The Rollout Keepers: Papers on Maya Ceramic Texts, Scenes, and Styles in Honor of Justin and Barbara Kerr

Part of: Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "The Rollout Keepers: Papers on Maya Ceramic Texts, Scenes, and Styles in Honor of Justin and Barbara Kerr" at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The work of Justin and Barbara Kerr has significantly advanced our understanding of ancient Maya ceramics. With his development of a special roll-out camera, Justin Kerr was able to create single photographs of the scenes decorating the surface of cylindrical vases. Using this technique, the Kerrs built a substantial image corpus of vessels from public and private collections and made these widely available to the scholarly community—first in print, with the “Maya Vase Book,” and later with the creation of the searchable online database Mayavase.com. In 2013, the Kerrs donated their photographic collection of over 60,000 images of Mesoamerican ceramics and artifacts to Dumbarton Oaks. As stewards of this material, we are working to provide new high-resolution scans and catalogue them according to the latest iconographic and epigraphic standards. Using images from the Kerr corpus as well as other comparative material, the papers in this session will examine how ceramic styles, iconographic themes, and hieroglyphic texts interrelate and what this may tell us about Classic period political, economic, or cultural developments. We hope that the Kerr Archive can continue to be a catalyst for cutting-edge research on text and image in Maya ceramic art.

Other Keywords
Maya: Classic • Iconography and epigraphy • Iconography and Art • Ceramic Analysis • Social and Political Organization • History • Collections • Museums • Cultural Transmission • Open access

Geographic Keywords
United Mexican States (Country) • Belize (Country) • North America (Continent) • Peten (State / Territory) • Yucatan (State / Territory) • Orange Walk (State / Territory) • Cayo (State / Territory) • Corozal (State / Territory) • Belize (State / Territory) • Stann Creek (State / Territory)

Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-12 of 12)

  • Documents (12)
Documents
  • Classic Maya Wahys: What, Who, Where, and Why? (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Joanne Baron.

    This is an abstract from the "The Rollout Keepers: Papers on Maya Ceramic Texts, Scenes, and Styles in Honor of Justin and Barbara Kerr" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Kerr cataloging project at Dumbarton Oaks is creating opportunities to re-examine iconographic motifs and hieroglyphic texts on Maya pottery. One avenue in which this has been fruitful is the analysis of vessels depicting wahy creatures. In modern communities, ways are powerful...

  • Contributions of the Kerr Corpus to Maya Paleography: Aspects of Sign Development, Regional Variation, and Idiosyncratic Style in Maya Writing (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Marc Zender.

    This is an abstract from the "The Rollout Keepers: Papers on Maya Ceramic Texts, Scenes, and Styles in Honor of Justin and Barbara Kerr" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Paleography (from Greek παλαιό- ‘old’ and γράφε ‘writing’) was long understood as the study of the origins and development of signs (e.g., De Montfaucon, Paleaeografica Graeca, 1708), but since the welcome focus on ductus (i.e., shape, stance, and stroke-order in sign-formation)...

  • Cups for the King: Ajnumsaaj Chan K’inich of Naranjo and the Emergence of Regional Styles of Classic Maya Elite Serving Vessels (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Dana Moot. Alexandre Tokovinine.

    This is an abstract from the "The Rollout Keepers: Papers on Maya Ceramic Texts, Scenes, and Styles in Honor of Justin and Barbara Kerr" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Distinct regional styles are a hallmark of Lowland Maya elite polychrome ceramic vessels during the Late Classic period (550–820 CE). However, our understanding of the phenomenon has not advanced beyond its mechanics - the presence of attached craft workshops at the courts of...

  • History and Future of the Kerr Photographic Archive of Maya Ceramics (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Frauke Sachse. Daniel Boomhower.

    This is an abstract from the "The Rollout Keepers: Papers on Maya Ceramic Texts, Scenes, and Styles in Honor of Justin and Barbara Kerr" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Kerr Archive constitutes the largest photographic collection of Maya ceramics, including rollouts and stills of more than 5,000 unique artifacts from museums, private collections, and archaeological excavations. Devising their own numbering system, Justin and Barbara Kerr...

  • History in the Round: Painted Cylinder Vases as Sources on Classic Maya Society and Politics (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Simon Martin.

    This is an abstract from the "The Rollout Keepers: Papers on Maya Ceramic Texts, Scenes, and Styles in Honor of Justin and Barbara Kerr" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The cylinder vessel paintings assembled in the Kerr Archive cover a remarkable range of themes, with many of the best-known depicting fantastical beasts and other supernatural actors. But a not insignificant portion of the corpus features scenes of courtly performance and, as a...

  • The Justin Kerr Maya Vase Database and Its Contribution to the Study of Maya Iconography (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Jeremy Coltman.

    This is an abstract from the "The Rollout Keepers: Papers on Maya Ceramic Texts, Scenes, and Styles in Honor of Justin and Barbara Kerr" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. It is hard to overstate the rich intellectual benefits that iconographers and epigraphers have been given through the lens of Justin Kerr’s remarkable Maya Vase Database. It not only brought to light a world of gods, rulers, courts, and vivid bestiary but also revealed complex...

  • Las urnas funerarias de la región noroccidental de Guatemala, en la colección del Museo Nacional de Arqueología y Etnología (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Christopher Martínez Donado.

    This is an abstract from the "The Rollout Keepers: Papers on Maya Ceramic Texts, Scenes, and Styles in Honor of Justin and Barbara Kerr" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. El ser humano a través del tiempo, ha creado maneras de conmemorar la muerte y rememorar a sus antepasados, algunos mediante rituales elaborados y otros por medio de la fabricación de bienes muebles que permiten el tratamiento mortuorio de los individuos. En el caso de la región nor...

  • Plenty of Fish for Fowl in the Watery Worlds of the Kerr Archive (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Jacob Welch.

    This is an abstract from the "The Rollout Keepers: Papers on Maya Ceramic Texts, Scenes, and Styles in Honor of Justin and Barbara Kerr" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Carved along the exterior of a cylinder vase [K6511], two waterfowl grip flailing fish with their beaks. These fishing fowl occur again on polychrome pots, effigy bowls, censer stands, and modeled stucco friezes. Numerous examples of the “Waterbird Theme” came to light through the...

  • Rollout / Not Rollout: Maya Plate Painting and the Kerr Archive (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only James Doyle.

    This is an abstract from the "The Rollout Keepers: Papers on Maya Ceramic Texts, Scenes, and Styles in Honor of Justin and Barbara Kerr" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. While Justin Kerr might be best known for pioneering the rollout photographic technique specific to three-dimensional drinking cups and serving vessels, some of his still photographs of painted plates also proved pivotal to the understanding of Classic Maya religion and history....

  • Unlocking the Secrets of Maya Writing: Justin Kerr and the Decipherment of Maya Script (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Christian Prager.

    This is an abstract from the "The Rollout Keepers: Papers on Maya Ceramic Texts, Scenes, and Styles in Honor of Justin and Barbara Kerr" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The documentation effort within the realm of Maya writing research spans nearly a century and a half, commencing with the systematic recording of Maya inscriptions during the latter part of the nineteenth century. Throughout the initial half of the twentieth century, archaeologists...

  • Vessels at War: The Kerr Archive and the Study of Classic Maya Violence (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Caitlin Earley.

    This is an abstract from the "The Rollout Keepers: Papers on Maya Ceramic Texts, Scenes, and Styles in Honor of Justin and Barbara Kerr" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Rollout images of Maya vases and the database developed by Justin and Barbara Kerr allowed unfettered access to Classic Maya depictions of tribute, palace life, and mythic history. The Kerr Archive also brought into focus marching warriors and captured enemies, some of them...

  • Why Do Pictures Speak? Orality in Maya Hieroglyphic Writing (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Morgan Clark.

    This is an abstract from the "The Rollout Keepers: Papers on Maya Ceramic Texts, Scenes, and Styles in Honor of Justin and Barbara Kerr" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper investigates the relationship between Classic Maya text, imagery, and genre when quoted speech is introduced. Quotes can be attributed to speakers through “speech scrolls,” the quotative evidential particle, or the verb meaning “say.” When the latter two are used, they...