GENERAL DESCRIPTION
In their royal courts, the Maya served beverages made from corn or chocolate in cylindrical ceramic vessels. The hieroglyphic texts on this vessel indicate that it was used for a drink made from sweet cacao pulp. The texts also name two rulers who were associated with kingdoms in what is today the Petén region of Guatemala. The painted scene depicts a Maya game played in a masonry court with a solid rubber ball the size and weight of a bowling ball. Rules required that players hit the ball primarily with their hips, not their hands. In the scene on this vessel, the player on his knees is trying to hit the ball back into play with the big padded belt around his waist. Distinguished by water lily, deer, and bird headdresses, each of the four players wears a hip protector, a hide apron, a padded guard on one forearm, and a knee pad on one knee, all for protection from the blows of the ball during play. We have few eyewitness accounts of the Maya game, which was still played in the highlands of Guatemala when the Spanish arrived, and for that reason, we know little of the rules for scoring and winning. We presume from the sheer number of ball courts in Maya cities that the Maya played the sport on many occasions and that most Maya played or watched the game. However, for the Maya of the Classic period, the ball game was a deeply sacred ritual, and not only a popular sport but a political event that had many levels of meaning and often involved human sacrifice. Significantly, there is no warfare or sacrifice depicted on the vessel.
The hieroglyphic text reveals the vessel is from Hix Witz (Jaguar Hill) and its owner was Spark Mouth K’awil, a “young warrior from Hix-wits.” Hix Witz was centered on the sites of Pajaral, Zapote Bobal, and the smaller La Joyanca in the Petén department of Guatemala.[1] According to archaeologist and epigrapher David Stuart, these sites shared the Hix Witz toponym. In a situation analogous to the sites of Dos Pilas and Aguateca, local power and ritual importance may have shifted back and forth between the two larger centers over time. A caption in the vertical column refers to another royal person, probably one of the ball players: “this is his self (image) in the ball game, strong youth, Sak Muwaan (white bird), holy (divine) king of Ik’ (Motul de San José).” Motul de San José was an ancient Maya site located just north of Lake Petén Itzá in the Petén Basin region of the southern Maya lowlands. It can be supposed that the vessel was dedicated to commemorate Sak Muwaan’s visit to Hixwits or the game played by that “young warrior” in the court of the king of Motul de San José (Ik’). Because the text names two rulers and two kingdoms, this scene may represent an inter-kingdom contest and a reenactment of the primordial ball game. The ball game was often a reenactment of this mythical ball game in which the Hero Twins played ball against the lords of the underworld, and it was ultimately a metaphor for life, death, and regeneration.
[1] Hix Witz is alternatively spelled Hix Wits, Hiix Witz and Hixwitz.
Elaine Higgins Smith, Digital Collections Content Coordinator, 2016.
Drawn From
- Bonnie Pitman, ed., "Cylindrical vessel with ball game scene (1983.148)," in Dallas Museum of Art: A Guide to the Collection (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2012), 46.
- Carol Robbins, Label text, A. H. Meadows Galleries, 2010.
- Dorie Reents-Budet, Painting the Maya universe: Royal Ceramics of the Classic Period (Durham and London: Duke University Press in association with Duke University Museum of Art, 1994): 264.
- Maya Vase Database, "Kerr Number: 2803," 2015, http://research.mayavase.com/kerrmaya_list.php?_allSearch=dallas&hold_search=&vase_number=&date_added=&ms_number=&site=&icon_elements%5B%5D=Ball+or+ballgame&x=0&y=0 (February 25, 2015).
- Mesoweb Encyclopedia, "Hix Witz," Mesoweb, 2015, http://www.mesoweb.com/encyc/index.asp?passcall=rightframeexact&rightframeexact=http%3A//www.mesoweb.com/encyc/view.asp%3Frecord%3D5542%26act%3Dviewexact%26view%3Dnormal%26word%3DWitz%26wordAND%3DHix%26redir%3Dno (February 25, 2015).
NOTES
- Maya, Late Classic, 682–701 C.E. (noted on TMS), updated by KJones on 09/23/13 and 08/12/14.
- Fun Facts Source: Ken Kelsey, Gail Davitt, Mary Ann Allday, Barbara Barrett, and Dana DeLoach, "Cylindrical vessel with ballgame scene (1983.148)," in Ancient American Art at the Dallas Museum of Art, DMA Teaching Packet (Dallas: Dallas Museum of Art, 1995), 16.
Catalogue essays
Artist/designers
Cultures
Pre-Columbian (American): AAT: 300016619
Maya: AAT: 300017826
Lowland Maya: AAT: 300017099
Geography
Guatemala (nation): TGN: 7005493
Petén (department): TGN: 1000727
Motul de San José (ancient site): TGN: 7441526
Hix Witz (Hixwitz / Zapote Bobal / Jaguar Hill / deserted settlement): TGN: 7441547
Process/materials
ceramic (material): AAT: 300235507
clay: AAT: 300010439
paint (coating): AAT: 300015029
glazing (coating): AAT: 300053914
incising: AAT: 300053847
polychrome: AAT: 300252261
coiling (pottery technique): AAT: 300053903
modeling (forming): AAT: 300053130
firing (technique): AAT: 300053887
Historical periods
Classic (mesoamerican period): AAT: 300016983
Late Classic Period: AAT: 300016986
Individuals
Maize God (Hun Hunahpu / First Father / Mesoamerican and Maya deity): DMA
Subject terms
vessels (containers): AAT: 300193015
cups (drinking vessels): AAT: ID: 300043202
ritual vessels: AAT: 300265801
chocolate cups (drinking vessels): AAT: 300043215
figures: AAT: 300189808
human figures: AAT: 300404114
man: AAT: 300025928
portrait: AAT: 300015637
profiles (figures): AAT: 300123319
standing: AAT: 300239500
cartouches (ornament): AAT: 300010256
hieroglyphics (scripts / writing): AAT: 300028721
Maya (Classical Mayan language): AAT: 300388844
rulers (people): AAT: 300025475
headdress: AAT: 300046023
animals: DMA
birds (animals): AAT: 300266506
birds (motifs): AAT: 300375751
deer: AAT: 300250308
myth: AAT: 300201023
deities: AAT: 300343850
sacrifices: AAT: 300263243
ball games (games / activities): AAT: 300239662
ball courts (Mesoamerican): AAT: 300007324
ball game equipment: AAT: 300211062
protective wear (costume): AAT: 300209266
waterlily (nymphaea genus): AAT: 300375575
chocolate: AAT: 300387485
cacao (cocoa bean / chocolate / Theobroma cacao): DMA
underworld (doctrinal concept): AAT: 300343823
heroes: AAT: 300236801
twins: AAT: 300263240
Hero Twins (Hunahpu and Xbalanque / Maya creation deities): DMA
RELATED OBJECTS
PROVENANCE
n.d.: Giselle Charat (b. 1933) [1]
From at least 1971-1983: Patsy R. and Raymond D. Nasher (d. 2007), Dallas [1]
1971-1983: Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, on long-term loan from the above [1], [2], [3]
From 1983: Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, gift of Patsy R. and Raymond D. Nasher [1], [2], [3]
[1] The main source for this provenance is Acquisitions Checklist (n.d., copy in Dallas Museum of Art Collections Records Object File, Confidential). Exceptions and other supporting documents are noted.
[2] The main source for this provenance is Deed of Gift from Patsy R. and Raymond D. Nasher (dated December 20, 1983, copy in Dallas Museum of Art Collections Records Object File, Confidential). Exceptions and other supporting documents are noted.
[3] The name of the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, founded in 1933, was changed to the Dallas Museum of Art in 1983.
AUDIO ASSETS
- 13316058: UMO. Audio: 2012, "Ulama: The Survival of a Mesoamerican Ballgame," Lecture; speaker is Professor of Art History at California State University–Los Angeles, Dr. Manuel Aguilar-Moreno. [Note: May relate to Ballgame Vessel (1983.148)??. Also listed in Maya and Ballgame Content Chunks].
- 13314932: UMO. 13314780: UMO. Audio: TrueHistoryChocolate - 4/20/2006, "The True History of Chocolate," Boshell Family Lecture Series on Archaeology; speaker is Michael Coe, renowned Maya scholar and Professor of Anthropology, Emeritus, Yale University; discussing the origins of chocolate. [2 files]. [Note: May relate to Ballgame Vessel (1983.148)??. Also listed in Maya Content Chunk].
VIDEO ASSETS
12934121: UMO. Video: MayanBallgame - 5/7/2003, "Mayan Ballgame," Documentation: Demonstration of ballgame with players in Ross Avenue Plaza. [Note: Also listed in Maya Content Chunk]
IMAGE ASSETS
- 253364602: UMO. [Caption] Drawing of glyphs around upper edge of 1983.148 (left to right beginning above upside-down L), drawing by Carol Robbins. Source: Scanned from DMA Object File, 1983.148 (Cylindrical vessel with ball game scene), Dallas Museum of Art Collections Records Object File, n.d.
- 253363080: UMO. [Caption] Ballcourt at the Maya site of Uxmal. Source: tato grasso (own work), Wikimedia Commons, accessed: April 27, 2015, http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mesoamerican_ballgame#/media/File:0104_Uxmal.JPG.
WEB RESOURCES
- Khan Academy~Watch a video about the Mesoamerican Ballgame and a Classic Veracruz yoke, with Dr. Rex Koontz and Dr. Steven Zucker.
ARCHIVAL RESOURCES
FUN FACTS
- Located just above the man with the deer-head headdress is the glyph for cacao, which we know as chocolate, an important food that originated in the Americas. The Maya used the pulp that surrounds the cacao seeds in the pod to make a beverage. They also roasted and ground the cacao seeds, which they mixed with water, ground corn, and flavorings like chili and honey to produce a beverage for the elite. A head of foam, or froth, on the Maya chocolate drink was created by pouring the chocolate-based beverage back and forth between two cylindrical vessels like this one. They drank the chocolate beverage from smaller ceramic vessels or from gourd containers. Maya kings sometimes presented ceramic vessels as gifts to other rulers or important nobles. Since the cacao glyph is present on this vessel, this indicates that it was used to hold a cacao beverage.
TEACHING IDEAS
RULES
Apply to objects where number equals 1983.148
Category
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General Description
In their royal courts, the Maya served beverages made from corn or chocolate in cylindrical ceramic vessels. The hieroglyphic texts on this vessel indicate that it was used for a drink made from sweet cacao pulp. The texts also name two rulers who were associated with kingdoms in what is today the Petén region of Guatemala. The painted scene depicts a Maya game played in a masonry court with a solid rubber ball the size and weight of a bowling ball. Rules required that players hit the ball primarily with their hips, not their hands. In the scene on this vessel, the player on his knees is trying to hit the ball back into play with the big padded belt around his waist. Distinguished by water lily, deer, and bird headdresses, each of the four players wears a hip protector, a hide apron, a padded guard on one forearm, and a knee pad on one knee, all for protection from the blows of the ball during play. We have few eyewitness accounts of the Maya game, which was still played in the highlands of Guatemala when the Spanish arrived, and for that reason, we know little of the rules for scoring and winning. We presume from the sheer number of ball courts in Maya cities that the Maya played the sport on many occasions and that most Maya played or watched the game. However, for the Maya of the Classic period, the ball game was a deeply sacred ritual, and not only a popular sport but a political event that had many levels of meaning and often involved human sacrifice. Significantly, there is no warfare or sacrifice depicted on the vessel.
The hieroglyphic text reveals the vessel is from Hix Witz (Jaguar Hill) and its owner was Spark Mouth K’awil, a “young warrior from Hix-wits.” Hix Witz was centered on the sites of Pajaral, Zapote Bobal, and the smaller La Joyanca in the Petén department of Guatemala.[1] According to archaeologist and epigrapher David Stuart, these sites shared the Hix Witz toponym. In a situation analogous to the sites of Dos Pilas and Aguateca, local power and ritual importance may have shifted back and forth between the two larger centers over time. A caption in the vertical column refers to another royal person, probably one of the ball players: “this is his self (image) in the ball game, strong youth, Sak Muwaan (white bird), holy (divine) king of Ik’ (Motul de San José).” Motul de San José was an ancient Maya site located just north of Lake Petén Itzá in the Petén Basin region of the southern Maya lowlands. It can be supposed that the vessel was dedicated to commemorate Sak Muwaan’s visit to Hixwits or the game played by that “young warrior” in the court of the king of Motul de San José (Ik’). Because the text names two rulers and two kingdoms, this scene may represent an inter-kingdom contest and a reenactment of the primordial ball game. The ball game was often a reenactment of this mythical ball game in which the Hero Twins played ball against the lords of the underworld, and it was ultimately a metaphor for life, death, and regeneration.
[1] Hix Witz is alternatively spelled Hix Wits, Hiix Witz and Hixwitz.
Elaine Higgins Smith, Digital Collections Content Coordinator, 2016.
Drawn From
- Bonnie Pitman, ed., "Cylindrical vessel with ball game scene (1983.148)," in Dallas Museum of Art: A Guide to the Collection (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2012), 46.
- Carol Robbins, Label text, A. H. Meadows Galleries, 2010.
- Dorie Reents-Budet, Painting the Maya universe: Royal Ceramics of the Classic Period (Durham and London: Duke University Press in association with Duke University Museum of Art, 1994): 264.
- Maya Vase Database, "Kerr Number: 2803," 2015, http://research.mayavase.com/kerrmaya_list.php?_allSearch=dallas&hold_search=&vase_number=&date_added=&ms_number=&site=&icon_elements%5B%5D=Ball+or+ballgame&x=0&y=0 (February 25, 2015).
- Mesoweb Encyclopedia, "Hix Witz," Mesoweb, 2015, http://www.mesoweb.com/encyc/index.asp?passcall=rightframeexact&rightframeexact=http%3A//www.mesoweb.com/encyc/view.asp%3Frecord%3D5542%26act%3Dviewexact%26view%3Dnormal%26word%3DWitz%26wordAND%3DHix%26redir%3Dno (February 25, 2015).
Fun Facts
- Located just above the man with the deer-head headdress is the glyph for cacao, which we know as chocolate, an important food that originated in the Americas. The Maya used the pulp that surrounds the cacao seeds in the pod to make a beverage. They also roasted and ground the cacao seeds, which they mixed with water, ground corn, and flavorings like chili and honey to produce a beverage for the elite. A head of foam, or froth, on the Maya chocolate drink was created by pouring the chocolate-based beverage back and forth between two cylindrical vessels like this one. They drank the chocolate beverage from smaller ceramic vessels or from gourd containers. Maya kings sometimes presented ceramic vessels as gifts to other rulers or important nobles. Since the cacao glyph is present on this vessel, this indicates that it was used to hold a cacao beverage.
Archival Resources
Web Resources
- Khan Academy~Watch a video about the Mesoamerican Ballgame and a Classic Veracruz yoke, with Dr. Rex Koontz and Dr. Steven Zucker.
Notes
- Maya, Late Classic, 682–701 C.E. (noted on TMS), updated by KJones on 09/23/13 and 08/12/14.
- Fun Facts Source: Ken Kelsey, Gail Davitt, Mary Ann Allday, Barbara Barrett, and Dana DeLoach, "Cylindrical vessel with ballgame scene (1983.148)," in Ancient American Art at the Dallas Museum of Art, DMA Teaching Packet (Dallas: Dallas Museum of Art, 1995), 16.
Catalogue essays
Artist/designers
Cultures
Pre-Columbian (American): AAT: 300016619
Maya: AAT: 300017826
Lowland Maya: AAT: 300017099
Geography
Guatemala (nation): TGN: 7005493
Petén (department): TGN: 1000727
Motul de San José (ancient site): TGN: 7441526
Hix Witz (Hixwitz / Zapote Bobal / Jaguar Hill / deserted settlement): TGN: 7441547
Process/materials
ceramic (material): AAT: 300235507
clay: AAT: 300010439
paint (coating): AAT: 300015029
glazing (coating): AAT: 300053914
incising: AAT: 300053847
polychrome: AAT: 300252261
coiling (pottery technique): AAT: 300053903
modeling (forming): AAT: 300053130
firing (technique): AAT: 300053887
Historical periods
Classic (mesoamerican period): AAT: 300016983
Late Classic Period: AAT: 300016986
Individuals
Maize God (Hun Hunahpu / First Father / Mesoamerican and Maya deity): DMA
Subject terms
vessels (containers): AAT: 300193015
cups (drinking vessels): AAT: ID: 300043202
ritual vessels: AAT: 300265801
chocolate cups (drinking vessels): AAT: 300043215
figures: AAT: 300189808
human figures: AAT: 300404114
man: AAT: 300025928
portrait: AAT: 300015637
profiles (figures): AAT: 300123319
standing: AAT: 300239500
cartouches (ornament): AAT: 300010256
hieroglyphics (scripts / writing): AAT: 300028721
Maya (Classical Mayan language): AAT: 300388844
rulers (people): AAT: 300025475
headdress: AAT: 300046023
animals: DMA
birds (animals): AAT: 300266506
birds (motifs): AAT: 300375751
deer: AAT: 300250308
myth: AAT: 300201023
deities: AAT: 300343850
sacrifices: AAT: 300263243
ball games (games / activities): AAT: 300239662
ball courts (Mesoamerican): AAT: 300007324
ball game equipment: AAT: 300211062
protective wear (costume): AAT: 300209266
waterlily (nymphaea genus): AAT: 300375575
chocolate: AAT: 300387485
cacao (cocoa bean / chocolate / Theobroma cacao): DMA
underworld (doctrinal concept): AAT: 300343823
heroes: AAT: 300236801
twins: AAT: 300263240
Hero Twins (Hunahpu and Xbalanque / Maya creation deities): DMA
RELATED OBJECTS
PROVENANCE
n.d.: Giselle Charat (b. 1933) [1]
From at least 1971-1983: Patsy R. and Raymond D. Nasher (d. 2007), Dallas [1]
1971-1983: Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, on long-term loan from the above [1], [2], [3]
From 1983: Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, gift of Patsy R. and Raymond D. Nasher [1], [2], [3]
[1] The main source for this provenance is Acquisitions Checklist (n.d., copy in Dallas Museum of Art Collections Records Object File, Confidential). Exceptions and other supporting documents are noted.
[2] The main source for this provenance is Deed of Gift from Patsy R. and Raymond D. Nasher (dated December 20, 1983, copy in Dallas Museum of Art Collections Records Object File, Confidential). Exceptions and other supporting documents are noted.
[3] The name of the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, founded in 1933, was changed to the Dallas Museum of Art in 1983.
AUDIO ASSETS
- 13316058: UMO. Audio: 2012, "Ulama: The Survival of a Mesoamerican Ballgame," Lecture; speaker is Professor of Art History at California State University–Los Angeles, Dr. Manuel Aguilar-Moreno. [Note: May relate to Ballgame Vessel (1983.148)??. Also listed in Maya and Ballgame Content Chunks].
- 13314932: UMO. 13314780: UMO. Audio: TrueHistoryChocolate - 4/20/2006, "The True History of Chocolate," Boshell Family Lecture Series on Archaeology; speaker is Michael Coe, renowned Maya scholar and Professor of Anthropology, Emeritus, Yale University; discussing the origins of chocolate. [2 files]. [Note: May relate to Ballgame Vessel (1983.148)??. Also listed in Maya Content Chunk].
VIDEO ASSETS
12934121: UMO. Video: MayanBallgame - 5/7/2003, "Mayan Ballgame," Documentation: Demonstration of ballgame with players in Ross Avenue Plaza. [Note: Also listed in Maya Content Chunk]
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