Deciphering Mayan Pottery

Vessel with a Seated Lord, photo by unforth.

In Minneapolis this weekend, at Hamline University, there is a lecture by Dorie Reents-Budet. She is an expert on ancient Maya pottery. She is a curator of ancient American art. I wanted to drive up there - it's pretty close for me - but life intervened. So, as a 'next best thing', I found one of her online articles to read.

The Holmul Dancer Theme In Maya Art discusses a certain type of Maya pottery. Holmul pottery is orange-red and uses a male dancing figure as its central theme. He is probably the maize god, dancing his way out of the underworld as he comes to life once again. He is often accompanied by a figure that is a dwarf or hunchback. He often wears an elaborate backrack which holds a particular god.

The article shows how scholars go about deciphering the pottery. Dr. Reents-Budet is building on previous studies and then adding her own theory. Short panels with five glyphs describe the deity who is carried in the backrack. She feels that the last glyph in each panel is naming the deity again rather than naming a city as previously thought. She points out that sometimes when scholars say that a glyph points to a certain geographical area they are missing the point that the geographical area itself shares a deity's name.

The photo above is a different style pottery, but it does feature the maize god - you can tell by his youth and his corncob shaped head.


Related posts:
The maize god.
The current MY2K article.