on the previous game and did so with another superb performance We were in a superb position going into game three against Calais Calais were completely different opposition and very direct converting an overhead kick after we failed to clear a corner It looked like the Saints were going to suffer their first defeat until James took matters into his own hands pulling off a surging run before putting the ball in the bottom corner in the dying moments It was a vital point with teams taking points off each other and the group in the balance meaning that we had qualified with a game to spare we wanted to make sure we topped the group In the final game we faced off against Dijon FCO another team competing currently at the top end of the League 1 in France It was a thrilling game with Dijon taking the lead again from a second ball not being cleared and them finding the net It was a very entertaining game and both teams created chances Henry in goal pulled off a couple of fine saves and Alfie and Jake came close to scoring It looked like this would be our first defeat of the tournament the never say die attitude of this group shone through and Louis scored an equalising goal We eagerly awaited the draw for the final 16 finding out that the opposition was RC Lens It was an early start with a 7:30am breakfast before being collected at 8:30am A very early start but the boys still had so much energy The boys were prepped well and warmed up well by the coaching team ahead of the game get at them early and start with a tempo that they won’t be able to handle a switch of play into Louis who scored an excellent team goal against top European opposition was great to see and it’s brave football that we teach the players to play Lens soon got a hold of the game and scored two well worked goals They were technically very good and they showed their qualities – the reasoning behind their youth system developing players and their qualification from their group Our young Saints continued to play and created some excellent chances with Louis questionably being called offside despite starting in his own half when through on goal We struggled to get the rub of the green from the officials at times as often they gave fouls with very minimal contact It was another challenge for our players to adapt to though The game soon came to a halt when influential midfielder and team captain James suffered a nasty knee injury James is a strong player and was in agony and it was a real worry Kieran took James to Hospital to get an x-ray and get checked over The hosts of the tournament were excellent and we thank them for helping James The game resumed but our Saints seemed deflated and despite creating a couple of late chances were unable to score and lost an exciting game 1-2 It was important that the boys picked themselves back up as they had been great all weekend thus far We were eliminated from 1-8 so now competed in 9-16 who had been eliminated themselves losing on penalties to West Ham United Cannet were another direct side and they had a player taller than me who took everything This was another challenge for our players Oliwier was superb in central midfield and battled really well Ollie Sumer scored what can only be described as goal of the tournament He picked up the ball on the half way line on the left wing cut inside and unleashed a thunderbolt of a shot with Charlie being solid and playing out well under pressure Our next game was drawn and we faced Lille We certainly hadn’t had much luck with the draws but it’s good for our players to face off against top teams Whether we started to become leggy or tired as the players had been through a lot already didn’t give us any time on the ball and they were very good with it It was disappointing and we spoke with the players afterwards that in that game they failed to match their standards that they set themselves I know it’s difficult but we always seek more from our players as that’s the only way they will develop and reach their potential another team who had played well over the weekend We asked for a reaction from the last game and we definitely got that James Li was causing problems down their right on the counter attack With our centre-backs being marked from Henry’s goal kick Ethan dropped in to receive on then half turn Louis made an excellent run and his shot across the goal was saved well only to find the advancing Seb taylor who scored an excellent team goal We held on late to win the game and finish our tournament in 11th place with James having thankfully only suffered bruising to the knee and not as bad as we first feared who had knocked both us (2-1) and West Ham (2-0) out of the tournament They lost an entertaining final 3-2 to SM Caen We made our way to the closing ceremony and were surprised and delighted to have been awarded the fair play trophy they stated it was due to the work ethics and passing football of our team We travelled back on the Ferry with West Ham and also Kent Schools Our boys made friends with the Kent Schools and they had some wicked little characters in their group was one of my main objectives prior to the tournament Football is a universal language; it unites and brings people from all backgrounds and cultures together even with boys who don’t speak a word of English We challenged the boys in different ways over the weekend and they all responded brilliantly This was some of the boys’ first time away without their parents but you wouldn’t have been able to notice We asked the players to fight for each other and to drive each other I think this group are in an excellent position going into the new season Thanks to all the travelling parents and families for supporting the boys and also Kieran and Danny for their excellent support and mentoring of the players over the weekend Thanks finally to the hosts of an excellently ran tournament and we look forward to returning next year Learn how to describe the purpose of the image (opens in a new tab) Leave empty if the image is purely decorative