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THE MAYAN CIVILIZATION 79 
wares, such as painting, modeling, engraving, and 
stamping. We can only take time to examine a few 
examples of the best works, leaving the commoner 
products practically undescribed. Suffice it to say, 
that tripod dishes were much used, as well as bowls, 
bottle-necked vessels, and cylindrical vases, and that 
the common decorative use of hieroglyphs serves to 
mark off Mayan pottery from that of other Central 
American peoples. The realistic designs are drawn in 
accordance with the highest principles of decorative 
art. Serpents, monkeys, jaguars, various birds, as well 
as priests and supernatural beings, are used as subjects 
for pottery embellishment. Geometric decoration is 
also much used. 
The polychrome pottery is rare and exceptionally 
beautiful, with designs relating to religious subjects. 
The background color of these cylindrical vases is 
usually orange or yellow, the designs are outlined in 
black, and the details filled in with delicate washes of 
red, brown, white, etc. The surface bears a high 
polish made by rubbing. Plate XV reproduces the design 
units on two vases from Chama, Guatemala. The first 
example pictures a seated man with a widespreading 
headdress made of two conventional serpent heads 
from the ends of which issue the plumes of the quetzal. 
The hieroglyphs are Mayan day signs—Ben and Imix 
on the left and Kan and Caban on the right. The 
second example presents a god before an altar. The 
god has the face of an old man and his body is attached 
to a spiral shell. This divinity has been called the Old 
Man God. He was probably associated with the end 
of the year. 
In the next illustration an engraved design on a bowl 
from northern Yucatan is given. A jaguar attired in 
