Pre-Columbian, Guatemala, Maya Late Classic Period, ca. 550 to 900 CE. This is a truly fabulous find - a carved pottery bottle, square-shaped with a narrow round spout. The larger sides are decorated with a repeated image of a lord/god with a feathered/fiery headdress - possibly calling to mind an eagle, or Quetzalcoatl. On the smaller sides are three glyphs, repeated, which look like they represent tomb (or some other architectural feature that humans go below), quetzal, and a lady. This item is known as a paneled flask. The tomb glyph is a disembodied head in a dark space below a vault or staircase, and has the obvious meaning (death), as well as the connotation of a space below something or a staircase leading down to something being a transformational space. The quetzal glyph adorns many high quality vessels, and the quetzal was both bird and royal symbol to the Maya, and often became a royal name. The glyph meaning lady is often used as a title, and the hairstyle is reminiscent of other depictions of Mayan women, whose coiffure seems to have been elaborate. Size: 1.5" L x 2.5" W x 5.2" H (3.8 cm x 6.4 cm x 13.2 cm)

The Maya Classic phase is so named because it was the peak of their artistic and cultural achievements. Part of this, as in many societies, included highly specialized consumable goods. Elaborate vessels like this one were designed to be instantly distinguishable from those used for everyday eating or drinking - not just in decoration, but also in quantity produced, making these a much rarer find than your average piece of domestic pottery. They were also made to be for only a single, specific function - in this case, to hold something valuable. Traditionally, items like this one have been known as "poison" or "medicine" bottles, in part because of their comparison to bottles used by other native North American groups, but depictions of people using the flasks in artwork as well as residue analysis on archaeological examples suggest that they may have had other uses. They are often found in the context of burials,, filled with red pigment like cinnabar or hematite, but with the remains of other things underneath the pigment (as if they were used in life and then filled with color in death). Because of their size, they must have been made to contain things not required in large quantities - indeed, poisons or medicines, but also perfume, tobacco, and ritual drugs like powdered mushrooms.

Provenance: Ex - Private Seattle, WA collection formed between 1940 and 1980

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#115951

Stablized cracks and minor losses to base, otherwise excellent.