Maya Drinking Vessel with Seated Lord, 7th-8th century

This large ceramic vessel, made for drinking chocolate, shows a figure wearing a loincloth, necklace, and a large headdress that looks like the tail feathers of the quetzal bird. The text, which appears in a glyph block right in front of the figure (only partially visible here), identifies this as “the drinking cup of Baje(?) Kaan Took’, the ruler.” The figure may be the ruler Kaan Took’, as his elbow overlaps the final glyph and he appears to be blowing smoke underneath the glyph block. Maya scribes and artists often created scenes with complex interplay between text and image, as here.

The source is part of the teaching module on Maya writing.