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K'iché burial or cache urn lid
Maya
Late Classic Period
AD 650–850
Object Place: Guatemala, Southern Highlands
Medium/Technique
Earthenware: white, black, yellow, blue-green and red paint
Dimensions
132 x 64 cm (51 15/16 x 25 3/16 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of Landon T. Clay
Accession Number1988.1290a
CollectionsAmericas
ClassificationsCeramics – Pottery – Earthenware
The Maize god on the lid symbolizes life after death, as the appearance of maize in the fields each spring was the Maya metaphor for the resurrection of the human soul. Offerings to the dead were made through the lid's opening, which also allowed the living to communicate with the gods and deified ancestors.
Catalogue Raisonné
MS1089
Description
This 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.
This 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.
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.