Each line, whether it be a human face or a comb shape or the spots on a leopard, gives us a greater clue into the gods worshiped in Mayan society or the social and ritual uses of these items by those who were lucky enough to have them. Each figure malevolent of benevolent is intricately designed line by line and color by color. In Van Stone’s description of this vase, he shows the complexity of the many drawings on each vessel. Maya Expert, Mark Van Stone, explains, in depth, some glyphs found on this high edged cacao vase (Van Stone, 2012)
Since the discovery in 1984, archeologists have found many vessels which were used for cacao that contain a variety of glyphs that display the complexity of Mayan written language. These vessels were not the only ones with glyphs. There were a few vessels like the one on the right that were without inscriptions, but these vessels were more for cooking purposes than display. This shows that many people took the time to have their vessels inscribed which indicates that these were prized possessions of the elite that were fortunate to own them. He posits that the ‘wing-quincunx’ glyph shows possession of an object, in this case a vase the ‘fish’ is representative of the syllables of the word kakaw, more specifically the ka syllablable, from which we derive the modern word cacao. Author David Stewart, explores the possible meanings of these symbols when he writes, “The Rio Azul vessel exhibits the two glyphs of the sequence called by Coe the ‘wing-quincunx’ and the ‘fish’” (Stewart, 154). The vessel on the left contains glyphs of various meanings which can give details as to what the container was used for and even who it was owned by. Vessels found in Rio Azul in 1984 (Hall, 1990) Mayan glyphs and vessels teach us how important cacao was in rituals and daily life for the ruling and elite class.įigure 1. What is now an everyday substance and flavoring that is taken for granted, was lauded piously by the Maya. This confirmed the realization that without rituals surrounding death, we would not know what Mayan life was like. The glyphs and testing of the content that remained in and on the vessels lead to information that would help scholars to understand the importance of what we know as cacao, during this time period (Coe & Coe, 91).
Inside of his tomb were 14 vessels, some were inscribed with glyphs while others were left plain. In 1984, archaeologists got a look into what the tomb of a Mayan Ruler looked like when they discovered his place of rest in Pétan City, Guatemala. This was also true of many ancient Mesoamerican societies including the Maya. In modern American society, many would agree that rituals and ceremonies surrounding death are some one the most sacred things that are universally treated as such.
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