Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-dh8gc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-18T17:18:17.713Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Río Azul cacao pot: epigraphic observations on the function of a Maya ceramic vessel

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

David Stuart
David Stuart*
Affiliation:
Center for Maya Research, PO Box 65760, Washington, DC 20035–5760, USA
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Despite decades of extensive study of ancient Maya ceramics, a few basic questions still vex the archaeologist: What were the actual uses of the distinct types of Maya vessels? How can we determine the precise function of some pottery forms? How can we understand the classification the Maya themselves had for their pots? This brief note, using a recently-discovered vessel from Río Azul, Guatemala, as an illustration, will show that such questions can be addressed using combined data from different analytical approaches. Here I also wish to emphasize the notion that some of the most important sources of information on these issues are the hieroglyphic texts painted or carved on numerous Maya ceramics.

Type
Special section: the archaeology of Maya decipherment
Information
Antiquity , Volume 62 , Issue 234 , March 1988 , pp. 153 - 157
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd 1988

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adams, R.E.W. 1986. Rio Azul reports 2: The 1984 season. San Antonio: Center for Archaeological Research, University of Texas.Google Scholar
Barrera Vasquez, A. 1980. Diccionario Maya Cordemex. Mérida, Yucatán, México: Ediciones Cordemex.Google Scholar
Coe, M.D. 1973. The Maya scribe and his world. New York: Grolier Club.Google Scholar
Hall, G.D. 1986. Results of tomb investigations at Rio Azul, season of 1984, in Adams, 1986: 69–110.Google Scholar
Houston, S.D. & Taube, K.. 1987. ‘Name-Tagging’ in Classic Mayan script: implications for native classifications of ceramics and jade ornament, Mexican 9(2): 38–41.Google Scholar
Longyear, J.M. 1952. Copan ceramics. Washington (DC): Carnegie Institution of Washington. Publication 597.Google Scholar
Lounsbury, F.G. 1973. On the derivation and reading of the ‘Ben-Ich’ prefix, in Benson, E.P. (ed.), Meso-american writing systems: 99–143. Washington (DC): Dumbarton Oaks.Google Scholar
Stuart, D. 1986a. The hieroglyphs on a vessel from Tomb 19, Río Azul, in Adams, 1986: 117–21.Google Scholar
Stuart, D. 1986b. The ‘Lu-Bat’ glyph and its bearing on the Primary Standard Sequence. Paper presented at the First International Symposium on Maya Epigraphy, Guatemala City.Google Scholar
Tozzer, A.M. 1941. Landa’s Relacion de las Cosas de Yucatan. Cambridge: Harvard University. Papers of the Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology 18.Google Scholar