Some artists experimented with bold graphics and abstracted images, such as in the distinctive slateware ( 1989.314.20 ) from the northern Maya area.Ĭeramics did more than hold things. Creativity in painted ceramics is evident in complex scenes and texts, for example scenes in which disembodied deity heads ( 2005.435 ) float in watery cartouches. There, artists used distinctive black-and-white chevron borders to delineate scenes of rulers and deities. Certain regions within the Classic Maya area developed distinctive styles of chocolate-drinking cups, such as the Chamá style of the Guatemalan highlands ( 1999.484.2 ). Many vessels also held foamy, savory chocolate beverages. Indeed, many of these vessels likely held alcoholic beverages in the form of fermented maize drinks or pulque, derived from agave. Other rituals, normally witnessed by very few people, were important subjects for painted pottery, such as an enigmatic scene in which a woman helps a man administer an alcoholic enema to himself in repeated vignettes ( 1993.441 ). Painted plates and vases often feature musicians in action, such as a plate with a trumpeter ( 1989.110 ), and they underscore the importance of music to Maya ceremonies. The Mesoamerican ballgame was an important aspect of elite Maya culture, and ballplayers were often depicted on painted ceramics one lidded vessel with the body in the shape of a “yoke,” part of the ballgame apparel, has an incised scene of ballplayers on its neck ( 1970.138a,b ).

Other, more mortal rituals on ceramic vessels provide clues to the important activities that Maya rulers undertook. Maya kings and queens, sitting on similar thrones in the human realm, often impersonated deities through costume and performance, perhaps reenacting the scenes on the painted pottery before them.

A vessel showing deities on jaguar-covered thrones ( 1978.412.159 ) underscores the mythological origins of Maya rulership. Ceramics became the canvases of artists to create scenes of myths, often dedicated to their patrons with hieroglyphic texts. These artists seem to have been sponsored by the royal courts of self-proclaimed divine rulers at sites like Tikal and Calakmul. 250–900), however, artists developed an extensive repertoire of polychrome vessels that were painted with a variety of geometric and figural designs. Creativity abounds in the forms of monochrome footed vessels, including those with lids featuring creatures such as a water bird catching a fish in its mouth ( 1984.614a,b ).Įarly experiments with polychrome vessels include a resist technique ( 1982.207.5 ), using wax in conjunction with slips to produce patterns of positive and negative coloration. These pellets would have made noise with the movement of the vessel, transforming serving vessels into sonorous instruments at feasts or other rituals. Around the first century A.D., ceramic vessels appear with enlarged, hollow supports with pellets inside ( 1982.207.1 ). Potters eventually added supports to wide plates and bowls. Ceramic artists experimented with different forms on monochrome vessels, such as vertical fluting on the walls of tall vessels ( 1982.207.6 ). The spectrum of slips on early pottery is limited to reds, creams, and blacks, but often potters would experiment with different firing temperatures and environments to create mottled surfaces, like red with black accents ( 1982.207.7 ). Before firing, the surface would be covered in slips, or mineral mixtures dissolved in water, created to give the vessels specific colors and brilliance.īy the final centuries B.C., artists were engineering beautiful monochrome vases. Tempers include such materials as crushed-up sherds (grog), ground limestone (calcite), or even volcanic ash, presumably imported from the volcanic landscape of the Guatemalan highlands. Selecting the clays first, usually from local sources, potters would then fold in different tempers, or additives, to achieve a desired consistency or aesthetic quality. The process of creating ceramics involved many steps and different materials, both local and imported. Ceramic vessels nourished in both life and death: they held food and drink for daily life, but also offerings in dedicatory caches and burials, which range from the simplest graves to the richest royal tombs.Īll Maya pottery was built by hand as opposed to on a potter’s wheel. They began constructing monumental buildings, sculpting in various media, and creating durable containers out of fired clays. In the first millennium B.C., peoples speaking Mayan languages settled in agricultural villages across the Yucatan Peninsula.

Ceramica creative collection figurines