Plenty of Fish for Fowl in the Watery Worlds of the Kerr Archive

Summary

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 work of Justin Kerr, who initiated a discussion of the theme online and reinforced its merit for iconographic analysis. This paper uses Justin Kerr’s photographs to answer his call to examine the Waterbird Theme, which remains unclear despite its common occurrence in Maya Art. I specifically build upon Justin Kerr’s observations that the Waterbird Theme overlaps with specific deities and corresponds to historic and modern Maya myths. Making sense of this theme offers one piece of the puzzle for a sequence of narratives found on vases in the Kerr Archive that relate to the death, journey, and afterlife of the Maya maize god.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• The Rollout Keepers: Papers on Maya Ceramic Texts, Scenes, and Styles in Honor of Justin and Barbara Kerr   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 38941.0