Tripod Vessel

300-600; Maya; Carved and stuccoed blackware; height 26 cm (10. in.); Founders Society Purchase, Arthur H. Nixon Fund; 1984.12

Mortuary offerings were placed in the tombs of Mayan noblemen to assist the deceased in their passage to the watery underworld. Funerary objects such as this were often decorated with symbols of water, marine vegetation, and animals. The painted body and lid of this vessel depict white water lillies floating against a green-blue background; the water lily was seen as a plant that connects the underworld of water to the air of our world above. The petals of the lillies enclose red hieroglyphic signs which allude to illustrious rulers and their titles. The carved areas, colored red, feature a complex array of interlocking scrolls which also symbolize water.

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