Media and Meaning in “The Maya Scribe and His World”

Summary

This is an abstract from the "A Celebration and Critical Assessment of "The Maya Scribe and His World" on its Fiftieth Anniversary" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Among Michael Coe’s many contributions to Maya studies with his landmark show and publication “The Maya Scribe and His World” was the observation that imagery on Classic Maya ceramics is different from imagery on carved stone monuments. Coe notes this gap between ceramic and stone imagery several times in his catalog, and indeed, we could consider this a driving force for the exhibition itself. Yet the ramifications of that gap remain largely unexplored. In this paper, I examine our current understanding of imagery on ceramic vessels versus imagery on stone sculpture, focusing particularly on representations of violence and sacrifice. Including objects from “The Maya Scribe and His World” as well as works that retain their primary context, I consider how the provenience of objects helps us approach this topic—and what is lost when a Maya ceramic is severed from its past.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• A Celebration and Critical Assessment of "The Maya Scribe and His World" on its Fiftieth Anniversary   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 36413.0