Tenampua class painted cylindrical vase
Late Classic Ulúa Valley
This vase was found with the jade pendant in the “Palace Life” section of the exhibit, in a tomb located in an area inhabited by the Lenca, neighbors of the Maya. The theme of blowgun hunters and cormorants is also common in Maya ceramics and demonstrates a significant amount of symbolic sharing across cultural boundaries. Cormorants were associated with the supernatural because they live in three worlds: they fly in the sky, nest on the earth and swim in the water. Although the Hero Twins were blowgun hunters, this scene probably refers to a myth other than the Popul Vuh. Pseudoglyphs encircle the rim.
HM 515
THE NATURAL WORLD
Maya artists produced renderings of types of animals which were significant to the members of society as food, pets or pests. It is difficult to determine if animals depicted on ceramic vessels are parts of purely naturalistic scenes, are related to stories whose texts have not survived from the Classic period or are supernatural creatures. Some of these animals probably represent counterparts of humans, or wayob. Among the present-day Tzotzil Maya of Chiapas it is believed that every individual has an animal counterpart which must be protected from harm in order to stay alive. A person’s status in society determines the kind of wayob he or she possesses.