Seated male figure with a frame for a mirror

Though the Princeton figure is fragmentary and weathered, the extraordinary degree to which it is preserved suggests that it was protected in a dry secure place, perhaps in the Guatemala Highlands. The head, torso, right arm, and loin cloth of the figure are relatively well preserved, as is the disk, although the glyphs that formed the frame are mostly obliterated. There are traces of gesso on the figure, which probably would have been polychromed. The head is held high and grooved at the base of the crown, probably to hold hair; raised, button-shaped forms follow the line of the jaw of a strong, bold face. The round shield-like object the figure holds before him, framed in glyphs, is pierced in the center and most likely held a mirror made of a mosaic of pyrite, or an obsidian disk. Scenes on painted vessels of this period show important personages gazing into mirrors, often held by attendants. The noble and ceremonial bearing of the Princeton figure suggests the significance of mirrors in the cosmological mysteries of the Maya.