The Jim Merrett Photo Archive

THE JIM MERRETT PHOTO ARCHIVE

By David Freidel

Text Index

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Go to page: Jim Merrett is a native of the oilfields of Longview, Texas, who moved to Dallas in 1951 after college and a stint in the Army. He has always had a wide-ranging interest in natural science and the past. .
Go to page: He prepared for a trip down to Mexico and Central America in 1956 by trying to take out Morley's Ancient Maya from the public library, only to discover that the book had been stolen. But his library trip was not in vain. He met Joan Ablon, who told him about exciting Texas discoveries in archaeology and the Dallas Archaeological Society. She was working at the library between undergraduate training and graduate training at Chicago with Sol Tax. (Photo caption: Renowned Maya archaeologist Sylvanus Morley with Quirigua Stela F.)
Go to page: As a young medical anthropologist, Dr. Ablon went on to work in Amatenango del Valle in Chiapas, Mexico. Jim went down in 1956 to Quirigua, Guatemala, by train, then Tikal by small plane, taking his pictures of Tikal just after the first University of Pennsylvania season at that Guatemalan site had ended. He planned another trip to Mexico in 1960, and made connections through Joan Ablon with Franz and Trudy Blom.
Go to page: Originally, Jim was going to go to Yaxchilan with Trudy, but he ended up going with Franz, who liked to be called "Pancho." Jim could not have picked a better guide. A Danish archaeologist and authority on the Maya, Blom's explorations in the 1920's led to the discovery of several long-lost Maya cities. While exploring the Lacandon jungle of Chiapas, Mexico in 1948, he discovered the last remnants of the Lacandon people, descendants of the original Maya.
Go to page: On that trip Jim traveled on the Usumacinta River in a dugout canoe and took the photographs of monuments and buildings before the development of the park at the site of Yaxchilan.
Go to page: (Note Franz Blom's hat in the foreground.)
Go to page: Palenque from the air, 1960. The structures at the top left comprise the Group of the Cross, the most prominent in this view being the Temple of the Sun on the right, its roofcomb silhouetted against the forest. Continuing clockwise, we see the expanse of the Palace and the imposing Temple of the Inscriptions. The road leading toward the foreground passes the Temple of the Count and the North Group on its way to the old archaeological encampment.
Go to page: After his trips to Mexico and Central America, Jim taught elementary school for many years. He presented slide shows to the students in his classes periodically. He has donated his slides to the Anthropology Department at Southern Methodist University for use by the students and faculty interested in Mesoamerica. Here we present a selection from the Jim Merrett Archive at SMU.
Go to page: We begin with this view of Yaxchilan, Stela 11, outside Structure 40, in 1960.
Go to page: Here is a closer view of Stela 11, the side facing the Usumacinta River. In the monument's condition at the time, one can barely discern two standing figures facing one another. The figure on the left is Shield Jaguar the Great (Itzamnaaj B'alam II). On the right is his son, Bird Jaguar IV.
Go to page: Stela 11, an oblique view of the side facing Structure 40.
Go to page: Here is the side of Stela 11 that faces Structure 40. Yaxchilan ruler Bird Jaguar IV stands over three prisoners. Bird Jaguar wears the mask of Chac-Xib-Chac. (See Schele and Freidel, Forest of Kings, pages 284-5.)
Go to page: A detail of Stela 11, showing Bird Jaguar IV in the mask of Chac-Xib-Chac.
Go to page: A detail of the prisoners from Stela 11.
Go to page: Interior of Structure 40, showing vestiges of red and blue paint.
Go to page: Interior of Structure 40.
Go to page: Interior of Structure 40.
Go to page: Structure 39.
Go to page: Structure 19.
Go to page: Interior of Structure 19.
Go to page: Lintel 27. This inscription records the death of Shield Jaguar the Great.
Go to page: Lintel 26. Lady Xoc, the wife of Shield Jaguar the Great, hands him a jaguar helmet as he prepares for battle. (See Forest of Kings, pages 266-8).
Go to page: Feathered headdress and part of the head from a statue of Bird Jaguar IV that sat in the central niche of Structure 33.
Go to page: The statue from which the head in the previous photograph fell.
Go to page: Aerial view of Palenque, 1960. The road from the village (today's city of Palenque was still a village in those days) comes in at the top, curves out of sight to the left, and then enters the archaeological site as the straight line at the bottom. It stops right in front of the Temple of the Inscriptions. The large mass of structures directly above this in the photograph is the Palace. The largest structure to the far right is the Temple of the Cross, and below it the Temple of the Sun. From in front of the Temple of the Inscriptions, the narrower road curves in front of the Temple of the Count and the adjacent structures of the North Group on its way to the old archaeological encampment.
Go to page: The Temple of the Inscriptions, Palenque, 1960.
Go to page: The lid of the Sarcophagus of Pakal the Great, in the crypt beneath the Temple of the Inscriptions.
Go to page: The Temple of the Cross.
Go to page: The Temple of the Cross, from the Temple of the Sun.
Go to page: The Temple of the Sun and the Palace, from the Temple of the Foliated Cross.
Go to page: The Otolum River as it enters its aqueduct by the Palace.
Go to page: The Palace.
Go to page: The Temple of the Inscriptions, from the Palace.
Go to page: The East Court of the Palace.
Go to page: Prisoner sculptures in the East Court of the Palace.
Go to page: House C from the East Court of the Palace.
Go to page: The Hieroglyphic Stairs of House C.
Go to page: The Palace Tablet.
Go to page: Stucco sculpture, House D, Pier D.
Go to page: Detail of stucco sculpture, House D, Pier D.
Go to page: The North Group, from the Palace. The white structure on top of the pyramid on the left in the middle distance is the Temple of the Count. Beyond are the plains of Tabasco.
Go to page: The Palace, from the North Group.
Go to page: Palenque's only sculptured stela, outside the bodega.
Go to page: The North Plaza, Tikal, 1956.
Go to page: Tikal, Stela 16 and Altar 5.
Go to page: Tikal, Temple I.