Lot 80B
Pre-Columbian, Mayan Territories, Classic Period, ca. 550 to 900 CE. An incredible, well-preserved bowl with a register of beautiful imagery around the exterior, with two full iconographic panels separated by wide orange panels. The images on both sides of the exterior are almost duplicates of each other, with a few minor differences that probably had significance to the maker. The interior of the bowl has a deep red ring around the rim with orange filling in the rest of the bowl below it. The bowl is in the form that the Maya called a lak and is of the type and form that was common to the Classic Period. Size: 7.5" W x 3" H (19 cm x 7.6 cm)
The Mayan Classic Period was marked by wealthy city states ruled by hereditary nobles whose courts supported a retinue of priests and scribes whose importance and number seem to have grown throughout the period. Building on the proto-glyphs of the Olmec, they created a written language that was closely related to - and sometimes indistinguishable from - art. The glyphs here emphasize that.
Laks were used to hold blood-stained bark papers, which were used by Mayan nobles for auto-sacrificial ritual bleedings from the ear lobes, tongue, penis, and sometimes other body parts. This lak appears to have spondulus shell imagery; that type of shell was used to lacerate those body parts to induce the flow of blood. The bead-like symbols may represent the drops of blood. There also appear to be some simplified glyph elements representing death, perhaps an invocation of the lords of death. There may also be a play on the word "kuhul" which means holy, and also a possible use of the word ja which connects to the moon. If this was indeed a blood sacrifice lak, it would have been a treasured grave good of someone whose bloodlines made him or her a noble of some standing, perhaps directly connected to the ruling lord, or the lord himself.
This piece has been submitted to Mayavase.com to be archived and has been assigned Kerr Number 932; it will appear on the database later in the year.
Provenance: private L.N. collection, New Jersey, USA
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#123279
- Condition: Repaired from three or four large pieces, but repairs are well done and nearly invisible. Iconography is in excellent condition.
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