Polychrome Bowl With Heron Motif

BRIEF DESCRIPTIONThis is a Maya bowl encircled by herons on the exterior and decorated with rows of red dots radiating out from the center to the rim on the interior.WHERE WAS IT MADE?This bowl was made in Central America.HOW WAS IT MADE?This bowl was likely made with the coil method. In this method, a base is made by shaping clay into a flat disc. Then hand formed coils of clay, like ropes, are successively added to one another, building up the walls of the bowl. A tool such as a wooden paddle is used to smooth the sides both inside and out, leaving no trace of the coils. Before the bowl was fired in an earthen pit, it was painted with slip. Unlike resin-based paints applied after firing, which wash off if scrubbed and burn off when heated, slip-painted decoration is relatively resistant to ordinary wear and tear. Slip paint is made by mixing different-colored clays or ground mineral pigments with water. Although some colors are naturally present in the clay, others can be made by adding powdered minerals to clay; for example, minerals high in iron produce rich oranges and reds, while those containing various forms of copper produce blues and greens.HOW WAS IT USED?We do not know for sure how this bowl was used. Except for contact-period ceramics and for some grave goods, it is very difficult to determine who used any given piece of pottery, and under what circumstances. Were some vessels reserved for special guests, or for use by high-status elders? Were they used during special religious ceremonies or rituals? Was their use avoided by certain classes of people, such as children and/or menstruating women? As we venture farther back into the past, answering such questions becomes increasingly difficult. Although it is tempting to draw on information from modern traditional societies and from contact-period chronicles, inferences drawn from such sources must be used with care.WHY DOES IT LOOK LIKE THIS?Herons and other water-birds were important in Maya cosmology due to their ability to live in and travel between the different spheres of existence. Because they walk on land, they are part of the terrestrial world; because they fly, they are part of the celestial world; because they dive into water, they are part of the underworld. This ability to span all three worlds was viewed with awe and respect. The style of this bowl is characteristic of those from the periphery of the Maya world.ABOUT THE MAYA CULTURE:The Maya civilization was one of the premier civilizations of Mesoamerica, achieving great masterpieces of art and architecture, a sophisticated calendrical system, and a formal system of writing that has only been deciphered in the past several decades. A much more detailed view is emerging of the Mayan city-states located in the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico, Belize, and adjacent areas of Guatemala and Honduras. Although the exact details of the Maya collapse in the 800’s are still controversial, it appears that excessive warfare and violence, coupled with environmental degradation and the stress of a large population, led to the demise of this once-vibrant culture. Populations crashed, with survivors of the urban centers dispersing to more rural areas.