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K'iché burial or cache urn lid
Maya
Late Classic Period
A.D. 650–850
Object Place: K'iche, Guatemala, Southern Highlands
Medium/Technique
Earthenware: white, blue and black post-fire paint
Dimensions
53 x 64 x 44 cm (20 7/8 x 25 3/16 x 17 5/16 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of Landon T. Clay
Accession Number1988.1297a
CollectionsAmericas
ClassificationsCeramics – Pottery – Earthenware
DescriptionThis unusual rectangular burial urn lid has a circular hole cut into its front to give access to the urn's interior. The hole is flanked by low-relief, profile renderings of a rearing jaguar, the same image appearing on the front of the urn's bottom section. Atop the lid is a modeled and painted anthropomorphic being who wears circular earflares and strings of round beads around his neck and below his knees and tubular beads on his wrists. He may be identified as the Maize god because a stalk of maize emerges from the top of his loin cloth/hip wrap and he holds a maize cob in his left hand. He also has attributes of the solar deity K'inich Ajaw, including a tau-shaped tooth and close-cropped hair His double-flanged headdress is embellished with a low-relief rendering of a double-headed serpent. Traces of carbon are found on the exterior of the lid and its base (1988.1297b), indicating that the urn came into contact with fire perhaps associated with burial or cache rituals.
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.