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WELCOME TO THE COPAN MUSEUM
L ike great cities today, each ancient Maya metropolis had its own
particular character and style. Tikal is celebrated for its very tall temple-pyramids;
Palenque is renowned for its limestone and stucco relief panel. Copan is
unique in the Mayan realm for its emphasis on sculpture, since it was home
to the most carved commemorative stelae and altars, many complex stone
and stucco sculptures decorating the buildings, and the monumental Hieroglyphic
Stairway which has the longest inscribed test of the Pre-Columbian New
World.
The Copan
Sculpture Museum, built by the Government of Honduras, is designed to give
you, the visitor a sense of how the ancient Maya viewed their world, and
recorded its most important aspects in architectural and free-standing
sculpture. The Museum presents the most beautiful and informative sculptures
to the pubic, while at the same time preserving them in an enclosed environment
that will insure that they can be admired and pondered for centuries to
come. Built by the Government of Honduras, its conception derives from
the sculpture conservation and study program begun in the mid-l98O's and
continuing to the present under the admirable offices of the INSTITUTO
HONDUREÑO DE ANTROPOLOGIA E HISTORIA (IHAH).
Conservation
specialists from Honduras and around the world have concluded that the
best way to preserve the Copan sculptures is to remove them from contact
with ground moisture and fluctuations in temperature by placing them in
a dry, sealed environment. The Main Module that you see today is the first
of seven such protected environments that will be built to house and conserve
the most precious sculptures of this great- Maya city for future generations.
The exhibits were assembled by the IHAH through its Copan Acropolis archaeological
Project (PAAC) and the Project for the Rescue and Investigation of Maya
Sculpture (PRIEM).
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