Behind the scenes in New World Archaeology with April Hawkins

Yesterday, New World Archaeology collections technician April Hawkins was cleaning on top of one of the collections cabinets in the storage room when she found something out of place.

Here's a video with April explaining her find:

So with the help of social media April was able to solve the mystery of this rice paper and charcoal rubbing. Here are a few photos of the reproduction of Stela 9 from Lamanai, Belize in our Discovery Gallery on Level 2 made from the above rubbing.

More info on this incredible Stela and Maya site here:

Archaeologists' story: http://www.mesoweb.com/bearc/cmr/RRAMW20.pdf

The glyph translation: http://www.mesoweb.com/bearc/cmr/21_text.html 

Wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lamanai

Follow April and her adventures behind the scenes at the ROM on Twitter via @aprilsmuseum or connect with her via her staff page.