Pre-Columbian, Maya region, Late Classic Period, ca. 650 to 750 CE. An incredible piece of ancient craftsmanship, a black and red on cream-orange slip paint cylinder with a codex register of nine glyphs in the Primary Standard Sequence under the red-painted rim and below that two fish with wonderful detail separated by diagonal bars. Cylinder vessels like these seem, from residue analysis, to have been used for drinking chocolate, a hugely popular and ritual practice amongst the Maya, especially Mayan elite. Size: 4.9" W x 3.8" H (12.4 cm x 9.7 cm)

This beautiful cylinder has all the hallmarks of a "codex style" vessel. The glyphs and iconography were hand drawn by a skilled artisan in a fine-line painting technique using a monochrome black-brown slip that would have been made from clay mixed with black iron oxide, manganese, and some plant-based compounds. Mayan scribes seem to have wanted to mark the ownership of valued things, and that is what registers of glyphs like the one found here were made to do - mark the owner's name and describe the item. Below that register, the two depictions of the fish are wonderful examples of elaborately drawn "kay" glyphs. Based on their indented fins, they seem to be based on the Cichlids, who are a large family of freshwater fish that live in the lakes and river valleys of Central America and would have been a source of food and also religious practice for the Maya. On these examples, the round body decorations you can see are characteristic of the redhead cichlid (Vieja synspila). Fish are a recurring theme in Mayan art, and seem to indicate that the setting of the artwork is an aquatic environment. Interestingly, because of its sound ("ka"), the fish head glyph can sometimes be used as a doubled or grouped sign to spell "kakaw", the glyph for cocoa - so the decoration on this vessel may relate to its use as a cup for the chocolate drink.

Provenance: ex-private North Carolina Collection

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#119401

Repaired from approximately four large pieces, but repairs are well done and very difficult to see. Paint is clearly visible with minor wear; excellent root marks overall.