Patricia Horcajada has won the 2017-2018 outstanding PhD thesis award for her thesis “Clay statues, the Mayan ceramic figurines of La Blanca (Petén, Guatemala) in their regional context”, under the direction of Cristina Vidal Lorenzo, Art History professor of the University of Valencia.
Horcajada graduated in Art History in 2006 at the University of Valencia. Thanks to professor Cristina Vidal Lorenzo, she became interested in the Mayan culture, and decided to devote her career to the investigation of this culture of pre-Columbian America.
She began her doctoral studies in the 2006-2007 academic year; and the first year she obtained an exchange scholarship from the Vicerectorate of International Relations of the University of Valencia to attend, for a semester, part of the doctorate at the University of the Americas in Puebla (Mexico). This stay allowed her to deepen the archaeology and prehispanic art studies, and visit the main Mayan cities of Mexico. At the end of that stay, Cristina Vidal gave her the opportunity to join the “La Blanca” (Guatemala) project, started in 2004 and which carries out the archaeological excavation of the ancient Mayan city of La Blanca. It was in this stay when she decided the subject of her thesis: the ceramic figurines exhumed from this ancient city.
In 2008 the University of Valencia awarded her the research grant “V Siglos”, to develop her doctoral thesis in the Department of Art History. Between 2008 and 2012 she made different research stays in centres of renowned international prestige in Mayan studies in Guatemala, Mexico and France, while she frequented the excavation in the field of the La Blanca project.
After defending her thesis in 2016, she obtained a research contract associated with the R & D project “Mayan Art and Architecture. New technologies for its study and conservation”. A year later, the government of Mexico granted her a postdoctoral fellowship at the Autonomous University of Campeche to investigate, under the tutelage of Professor Rosario Dominguez Carrasco, the ceramic figurines found in the city of Calakmul, one of the most important Mayan cities of antiquity.
After her stay in Mexico, Horcajada joined the Cristina Vidal team at the University of Valencia, this time hired with the Project “MAYATECH. New technologies applied to the pre-Columbian cultural heritage: the Mayan civilisation”, where she will continue working until the end of March. Starting in April, she will begin a new stage at the Complutense University of Madrid thanks to a postdoctoral contract of the “Attraction of talent” program of the Community of Madrid.
What difficulties have you encountered while doing research?
The main difficulties I encountered were related to the issue of distance: the study materials, the figurines, were in Guatemala, therefore, when a question arose or a check had to be made, we had to wait for the next visit to the excavation. Likewise, the specialised literature on Mayan art and archaeology that can be found in Valencian libraries is very scarce and limited. That is why having a scholarship to develop the doctoral thesis allowed me to spend more time in Guatemala and make comparative studies between figurines recovered in different cities within the same region where La Blanca is located. Also, the scholarship allowed me to do stays in various research centres that had a specialised bibliographic fund.
On the other hand, the doctoral thesis is a long way, of many ups and downs, there are phases of euphoria when you discover something, when the results are what you expect, when the writing comes out fluently... But there are also many moments of stress because the time is running and sometimes you have the feeling that you are not progressing properly, you stop writing, the mental block, etc. Honestly, I think the key to my thesis coming to fruition was largely thanks to the direction of Cristina Vidal, not only to guide me on the right track at all times, but also to help me see the light when moments came from darkness, and of course, it has also been possible thanks to the fellows of the “La Blanca Project”. So this award is also theirs.
What continuity does your research have?
From the research point of view, the doctoral thesis was the beginning of a line of research for the long term. In this sense, we want to continue with the study of Mayan ceramic figurines in two ways. On the one hand, the study of the materials present in these objects: ceramic pastes and pigments, whose archaeometric characterisation allows us to inquire about the origin, distribution and issues related to its manufacture. And on the other hand the iconographic study, that is, the analysis and interpretation of the images represented in them, allows us to approach the ideology of the society that created them. This is important if we take into account that these are objects that the different groups of the highly stratified Mayan society made use of and, therefore, are a very important source of information to know, among others, the customs, practices and beliefs of the common Mayan population.
From a professional point of view, this work opened the door for me to get a postdoctoral scholarship abroad, and at the same time this scholarship has also been key to obtain a new postdoctoral research contract in Madrid, which will help me to continue with my training as a researcher and, hopefully, serve to consolidate and stabilise myself in the future in this field.
What do you think your research contributes to the whole of the scientific community and society? And to you?
In the doctoral thesis a methodology was defined that allows the study of one of the most abundant but at the same time more unknown materials recovered in archaeological excavations in the Mayan area: the ceramic figurines. In the thesis we have shown that the methodology designed is valid and that, therefore, it can be applied to the figurines found in other Mayan cities, and in this way recover the valuable information that these small objects keep about their producers and users: the ancient Mayans. In addition, this study methodology can be applied to the study of other figurines produced by other world cultures.
From my personal point of view, completing the doctoral thesis was a dream come true. As I said before, from the first years as a bachelor student, I was fascinated with the Mayan civilisation and I knew that I wanted to dedicate myself to the investigation of this impressive culture. But at the same time I knew that it was a very complicated path, due to the lack of economic resources, and that a great effort had to be made to obtain a research grant. So ending it and being aware of what I had achieved gave a feeling difficult to explain with words.
Also, a thesis of these characteristics, in which much of the research is field work, was also a very enriching experience that allowed me to meet great people, share experiences and travel adventures with the people of the “La Blanca project”, who have practically become a second family.
Getting a doctorate facilitates labour insertion?
I think so, but the most important thing is based on the choice of the path you want to follow. That is to say, in order to dedicate oneself to the university academic field, a doctorate is a fundamental requirement. But outside of this, I think it is an important merit in the curriculum that can open some doors of the labour market.
Would you recommend starting doctoral studies? What advice would you give to a person who wants to get a PhD?
I would recommend it whenever there is a true research vocation. As I said before, doing a doctoral thesis is a long race of ups and downs, of constant work and sacrifice, and if there is no real motivation, it is difficult to reach the end. In this sense, the advice I would give to a person who wants to doctorate is to choose a research topic that really fascinates him/her, because he/she will live with it day and night during the entire duration of the doctoral thesis phase.
Have you actively participated, on occasion, in outreach activities and scientific communication? How important do you think these activities are?
In the La Blanca Project, parallel to the works of excavation and enhancement of the archaeological ruins, since the beginning of the project, we have carried out different activities with the inhabitants of the village near the archaeological site. Among these activities, I have participated several times in those that are directed to the children’s community, the heritage dissemination workshops. These have as main objective to ensure that the most infant public of this small community values its important cultural heritage and, therefore, that they take care of it and respect it. Also in these workshops the research staff tells them, through lectures and games, how the excavation works, what task each one has in the project and also explain why we do certain jobs and why we do it that way.
I think that this kind of activities are fundamental, that research cannot be limited to the university environment and among specialists... We have to disseminate our research to society in general, adapting the discourse or the message according to the audience we address.
