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An Unusual Mayan Bowl

When we purchased a small estate in Miami, 2 years ago, one of the pieces that we bought was a small Mayan bowl.

 

Everyone liked it, but we couldn't figure out what was represented.

 

It's a fairly standard black background bowl from the Ulua valley of Honduras, late classic period, 550 - 850 A.D., but has what appears to be a hand, holding an object with fingers pointing upwards and extremely long nails. It's repeated on both sides, and has no glyphs at all - not even the P.S.S. ( Primary Standard Sequence)

 

Only after a lot of looking and guessing did we happen to turn it upside down - and bingo. The held object becomes its probiscus, or stinger, with blood running down both sides; and the design becomes a standing spider or mosquito.

 

It's a very interesting, attractive piece that starts you thinking a little outside the box. See our reference # 5373 for the piece.