In this image of Izamal’s great pyramid, Kinich Kak Mo, the colossal head of a Maya figure looms high above the expedition’s naturalist, Dr. Samuel Cabot, Jr., and an unnamed Maya attendant.
On one side of the sculpture, two serpents intertwine and hold a grotesque figure and a blood-letter (an instrument that allowed one to draw one’s own blood for sacrifice to the gods). Performing ...