Description:

Pre-Columbian, Honduras, Mayan Ulua Valley, ca. 550 to 850 CE. A wonderful rattling polychrome cylinder vessel standing on three legs with rich iconography that most likely depicts a marriage ceremony. The legs rattle. Registers of glyphoid symbols are at top and bottom, while repeated panels show two figures, elaborately dressed, facing each other, separated by panels with complex weaving patterns that symbolically suggest connection. The two figures probably represent the joining of members of aristocratic houses. Elite Mayan lineages - which may have had either patrilineal or matrilineal descent lines - seem to have been very important and the joining together of families would have been a place for celebration. Size: 4.9" W x 5.1" H (12.4 cm x 13 cm).

The Ulua Valley, centered around the large city of Cerro Palenque, is a mystery for archaeologists - unlike the Maya, they left no written records (the glyphoid designs on this vessel do not form words), and their connection to the Classic Maya is unclear. It seems to have been a point of trade and transport - a connecting link - between the Maya world further north and Central America. The pottery from the Ulua Valley is part of a very unique tradition different even from those found at nearby Copan.

Provenance: private Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA collection, acquired from Whelan Fine Art Gallery

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#124825

  • Condition: Repaired from multiple pieces, with well done repairs that are almost impossible to see and do not disrupt the iconography. Rattle still functional!

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August 3, 2017 7:00 AM MDT
Louisville, CO, US

Artemis Fine Arts

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