Shell depicting a marine deity,

ca. 200 CE

Spondylus shells were prized for their vibrant red or orange color throughout the ancient Americas. This object, likely a pectoral or some other costume adornment was made by carefully shaving away the outer, spiny layer and the white interior of such a spondylus shell and making fine incisions on both sides. The outer surface presents a contorted face. Its swollen closed left eye may indicate the battered face of a captive. As such, the shell may have been worn as a ‘trophy head’ rendered in precious material. Other motifs, however, such as a serpent emerging from a spiral shell on the right cheek, may mark the face as that of an unidentified deity. A brief hieroglyphic inscription on the inner surface resists full decipherment, though it likely labels the shell as the property of a Maya king. One glyph is an early version of a glyph associated with the great Maya city of Tikal, located in Guatemala far from the oceanic source of the shell. The implied long distance trade in precious materials is well-attested in Mesoamerica – the exotic character of the material surely added to the value of the object. The style of the glyphs and the imagery are characteristic of very early Maya art, suggesting a date of manufacture in the first centuries AD.