Polychrome cylinder vase, Late Classic Period, ca. 700 - 900 AD ·  Guatemala, Petén area, El Zotz / Chinochultun, Maya · ID: 3052937

Description

ceramic with cream-colored slip, painted in orange-red, deep red, and black, rest.

The vessel wall is encircled by six male figures. Three of them wear black facial masks and comb-like feathered headdresses. A fourth figure lies at their feet, having lost both mask and headdress. The two remaining figures are distinguished by particularly elaborate headdresses and by jaguar heads carried on their backs as trophies. All figures hold ring-shaped objects (made of shell or stone) in their hands.

Kerr describes the depicted figures as “combatant boxers each using conch shell hand weapons - boxing hand to hand”.

Comparing literature

Publications

Kerr, Justin, Maya Vase Data Base, An Archive of Rollout Photographs, K 700 (1998); Robicsek, Francis, Donald M. Hales, The Maya Book of the Dead, University of Virginia Art Museum, 1981, fig. 17b; Kuchta, Ronald A., Treasures of Pre-Columbian Art, Collection of Janos Szekeres, New York, p. 60 f.

Notices

This object is subject to the UNESCO Cultural Heritage Protection Act. Export documents are required for export (subjected to a fee).