Bird ornament

This delicate shell pendant depicts a long-necked water bird with its wings spread and the head of a deity fused to its breast. The artist indicated individual feathers with light, u-shaped incisions on the wings. The bird’s head contains a crest and the long beak is incised, perhaps to show a serrated beak. These features are consistent with ancient Maya depictions of cormorants, which are known to spread their wings in the sun to dry themselves after diving.

The face in the body of the bird is that of a deity, indicated by the large eye and spiral curl-shaped pupil. The deity’s head has a heavy brow and light incisions represent a stepped hairline; the deity’s hair merges with the body of the bird. A line with four dots underlines the large eye, and the deity wears an incised ear spool. Under the prominent nose, a large tooth protrudes from the god’s mouth. The large, protruding chin may indicate a Maya convention used to depict aged individuals with recessed teeth.

A perforation near the bird’s neck suggests that this would have been sewn into a garment or worn as a pendant. The image of a water bird with an old god appears in the late 1st millennium B.C. and continues into the Postclassic period (ca. A.D. 1000–1519). The meaning of this character in Maya society may pertain to an important myth that endured through visual parables such as this shell representation.

Further reading

Juárez Cossío, Daniel, Adrián Velásquez Castro, and Norma Valentín Maldonado El joven Dios del maíz. Tecnología y simbolismo de un pendiente de concha del Museo Nacional de Antropología. Estudios de Cultura Maya 47(1): 31-53, 2016.

Martin, Simon. “The Old Man of the Maya Universe: A Unitary Dimension to Ancient Maya Religion.” In Maya Archaeology 3, edited by Charles Golden, Stephen Houston, and Joel Skidmore, 186–227. San Francisco: Pre-Columbia Mesoweb Press, 2015.

Velásquez Castro, Adrián, Pre-Columbian Maya Shell objects: An Analysis of Manufacturing Techniques. In Ancient Maya Art at Dumbarton Oaks, edited by Joanne Pillsbury, Miriam Doutriaux, Reiko Ishihara-Brito, and Alexandre Tokovinine, Washington DC: Dumbarton Oaks, 2012, pp. 440-474.

Velásquez Castro, Adrián, Luxuries from the Sea: The Use of Shells in the Ancient Americas. In Pillsbury, Joanne, Timothy F. Potts, and Kim N. Richter, eds. Golden Kingdoms: Luxury Arts in the Ancient Americas. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2017, pp. 91-98.