/internal/media/dispatcher/979942/resize%25253Aformat%25253DthumbnailTripod plateA.D. 672–830Overall: 14 x 33 cm (5 1/2 x 13 in.)Earthenware: red, orange, and black on cream slipMuseum purchase with funds donated by Lavinia and Landon T. Clay2006.8441Large 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.
Ceramics14.000000000047959201