Maya ceramics
Elite pottery, usually in the form of straight-sided beakers called "vases", used for drinking, was placed in burials, giving a number of survivals in good condition.
[2] As time progressed, various features were added to ceramics to go beyond the fundamental needs of vessels; For example, pellets were put in larger bowls to not only serve as something to hold food, but would also become instruments used in the same feasts.
[4] Surveys of Maya ceramics a major part of the ongoing controversy over the degree of elite political control over aspects the subsistence economy, the extent of economic centralization, and how it reinforces power (a common debate in the archaeology of complex societies).
[5] As defined and used by Southwestern archaeologists, a ware is "a large grouping of pottery types which has little temporal or spatial implication but consists of stylistically varied types that are similar technologically and in method of manufacture", and "a defined ware is a ceramic assemblage in which all attributes of paste composition (with the possible exception of temper) and of surface finish remain constant.
Most obviously, it means that Postclassic Petén potters recognized and adhered to a decorative canon—a set of rules—for design structure, layout, and colors.
Vessel forms and proportions varied from ware to ware and settlement to settlement, but the principles that structured what kinds of decoration were to be applied, and where and how, were strictly adhered to in at least three production resource-groups (minimally defined by paste compositions) throughout the lakes area (approximately seventy-five kilometers east–west) over three hundred years.
In addition, we were eventually able to successfully predict the decorative types we would find (which would otherwise be a process of categorization) in each ceramic group.A type-variety classification system's criticisms include that it leaves a lot of variability unaccounted for, it should be accompanied by modal analysis, and it has limited use with whole vessels.
[8] "Postclassic slipped and decorated pottery at sites in the Petén Lakes region was manufactured of three distinctive paste wares.
These paste wares were used to manufacture the three most common red-slipped ceramic groups of the Postclassic.... [P]otters across the Petén Lakes area had a fairly uniform and widely shared set of ideas about what constituted proper pottery decoration regardless of their different clay and temper resources.
"[9] "Whether painted or incised, decoration appeared in circumferential bands on the interior walls of tripod dishes (Rice 1983, 1985, 1989).
In 1973, the name Chocholá was first assigned to the waxy, chocolatey, bowls and cylinders, which due to their uniquely carved surfaces, stand out from the majority of ancient Maya ceramics.
... Coe named the style after a small village 30 kilometers southwest of Mérida, near the larger settlement of Maxcanu, from which he was told the ceramics originated"[13] "On a significant number of Chocholá pots the decorative information is restricted to hieroglyphics, either the diagonal band described above, or a more elaborate combination of diagonal glyph bands, rim texts, or a single large Calendar Round date."
In contrast, ceramic types dating to pre-Monte Albán phases generally have descriptive names (e.g., Socorro Fine Gray, Atoyac Yellow-White).
"In the Rosario phase and Early MA I, production loci generally produced both “costly” and utilitarian vessels.
We suspect that these patterns reflect the efforts of rulers at Monte Albán to control the production and distribution of elite pottery, particularly crema vessels.
"[18] characterized by its waxy and lustrous surface finishing, Late Classic to Early Postciassic in northwestern Yucatán peninsula.
[19] "A distinctive incised and graphite-painted red ware pottery known only from Bajos de Chila and four other sites on Oaxaca’s central coast.
"[20] Their great abundance and variety in Bajos de Chila and the Guatemala highlands have suggested a possible greater extent of Maya trade and influence, but Oaxaca coast excavations have been limited.
D. 250) Maya are traditionally called "chocolate pots", but lacked direct evidence that they had use in association with cacao until recently.
Vessels in the palace were more elaborately decorated by carved forms or highly skilled polychrome paintings with hieroglyphs which named their function, the patron and rarely, the artist signature.
Other pots functioned more as storytelling devices, with glyphs from the Maya script that likely were guides for songs or other ritualistic texts.
[25] Black backgrounds often indicate supernatural forces featured in the plate's scene or the depiction of the underworld because of the dark color used.
In the Popol Vuh, the Maize God is represented in a cyclical nature in order for the Maya to understand the human life cycle.
Specific pieces often featured other characteristics such as rattle feet, hollow cylinders located on the bottom of the plate that hold a ball on the inside.
[31] Maya ceramics are made from two main types of materials that relate to their social structure, limestone and volcanic ash.
Whereas the ones made from volcanic ash are more widespread because they were thought to be given as gifts from the upper class to make very large alliances, through the Maya trade systems.
[3] On each ceramic piece near the rim, its contents would be listed out, a type of beverage for a vase or food for a plate, then who it belonged to was written next.
[36] There is evidence in Postclassic Oaxaca that there was significant local production and trade of ceramics independent of the markets at the region imperial capital of Tututepec.
The present-day indigenous Maya, who currently live in Guatemala, Belize and southern Mexico still create wonderful ceramics[editorializing].
Originally, the early Maya used gourds cut into useful shapes to create vessels to carry liquids and foodstuffs.
