Maya ceramics

Painted Classic Period vase from Sacul in Guatemala

Maya ceramics are ceramics produced in the Pre-Columbian Maya culture of Mesoamerica. The vessels used different shapes, colors, sizes, and had varied purposes. Vessels for the elite could be painted with very detailed scenes, while utilitarian vessels were undecorated or much simpler. Elite pottery, most often in the form of straight-sided beakers often called "vases", used for drinking chocolate, was often placed in burials, giving a number of survivals in good condition. Individual examples include the Princeton Vase and the Fenton Vase.

Form and function

Used for a plethora of daily activities, such as the storage of food and beverages, ceramics were also a canvas of commemoration.

Decoration

The utilitarian ware of the common people usually possessed only modest decoration. The funerary ware of the elite was often more elaborate. Strategic Mesoamerican ballgames, rituals, and death were key subjects painted or inscribed on the vessels.

Production techniques

Maya vase depicting a costumed noble; burial offering. Late classical period (600-900 CE). Copán, Honduras.

The Maya had specific techniques to create, inscribe, paint, and design pottery. To begin creating a ceramic vessel the Maya had to locate the proper resources for clay and temper. The present-day indigenous Maya, who currently live in Guatemala, Belize and southern Mexico still create wonderful ceramics. Prudence M. Rice provides a look at what the current Guatemalan Maya use today for clay. Highland Guatemala has a rich geological history comprised mainly from a volcanic past. The metamorphic and igneous rock, as well as the sand and ash from the pumice areas provide many types of tempering. In the area, there are a range of clays that create varied colors and strengths when fired. Today's Maya locate their clays in the exposed river systems of the highland valleys. It is hypothesized that the ancient people obtained their clay by the same method as today's Maya. The clays are located in exposed river systems of the highland valleys. Most likely, due to the climatic similarities over the last millennia it is likely that these same deposits or similar ones could have been used in early times.

Once the clay and temper were collected, pottery creation began. The maker would take the clay and mix it with the temper (the rock pieces, ash, or sand). Temper served as a strengthening device for the pottery. Once worked into a proper consistency, the shape of the piece was created.

A potter's wheel was not used in creating this pottery. Instead, they used coil and slab techniques. The coil method most likely involved the formation of clay into long coiled pieces that were wound into a vessel. The coils were then smoothed together to create walls. The slab method used square slabs of clay to create boxes or types of additions like feet or lids for vessels. Once the pot was formed into the shape, then it would have been set to dry until it was leather hard, then it was painted, inscribed, or slipped. The last step was the firing of the vessel. Kilns were used to fire the vessels, and they were normally found outside in the open air. Unlike many modern kilns, they were fired by wood, charcoal, or even grass.

Like the Ancient Greeks, the Maya created clay slips from a mixture of clays and minerals. The clay slips were then used to decorate the pottery. By the fourth century, a broad range of colors including yellow, purple, red, and orange were being made. However, some Mayan painters refrained from using many colors and used only black, red, and occasionally cream. This series of ceramics is termed the "Codex-style", it being similar to the style of the Pre-Columbian books.

From the 5th century onwards, post-firing stucco was adopted from Teotihuacan. By preparing a thin quicklime, the Maya added mineral pigments that would dissolve and create rich blues and greens that added to their artistic culture. Many times this post-fire stucco technique was mixed with painting and incising. Incising is carving deeply or lightly into partially dried clay to create fine detailed designs. This technique was mostly popular during the Early Classic Period.

Development chronology

The Maya were a diverse people whose culture has developed through the centuries. As they developed, so did their pottery. Archaeologists have found stages of commonality between types of ceramics, and these phases coincide with the Mayan timeline.

Middle Preclassic (900/800-250 BC) Late Preclassic (250 BC- AD 250)Early Mayan ceramics stemmed from a past that began even years before the Maya became a group. Originally, the early Maya used gourds cut into useful shapes to create vessels to carry liquids and foodstuffs. These portable and durable gourds made excellent containers. The first ceramics closely resembled gourds and many were decorated with rocker stamps and simple slips. During the Late Preclassic period, many of the ceramics took on appendages of tetrapod mammiform supports. These supports were four legs underneath the pot holding it up. Tetrapods are relatively rare in the Maya Lowlands- even in the Peten where they were first described. Characteristic cream-on-red stripes colored these unique vessels.

The pottery of the Maya Early Classic dated from AD 250 to 550. The Maya soon began using polychrome slip paint, meaning they used many different colors to decorate the pots. This method of decoration became almost homogeneous for Mayan potters, thus signaling the beginning of the Classic Period. Polychrome pottery was a luxury item not commonly available to the general population. Most Early Classic Ceramics were monochrome types. Figural Polychromes were an elite prerogative, probably produced by and for other elites. The Classic Period of the Maya provided beautiful ceramics in many forms. The lidded basal flange bowl was a new style of potter to add to the already growing repertoire. This type vessel usually had a knob on top in the form of an animal or human head, while the painted body of the animal or human spreads across the pot. Many of these pots also had mammiform supports, or legs. These unique vessels are usually found in great condition signaling a ritual function. The reason many are in good condition is their frequent use as burial goods. As such, they are often the target of looters who cut deep trenches through many Maya buildings in search of a marketable vessel.

Sample timelines

Chama Style Vessel.

There is no 'standard' timetable for Maya ceramics. There is significant variability in timing and content between sites. The first table below lists the ceramic complexes for Uaxactun (1955, modified, 2000), and may not apply to any other site.

Period	Ceramic Sphere	Approximate Date
Terminal Classic	Tepeu III	AD 850-?
Late Classic	Tepeu II	AD 700-850
Late Classic	Tepeu I	AD 550-700
Early Classic	Tzakol	AD 250-550
Late Preclassic	Chicanel	350 BC - AD 250
Middle Preclassic	Mamon	600-350 BC

Version of a Maya ceramic timetable, adapted from a tourist booklet for Chichen Itza, 1984, based on Valliant's work from 1927, and modified from Smith's 1955 work at Uaxactun. It is an mix of phases, types, and technology, and therefore of indicative value only.

Period	Ceramic Type	Approximate Date
Red Pottery	Period of Mexican Absorption	AD 1200-1540
Maya-Toltec or Mexican Period	Fine Orange	AD 975-1200
Interregnum or Transitional	Plumbate	AD 925-975
Classic	Tzakol and Tepeu	Collapse AD 800-925 Florescence AD 625-800 Early AD 325-625 Classic AD 325-925
Formative or Preclassical	Mamom and Chicanel	500 BC - AD 326

References

• Coe, Michael, (1999) The Maya (6th ed.), New York: Thames and Hudson.
• Miller, Mary Ellen (1999) Maya Art and Architecture, New York: Thames and Hudson.
• Reents-Budet, Dorie, et al. (1994) Painting the Maya Universe: Royal Ceramics of the Classic Period, Durham, NC: Duke University Press.