This vase depicts an event from the Popol Vuh—the sacred book of the Quiché branch of the Maya—which was a popular subject during the Late Classic period (550-800). Dating to the 16th century, the version of the book that survives today is only a fragment of what was once a long mythic cycle akin to Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey.
The Popol Vuh recounts the epic adventures of the Hero Twins, Hunahpu and Xbalanque. On this vase, the two are seen using their blowguns to hunt waterbirds in a swamp or river. The black spots that cover their bodies identify the boys as gods. Two moments from the same narrative are illustrated on the vase. The playful scene depicted first shows one twin shooting a stone pellet at an evil-looking bird with a fish in its beak. The pellet is in the form of a small glyph representing a stylized skull. In the image that follows, the pellet has struck its prey. A bird waiting nearby snatches up the released fish. The blowguns detailed here are much like those still made today in the highlands of Guatemala.
From the Popol Vuh
“Now we shall tell how the two youths shot their blowguns at Vucub-Caquix [a great monster bird] .... They lay in ambush at the foot of the tree, hidden among the leaves. Vucub-Caquix came straight to his meal of nantzes. Instantly he was injured by a discharge from [a] blowgun, which struck him squarely in the jaw, and screaming, he fell straight to earth from the treetop.”
As the decoration of Maya pottery became increasingly complex, the shapes of vessels became correspondingly simpler. Cylinder vases provided an uninterrupted surface on which to render the elaborate narrative scenes of the Late Classic period. The use of black line to provide fine detail—as on this vase—is characteristic of the best Maya painting. Potters often covered their vessels with white slip before embellishing them with linear black decoration, in what archaeologists call a Codex Style. However, the creator of this vessel used a red background and also added orange glyphs. This colorful combination is rare in Mayan pottery.
The Maya people inhabited the region that is now Guatemala in Central America, a mostly mountainous terrain with a narrow coastal plain. The climate is tropical—hot and humid in most areas, although cooler in the highlands.
Maya civilization inherited much of its culture and technology from the Olmec people who preceded it. Between 1200 and 900 B.C., the Olmec had created the first complex civilization in Mesoamerica. Like the Olmecs, the Maya became masters of mathematics, astronomy, and architecture. During the Late Classic period—when this vessel was made—Maya civilization was at the height of its splendor. The Maya people had refined their calendar and developed a written language that accurately recorded their history. The great Mayan ruins visited by archaeologists and tourists today are the remnants of cities built during this period.
Mysteriously, however, these cities were abandoned during the same era in which they were constructed. Archaeologists speculate that the mass relocation of the Maya may have been the result of climatic changes or food shortages. The Maya are believed to have retreated to the Guatemalan highlands, where their descendants still live.
