Maya and Aztec

INAH, April 24, 2009. Archaeologist Felipe Solis Olguin, director of the National Museum of Anthropology (MNA) since year 2000, passed away in Thursday April 23rd 2009, due to cardiac arrest. At the time of his decease he was working as a curator in the exhibition “Teotihuacan, City of Gods”.

A Felipe Solis was born in Mexico City in 1944, and was part of the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) since 1972. As field archaeologist, he contributed to discover the history of Mexico City ancient cultures; he was present in 1975, when the Chapultepec Aqueduct was explored, and in 1978, in the Coyolxauhqui monolith salvage, being him the was who recognized the figure of the Moon deity.

He was director of MNA and also curator of important exhibitions in the museum; he was the curator of the Mexica collection and from 1990 to 2000, he was Archaeology sub director. He began collaborating in main exhibitions in 1975 where items from the MNA collections were exhibited, carrying out coordination and curatorial tasks, and as editor and writer for the exhibitions’ catalogues.

Among these important exhibitions, outstand “Mexico Splendors of 30 Centuries”; “Olmeca Art in Ancient Mesoamerica”; “Aztecs”, with the collaboration of Eduardo Matos Moctezuma, successfully presented in London, Berlin and Bonn; “The Aztec Empire”, presented in 2004 and 2005 at the Bilbao and New York Guggenheim museums, and recently, “Teotihuacan, City of Gods” at Nave Lewis Gallery at Parque Fundidora, Monterrey, to be inaugurated in the National Museum of Anthropology in May 2009, after being exhibited in several European cities. He also collaborated with “The Aztec World” at the Field Museum, Chicago, and with the “Moctezuma” catalogue, now exhibiting at the British Museum in London.

He devoted to the study of the historical process of the National Museum of Anthropology, from the discovery of Coatlicue and Sunstone monoliths, in 1790 and the foundation of the first museum in the Royal and Pontifical University, until the creation of the National Museum of Anthropology in Chapultepec, in 1964. As specialist in Mexica, Gulf Coast and Teotihuacan cultures, he published nearly 200 research and divulgation articles, and he was writer and co-author of 30 archaeology, anthropological and historical books.

Since 1997 he was academic at the Postgraduate Mesoamerican Studies program at the Philosophy and Literature Faculty of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), becoming part of the Academic Council of the program in 1998. He also was a professor at the National School of Professional Studies, in Acatlan, also part of UNAM. He was academic at the INAH National School of Anthropology and History (ENAH) and the National School of Restoration, Conservation and Museography (ENCRyM). He also was a guest professor at the University of Extremadura, Spain, and in the University of Rancagua, Chile.

Source: INAH.