Maya Lidded Vessel with a Peccary in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, December 2022

Title: Lidded vessel with peccary

Date: 4th century

Geography: Guatemala

Culture: Maya

Medium: Ceramic

Dimensions: H. 10 5/8 × Diam. 12 5/8 in. (27 × 32 cm)

Classification: Ceramics-Vessels

Credit Line: Museo Nacional de Arqueología y Etnología, Guatemala City, Ministerio de Cultura y Deportes de Guatemala

Artists created elaborate feasting vessels with animal-headed knobs, flattening the creatures’ bodies into painted or incised decoration on the lids. Noisy inhabitants of lowland Maya forests, howler monkeys were revered creatures associated with both the day and the night. Other animals include a peccary, or wild pig, as well as mythical beings such as a turtle with a human head emerging from the mouth.

Text from: www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/820313