McClung Museum has teamed up with the National Geographic Society to bring

a six month exhibit about the Maya people to The University of

Tennessee.

The exhibit, Maya: Portraits of a People, opened at the McClung

Museum on July 11 and will run until January 4. The exhibit is curated by

George Stuart, who is the Assistant Senior Editor of the National

Geographic Magazine and has written several

books about the Mayan people.

Maya was one of the worlds greatest civilizations in its peak around 250

A.D. to 950 A.D. Maya was a complicated civilization which had large

pyramids and palaces, a sophisticated art style, a complex writing system

and its own calender. The Mayan empire

was located on the Yucatan Peninsula in present-day Central America. The

countries which grew out of the Mayan empire include Guatemala, Honduras,

El Salvador and Belize.

The people who work with McClung museum are excited to be hosting the

exhibit, including the museum’s director Jeff Chapman.

“What an opportunity to work with the National Geographic Society and

George Stuart in bringing the story of the Mayans to the people of East

Tennessee,” Chapman said. “The color images from the Society’s archives

combined with the exquisite artifacts in

the Kislak collection produce a really exciting experience.”

The exhibit features many artifacts which are on loan from the Jay I.

Kislak Foundation. The ceramic vases, carved plaques, pendants, figurines,

containers and stone carvings tell about all aspects of Mayan life. The

exhibit shows different components of

the Mayan world including: households, farming, hunting, merchants,

traders, warriors, ballplayers, scribes, rules, the courts, priests and

gods. Two of the highlights of the exhibit are a extensively carved wooden

box which shows the ruler Ah K’ax-Balam

and a carved stone ceremonial mace-head.

McClung Museum is open every day of the week, Monday through Friday from 9

a.m.- 5 p.m., Saturday from 10 a.m.-3 p.m., and Sunday from 1 p.m.-5 p.m.

Admission to the Mayan exhibit and all other exhibits is free.