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Dish
Maya
Late Classic Period
A.D. 700–750
Place of Manufacture: El Petén, Guatemala, central Petén lowlands
Medium/Technique
Earthenware: red, pink, black and white on cream ground
Dimensions
9.4 x 25 cm (3 11/16 x 9 13/16 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of Landon T. Clay
Accession Number1988.1183
CollectionsAmericas
ClassificationsCeramics – Pottery – Earthenware
This dish features the longest hieroglyphic text on any Maya pottery vessel. It records events before the advent of humans, including the births of deities. An artist, wearing a king-vulture head mask and the white head wrap of Maya scribal painters, sits above his signature, which includes a title shared with the gods of cosmic creation.
Catalogue Raisonné
MS1848; Kerr 1440
DescriptionThis bowl is painted with four pictorial scenes and the longest hieroglyphic text in the known corpus (as of 2004) of Classic Maya painted ceramics (composed of 88 glyphs). The scenes depict esoteric rituals whose participants are both supernatural and human. The text recounts events in mythological time as well as the accession to the throne of a lord from an unknown site in the central Petén lowlands of Guatemala. His name also is painted on the walls of Naj Tunich Cave in southeastern Guatemala. The painter's name and titles are included near the end of the text. The interior of the bowl is painted with a horizontal band of disembodied human eyeballs and crossed bones resembling human femurs.
InscriptionsLong Count recording ancient time (1.14.3.3.12 9 Eb 10 Muwan), mythological events and protragonists, and the accession of a historical person on January 25, A.D. 717 (1 Ajaw 8 K'umku 9.14.5.4.0). This date is 3,159 years after the initial Long Count date.
ProvenanceBetween about 1974 and 1981, probably purchased in Guatemala by John B. Fulling (b. 1924 – d. 2005), The Art Collectors of November, Inc., Pompano Beach, FL; May 20, 1987, sold by John B. Fulling to Landon T. Clay, Boston; 1988, year-end gift of Landon Clay to the MFA. (Accession Date: January 25, 1989)
NOTE: This is one in a group of Maya artifacts (MFA accession nos. 1988.1169 – 1988.1299) known as the “November Collection” after John Fulling’s company, the Art Collectors of November, Inc. John Fulling sold this group of objects to MFA donor Landon Clay in 1987, and they were given to the Museum the following year.
Evidence suggests that John Fulling built the November Collection from sources in Guatemala between 1974 and 1981. Only a portion of what he acquired during this time came to the MFA in 1988. It is not possible to determine precisely which objects were acquired when or from whom.
NOTE: This is one in a group of Maya artifacts (MFA accession nos. 1988.1169 – 1988.1299) known as the “November Collection” after John Fulling’s company, the Art Collectors of November, Inc. John Fulling sold this group of objects to MFA donor Landon Clay in 1987, and they were given to the Museum the following year.
Evidence suggests that John Fulling built the November Collection from sources in Guatemala between 1974 and 1981. Only a portion of what he acquired during this time came to the MFA in 1988. It is not possible to determine precisely which objects were acquired when or from whom.