Pre-Columbian, Maya, Ulua Valley, Honduras, ca. 550 to 900 CE. A round-bottomed cylinder jar with a huge repeated motif of a feathered deity painted in fine-line black, dark brown, red, and orange on a creamy orange background. The deity has a fierce, geometric face with highly abstract features. The cylinder itself is rather unusual in being carinated in two places to divide its body into thirds. Size: 5.45" W x 6.25" H (13.8 cm x 15.9 cm)

For the Maya, extraordinary painted ceramic vases like this example were gifted to elite individuals, akin to the gifts exchanged between high profile dignitaries today. Vases were a functional gift, created by artist/scribes who came from elite families and who took pains to recreate the stories of Mayan mythology and religion as well as to depict royal and godly personages in their artwork. This artwork reinforced the ruling ideology and reminded the viewer of what was valuable in Mayan society. Today, they teach us about the stories that were important to the Maya and also give us clues to how elite people lived and dressed. Scholars have painstakingly worked to decipher the meaning of the iconography and glyphs painted on cylinder jars and we know much more about them than we did even twenty years ago.

The Ulua Valley is sometimes referred to as the Mesoamerican Frontier, the place where the lowlands of the Maya met the lower part of Central America and its different cultures. They are famous for producing marble and polychrome ceramic cylinders that were traded far and wide.

Provenance: private D. C. collection, California, USA; D. C. is an Emmy Award winning Hollywood writer and Executive Producer, collected before 2000

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#126404

Repaired from three large pieces. Expected surface wear as shown from age, with very well-preserved pigment in most places.