Who claims this stone? Searching for meaning in my mother’s greenstone Maya figurine

Abstract

The ekphrastic poem and the essay presented here revolves around a greenstone figurine that was found in Guatemala about a hundred years ago. I composed the poem as a way to capture the thoughts that passed through my mind as I contemplated this statuette. The figurine was given to me by my mother who had little information about it but believed it was an ancient Maya artifact. Over many years, I often wondered about the hidden secrets such an artifact may hold. During my teaching career, I took the figurine into archaeology classes as a useful teaching tool to help students understand important concepts and methods used in archaeology to make sense of the past. The essay explores the questions and issues raised by the poem such as what the figurine’s features reveal and what meaning or function the statuette may have held in the past. It also explores the poem’s question of who has the right to own such objects, a question that has gained much press coverage in recent times.