Dish; Maya culture, Honduras and El Salvador, AD 500-750.
Polychrome terracotta.
Thermoluminescence attached.
It shows repainting and restorations from original fragments.
Measurements: 7 x 32 cm.
Dish made of polychrome terracotta with an ornamentation based on figurative and geometric motifs. The inner part of the eaves is dominated by a fretwork of lines that follow one another creating angular shapes and with alternating bichromes. In the centre, a large, schematically painted jaguar dominates the dish design. Maya ceramics cover a wide variety of typologies, both utilitarian and ritual, pieces decorated with reliefs and incised motifs, monochrome engobes or with figurative polychrome motifs, later on. The pieces were always made by modelling, as this culture did not know how to use a potter's wheel. The colours used were always engobes, with a clay base, and the vessels were fired at a low temperature of approximately 800ºC. Unlike monuments, which were intended to be seen by all, pottery enjoyed great freedom among the Maya, since it was intended for private use, whether for everyday or funerary purposes. Hence the multiplicity of decorative styles and typologies, including jars for storing essences and medicines, tableware, censers and even articulated statuettes.