Cylinder vase depicting a dance scene,

ca. 760 CE

This finely painted vessel, intended for drinking chocolate in a very formal context (probably the meeting of noblemen from several regional kingdoms), likely presents on its painted surface a portion of the event for which it was made. The vessel scene presents four male individuals, each wearing an elaborate animal costume, necklaces, and big white or white-and-red scarves. Relative size and a more frontal bodily posture indicate two figures are the most important or high-ranking; they face each other in almost mirror-image poses. The figures behind each of these men are probably secondary lords operating under the primary lords. Their sweeping hand gestures indicate they are dancing. Although each person's costume is based on a feline (three jaguars and a black panther), all but one of them also incorporate references to other creatures as well - the 'panther's' head, for example, is a bird (probably an owl). The two main characters have red protrusions from the feline costume snouts that reference the 'pincers' of centipedes. Note that three of the figures also wear feather panaches on their heads - although they are now grey, they were once bright green (this pigment is fugitive), representing the long green tail-feathers of the quetzal bird. The style of the painting allows us link this vessel to a particular workshop at a specific city. The light background and presentation of costumed dancers in cut-away form is a common subject in ceramics painted at a site known in ancient times as Ik' ('breath/wind/soul') and today as Motul de San José, located in central Petén, Guatemala, on the western shores of Lake Petén Itzá. Scholars call this particular sub-style of Ik' ceramics the 'Pink Glyph' workshop, as the vessels consistently have red or pink hieroglyphs painter around the rim and as labels to figures in the spaces around them. Although there are limits to what we can do with the hieroglyphs on this vessel, the general meaning is clear. The text around the rim of the vessel states (in a rough gloss): "On X date[unclear, but sometime in the 8th century], King Yajawte' K'inich of the Ik' kingdom danced dressed as the Jaguar Seven-Bird[Eagle?]-Centipede..."[the last portion says something about another place nearby, perhaps where the dance happened or the home town of the other dancer]. The other hieroglyphs next to three of the characters identify them by names and/or titles. Although we assume one of them must be the king mentioned in the rim text (the primary kingly patron of the Pink Glyph workshop), his name does not appear in any caption; perhaps he is referenced with a different title.