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| Type of Object: | Vessel |
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| Materials: | Ceramic |
| Measurements: | 5 to 32 cm. in height. |
| Date or Period: | Late Classic |
| Maker: | Maya |
| Designated List Section: | 3A Polychrome Vessels - Salua |
| Date of Import Restriction: | 03/10/1995 |
| Photograph: | Federico Trujillo |
| Copyright: | Banco Agricola Comercial de El Salvador |
| Description of Designated List Category Subject to Import Restrictions: | |
|---|---|
| Mostly cylindrical vases, usually with very short and wide tabular supports. The larger examples may have two opposing modeled head handles just below the rim representing monkeys or other animals. Bold designs are painted on a cream to orange base, using different combinations of black, dull red, dark orange, and yellow. The normally invisible paste is brick red. Black was often used to create ample panels (or even to cover almost the entire vessel) as a backdrop for featured designs. The principal designs are strikingly displayed and can include: mat patterns (petates), twisted cord patterns, animals (jaguars, parrots, owls, and others), humans, sea shells, ballcourts (represented by a two or four colored ``I''-shaped drawing) and other motifs. Humans are often arrayed in finely detailed costumes and may be represented playing musical instruments, sowing with a digging stick, armed for battle, seated within a structure, or in other attitudes. A decorative option was to excise or stamp designs in panels or registers. The remainder of the vessel (or, if a featured motif is lacking all of the vessel) is decorated with panels and registers with circumferencial bands near the rim and geometric patterns elsewhere. Other vessel forms known for Salua are short cylinders ranging grading into bowls, convex walled bowls (i.e., with bulging sides), composite walled bowls, and jars. Strangely enough, despite their exceptional decoration, colored stucco was sometimes used to cover areas of Salua vessels (when eroded this stucco leaves chalky traces). Salua vessels have rarely been found filled with red pigment. The cylindrical vessels grade into vertical walled bowls over a range of heights from 9 to 32 cm. Bowl diameters range from 15 to 30 cm. | |
| Keywords: | |
| ceramic, container, cylinder vase, painted pottery, polychrome, pottery, vessel, |
