Chamá Vessels Revisited: Advances and Questions on a Northern Maya Highland Painting Style

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.

During the Late Classic period, a distinct painting style in ceramics emerged in the northern Maya highlands of Guatemala, revealing both the mastery of artisans and the worldview of the Maya. The Chamá style, whose vessels were manufactured on the banks of the Chixoy River, shows clear interaction across geographic and linguistic areas of Classic Maya culture. Northern highland ceramics, including the Chamá style, appear frequently in the Grolier catalog published in 1973. In conjunction with other regional styles and objects, these vessels formed the foundation of a unique interpretation and milestone contribution to understanding the Maya underworld, pantheon, court activities, and scribal skills. The Chamá vessels have been one of the most looted in the Maya area with the majority of examples in museum and private collections and only a few known from archaeological contexts. We believe that these vessels present a particular perspective outside the “core” Classic Maya that should be analyzed altogether. This paper presents an update of what we know about Chamá vessels 50 years after Coe’s “The Maya Scribe and His World” by making reference to an under-construction larger database of this painting style.

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)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 35819.0