A fact from Pascual Abaj appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 2 January 2018 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:
Did you know... that Pascual Abaj(pictured), near Chichicastenango in Guatemala, is a sculpted stone idol that survived the Spanish conquest but was badly damaged in the 1950s by religious activists?
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Guatemala, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Guatemala on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.GuatemalaWikipedia:WikiProject GuatemalaTemplate:WikiProject GuatemalaGuatemala articles
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Mesoamerica, a project which is currently considered to be inactive.MesoamericaWikipedia:WikiProject MesoamericaTemplate:WikiProject MesoamericaMesoamerica articles
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Visual arts, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of visual arts on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.Visual artsWikipedia:WikiProject Visual artsTemplate:WikiProject Visual artsvisual arts articles
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Archaeology, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Archaeology on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.ArchaeologyWikipedia:WikiProject ArchaeologyTemplate:WikiProject ArchaeologyArchaeology articles
The front page DYK states that this statue was defaced by religious activists, and the article itself says multiple times "Before it was defaced..." but there's no info about how it was defaced or why. There's also no decent photo to compare the before and after. I can't tell by the post-defacement picture what side of the statue we're looking at.
It's at the beginning of the article, defaced by Catholic Action. Both photos are of the front of the statue, the only surviving recognisable parts of the original image I can see are the top of the eyeline/eyebrow, which in the more recent image runs along at the change in texture between the dome at the top and the shaft supporting it. I can only put in what I can find in reliable sources, if there's no more info, then there's no more info I'm afraid. I did a fairly detailed trawl and was surprised at the lack of available studies. Most info available online is from travel guides, which are not reliable. The statue is not mentioned at all in the indexes of any of my many books on Guatemala and the Maya. Simon Burchell (talk) 19:49, 2 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]
I did see who defaced it, but now how (Firearms? Hammers? Long term erosion with a squirt gun?) or why. I guess the why is pretty self explanatory, in a general sense. But not specifically. I see that you put a lot of work into this article; thanks for that! WiiWillieWiki20:40, 2 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]
From what I understand, the "restoration" basically involved plastering cement all over it. It's a great shame... in Guatemala they sell postcards of the pre-vandalised version, nobody tells you it hasn't existed like that for half a century! Simon Burchell (talk) 22:17, 2 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]
.svg)
