Photo Collection of Stephanie Wood |
Kislak Collection -- Maya Objects |
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| HOLLOW-TRIPOD
BOWL WITH FINIAL ON COVER: DEITY WITH MOVEABLE HEAD, RIDING ALLIGATOR
Early Classic Maya clay covered vessel with peccary legs. The cover shows a Hero Twin astride an alligator. May be another version of K2822 Cosmic alligator. Cache vessels contained objects of veneration and supplication, such as spondylus shells and other sea materials, carved jades, obsidian objects, eccentric-shaped flints, and cinnabar or iron oxide powders. Cache vessels were buried in sacred places such as temples and caves, and in burials of important individuals. The themes of these vessels usually represent celestial journeys. The legs of this vessel take the form of peccary heads resting on their snouts; the peccary, in the Maya sky, is a constellation. On the lid, a figure with an articulated head that allows him to turn in a complete circle, rides on the back of an alligator; the alligator, according to Linda Schele, is part of the Milky Way. In the mythology, Hun Hun Ahpu (First Father and father of the Hero Twins) is transported through the firmament, along the celestial road, the Milky Way. The moving, bobbing head of the figure heightens the sense of motion. [Source: http://www.jayikislakfoundation.org/collections_maya4.html] |
| The Jay I. Kislak Collection of pre-Columbian cultural heritage materials is owned by the Library of Congress. Photograph shot and presented here with permission. |
| Photo,
©2004, by
Stephanie Wood. |
