Object Notes

1968.39.FA Wall panel depicting Ix K'an Bolon in ritual dress (Tabasco, Mexico, Maya)


GENERAL DESCRIPTION
Monumental Maya stone sculpture took the form of free-standing stela and plaza altars, or architectural door lintels and wall panels. The sculptures often combine an elaborate figural scene with hieroglyphic texts, which may appear both outside of and embedded within the figuration.

1964.24 Seated Bearded Man (Maya, Jaina, Campeche)


GENERAL DESCRIPTION
Probably a portrait of a Classic Maya nobleman, this figure wears a large shell on his chest. The Maya favored spiny oyster shells with bright red exteriors and lords often wore them on pilgrimages to important festivals. Maya weavers of the Classic period were famous throughout Mesoamerica for their cotton textiles.

1971.19 Hollow Incised Figure Holding Flute (Figure of a flute player) (Peru, Tembladera)


GENERAL DESCRIPTION  
Tembladera was an ancient burial site in the Jequetepeque Valley on Peru's north coast. Several dozen hollow figurines of ovoid shape have been recovered there, which likely functioned as funerary offerings. Uniquely costumed and decorated with abstract features, each figurine imparts a sense of concealed identity.

1970.3 Stirrup-spout vessel with scroll ornament (Peru, N. Coast, Chongoyape)


GENERAL DESCRIPTION  
The ceramics most closely associated with the Chavín style are monochromatic vessels with textured surfaces. Vessels of similar style have been found in the Chongoyape vicinity of the Lambayeque Valley as well as in the Jequetepeque and Zano valleys.

1969.30 Stirrup-spout vessel: fox head (composite animal head) (Peru, Tembladera, N. Coast, Cupisnique)


GENERAL DESCRIPTION  
Early Horizon Chavín style depictions of animals often combine features of different species, such as avian and terrestrial, to form composite beings that likely represent mythological creatures. The small ears, circular eyes, and projecting muzzle with fangs on this head suggest a fox. Concentric circles such as tho