Lower part of a cache vessel

Description:

Mexico/Guatemala, Maya culture, El Petén, El Cotz, Late Classic period, c. 8th century AD
H. 22,6 cm
Red clay, with incised decoration on one outer side. Depiction of the god GI wearing a quadripartite, bird-shaped headdress. The god GI is associated with bodies of water. This ornament, also known as a ‘triadic sign’, is the term for a symbol consisting of a large Kin glyph, a shell, a blood-offering perforator and crossed Bä, held by a kind of bowl. This type of vessel contained ceremonial offerings and was ritually buried at sacred sites or alongside an important figure. The top section is missing.
From an important private collection in southern Germany, acquired between 1975 and 1995
A sketch of the incised decoration is published in Prof. Nicholas M. Hellmuth’s ' Monsters and Humans in Maya Art', 1 January 1987, p. 72, No. 82
A TL analysis dated 17 August 1994 confirms the dating - Partial restoration, minor surface damage, whitening of the incisions partially absent