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The Maya left behind a rich pictorial legacy in their painted ceramics.
Vessels recovered from the Maya
classic period often have funerary associations that offer insights
into the Mayan concept of death as well as the cultures belief
in heroes and gods of the underworld. In this simply designed vase,
a pattern of stylized
water lilies runs at a diagonal and two bands of hieroglyphs
are inscribed horizontally along the rim and base. In Mayan cosmology,
lakes and ponds were viewed as entrances to Xibalbá,
the underworld land of honored ancestors. Water lilies growing in
cenotes,
raised fields, and canals were associated with the spirits of the dead.
The inscription at the base of this vase identifies the artist as nobleman
Lord Flint Face, the son of the rulers of Naranjo, an important site
located in the jungles near the Belize/Guatemala border.
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