MAYAN SHELL PECTORAL

CLASSIC, CA. A.D. 450 - 650

Details

MAYAN SHELL PECTORAL
CLASSIC, ca. A.D. 450 - 650
carved in the interior of a shell, with the profile torso of a dignitary with carefully rendered facial features, lips slightly parted, a floral element emanating from his nose referring to 'fragrant breath,' adorned with massive jade jewelry and an elaborate headdress of plumes and zoomorphic heads probably incorporating the nobleman's name, the left arm with fist clenched and fingers demarcated, glyphic device within possibly 7 PET or '7 islands,' covered in red pigment and pierced twice for suspension.
Width 4 in. (10.2 cm.)

Provenance

Southwestern Private Collection since the late 1960s

Lot Essay

Cf. Lords of Creation, pl. 65

Shell pectorals are often depicted on Jaina figures (fig. 1) and in the corpus of painted ceramics. Mayan nobility are depicted for the most part solely wearing an ex, loincloth, but also wore necklaces with pectorals of carved shell to signal their status and wealth. Here the single arm bent around a glyph indicates that this is an 'ancestoral pectoral' depicting the head of an ancestor as a parial, smoky being. The shell pendant would have been worn with the ancestor facing down.

See front cover

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