http://collections.mfa.org/collections/314112/objects/rdfArt of Ancient Americashttp://collections.mfa.org/internal/media/dispatcher/765795/resize%3Aformat%3Dfullhttp://collections.mfa.org/internal/media/dispatcher/886038/resize%3Aformat%3DfullBallgame Yoke450–700Carved stonehttp://collections.mfa.org/objects/437046/rdfhttp://collections.mfa.org/internal/media/dispatcher/787284/resize%3Aformat%3DfullCylinder vaseA.D. 755–780Earthenware: red, orange, ochre, brown, gray (originally green), and black on cream slip paintRitual drinking vessel painted with a scene that combines elements from two seminal Maya myths--the sacrifice of the Baby Jaguar-Maize god and the birth of the Maize god at Naah-Jo'-Chan Tz'am, Xaman (First-Five-Sky Altar/House [of the] North), a mythical mountain locale depicted around the base of the scene and named in the hieroglyphic text. The god's name (Jooj?/Ixim?) and the date of the event also are included in the text. A pair of supernaturals greets the newborn god who is depicted in his adult form. The scene is unified by a white cord representing the god's umbilical cord, and the black background indicates the mythical event occurred in the darkness of pre-Creation times. This vase was painted by one of the most accomplished artists of the Classic period.http://collections.mfa.org/objects/36324/rdfhttp://collections.mfa.org/internal/media/dispatcher/995926/resize%3Aformat%3DfullFunerary maskA.D. 700–1520Gold alloyHammered sheet gold pectoral or burial mask embossed with a frontal rendering of a human face with open mouth with bared teeth. Two sets of perforations allow for attachment.http://collections.mfa.org/objects/5844/rdfhttp://collections.mfa.org/internal/media/dispatcher/765896/resize%3Aformat%3DfullIncense burner topA.D. 400–600Earthenware: traces of white, yellow, and red paint, with a micaceous inlayTiquisate Teotihuacan-style incense burner top rendering a human head wearing wide, circular earflares and a large headdress that forms a building which surrounds the figure. The building is decorated with typical Teotihuacán-style circular feathered mirrors or flowers, one with its original inlay of a micaceous stone. Flanking these elements on each side is a star motif, and above is a large butterfly effigy surrounded by long feathers. The figure holds two rectangular shields decorated with tassel elements, a feathered floral motif or mirror, and a wide paper or cloth strip at the top of each shield. The figure wears a wide collar composed of multiple rows of elements including two of round beads, a band of triangular elements with a large earflare at each side, and one with five bivalve shells. Below the collar on the front of the incense burner is another floral/mirror element flanked by butterfly wings.http://collections.mfa.org/objects/36222/rdfhttp://collections.mfa.org/internal/media/dispatcher/1046889/resize%3Aformat%3DfullJaguar effigy metateA.D. 300–700BasaltMetate (grinding stone) with three open-work supports and an open-work jaguar head whose ears are carved in the form of crocodiles. The sculptural style is associated with the Greater Nicoya region of northwestern Costa Rica and sourthern Nicaragua, characterized by delicate, open-work carving and finely incised details. These distinctive metates were used as ceremonial seats, funerary biers, and as grinding surfaces for tobacco and other hallucinogenic plants used during religious rites. The jaguar (or puma) may have been a lineage or clan symbol as also was the crocodile according to .16th-century Spanish sources.http://collections.mfa.org/objects/516135/rdfhttp://collections.mfa.org/internal/media/dispatcher/765894/resize%3Aformat%3DfullK'iché burial or cache urn lidAD 650–850Earthenware: white, black, yellow, blue-green and red paintThis burial or cache urn features the Maize god sitting on the top of the lid and cradling two maize cobs against his chest. Among the Classic Maya, the Maize god symbolized resurrection based on the metaphor of the maize plant emerging in the fields at the beginning of each rainy season. The deity sits on top of a shark-like head denoting the entrance to the watery Underworld, its mouth open to receive offerings. This same shark-like creature is modeled on the urn’s base, and an aged supernatural peers out from the netherworld.http://collections.mfa.org/objects/36205/rdfhttp://collections.mfa.org/internal/media/dispatcher/765795/resize%3Aformat%3DfullPortrait mask900–600 BCJadeite with black inclusionsThis life-sized jadeite mask is the portrait of an important Olmec figure, perhaps that of a ruler. It may have been a symbol of state authority, and perhaps served as a funerary mask tied to a burial bundle. Originally, the mask was green, but it turned gray when put into a fire as part of a ritual. It is one of twenty-seven life-sized masks found in a freshwater spring in the Río Pesquero where it meets the Gulf of Mexico in southern Veracruz. The spring contained hundreds of greenstone artifacts, many of which had been ritually burned prior to depositing in the water.http://collections.mfa.org/objects/36451/rdfhttp://collections.mfa.org/internal/media/dispatcher/761448/resize%3Aformat%3DfullShaman effigy pendantA.D. 900–1600Gold alloyLarge pendant in the form of a standing human male with leaf-nosed bat face mask. His elaborate headdress includes two birds facing front and profile zoomorphic flanges at each side of his head. His hands clutch serpent heads at his thighs. This type of elaborate pendant is popularly referred to as a "cacique pendant", and many represent a high ranking male person in transformation to his spiritual animal companion.http://collections.mfa.org/objects/5301/rdfhttp://collections.mfa.org/internal/media/dispatcher/1499784/resize%3Aformat%3DfullShell paint paletteAD 550–850Conch shellPalette for holding water-based paints carved from a large conch shell and illustrating the formal hand pose of Classic Maya court painters as portrayed on the pictorial ceramics. The position features a hand held palm-upward, with fingers curled towards the palm and the thumb or forefinger pointing forward.http://collections.mfa.org/objects/650551/rdfhttp://collections.mfa.org/internal/media/dispatcher/979942/resize%3Aformat%3DfullTripod plateA.D. 672–830Earthenware: red, orange, and black on cream slipLarge plate with three tall, cylindrical supports ("legs"), each containing a rattle sphere of clay. Painted in the Holmul-style of eastern Guatemala, the image features the Maize god dancing at creation when he set the Three Stones of the cosmic hearth. These stones also are represented by the three attached cup-like forms on the interior of the plate as well as by the legs, painted in a striped black-and-white pattern that symbolizes stone among such Mesoamerican cultures as the Mixtec of Oaxaca. The Maize god dances on an area painted in a cross-hatched motif with fire curls which may portray the fire of creation in the darkness of the pre-creation era. The exterior walls of the plate echo this theme, being decorated with the black-painted waters of the antedeluvian sea and waterlilies.The bottom of the plate is painted with a red circle at its center, which depicts the fire of the cosmic hearth of creation. The long hieroglyphic text eludes full decipherment, but it includes the local version of the Primary Standard sequence, a dedicatory phrase, and may name a male member of the Holmul nobility.http://collections.mfa.org/objects/479592/rdf