This lidded polychrome pot bears the hallmarks of a Late Classic period (600–900 CE) Maya drinking vessel. The image is separated into three registers. The top band is a row of glyphs that acts as a dedicatory statement announcing the purpose of the vessel. The middle register depicts the principal action of the scene: five individuals engaged in an offering procession. The bottom register, a dark band dotted with water lilies, situates the scene within a dark and wet environment, like a sacred cave or the watery Underworld. The shadowy location is further intimated by the presence of night glyphs on the bodies of three of the figures in the scene.

 

A fourth figure is marked with a date glyph. The glyphs, 8 Ajaw 3 Yax, or Mak (paint loss on the vessel makes identifying the glyph difficult), may reference a date that occurred during a past generation, thus identifying the individual as an ancestor. Or the date may reference a time in the distant prehuman past, situating the scene in the ancient times of the gods. While the composition and subject of the painting on this pot are typical of Late Classic period Maya vessels, its diminutive size makes it extraordinary. Measuring a mere five inches high without the lid, this pot is one of the finest and most detailed miniature drinking vessels known in the corpus. Because of this, it is an absolute treasure and a remarkable addition to the Fine Arts Museums’ collection. Gifts of Art to the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (San Francisco: Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, 2025), p. 34, entry by Hillary C. Olcott.