From top to bottom:
1. The death mask of Pakal, the great lord of Palenque, immortalizes the vigor of his youth with 340 pieces of jade, four pieces of shell, and two pieces of obsidian, most likely arranged on a wooden backing that has since rotted away. Inscriptions record that Pakal spent eight years of his seven-decade reign preparing his lavish burial. When he died, on August 28, A.D. 683, he was laid to rest laden with jade—this mask, a large pendant, earplugs, rings, necklaces, and bracelets—beneath a temple where he would be venerated for generations to come.
2. An incense burner’s ornate lid takes the shape of a warrior outfitted in Teotihuacan style, with a butterfly nosepiece and a helmet shaped like a bird—most probably an eagle. Many such objects have come to light near the modern town of Escuintla in southern Guatemala, where Teotihuacanos appear to have settled among the Maya.
3. Objects such as this jade vessel crowned by the likeness of a king—Jasaw Chan Kawiil II of Tikal—testify to the Maya’s artistic skills and their far-flung commerce. Luxuries for the elite—including jade, the pelts of exotic animals, and brilliant feathers—were traded throughout the region and into central Mexico.
4. A vessel from cacao country, the Pacific coast of Guatemala, takes the shape of a goddess personifying the cacao tree, with pods sprouting from her much as they do from the trunk of the tree. Real cacao pods contain rows of slippery white seeds, or beans. The Maya used the beans as money and made them into a bitter, spicy drink that the nobles quaffed during ceremonies. Today the beans are fermented, dried, and ground to make cocoa and chocolate.
5. A helmeted dwarf, crafted in about A.D. 600, was discovered in a royal tomb at the site of Waka, in northern Guatemala, along with 22 other figurines—dwarfs, courtiers, ball players, a shaman, a queen, and a king. Archaeologists believe the burial belonged to a ruler who may have been named Tzih Bahlam (Emergent Jaguar). “The figurines appear to represent a court scene of conjuring, appropriate for sending the soul of the deceased to his ancestors,” says Southern Methodist University’s David Freidel, the site’s lead archaeologist. “They could be ancestral figures, or the contemporary court.”
6. Sitting on a stool of bones, an aged god holds a human head in his hands. This spooky ceramic incense burner comes from the early fifth-century tomb of Tikal’s King Yax Nuun Ayiin—son of Spear-thrower Owl, the man who masterminded Teotihuacan’s incursion into Maya territory. When the burner was filled with smoldering incense, smoke issuing from the god’s mouth enveloped the head. The figure may represent a creator god breathing life into a human head.
7. Played in every city, large or small, the Maya ball game required heavy padding for competitors who hit a heavy rubber ball around a large court using just their upper arms and thighs. Often played with two teams of two or three members, the game was sometimes seen as representing the movements of the sun, the moon, and the planet Venus. It was also a metaphor for a mythical contest involving the maize god and characters known as the Hero Twins. At its most desperate, it became a ritual replaying of war, and matches ended with the beheading of the losers.
8. Wearing the sarong associated with the moon goddess, the divine essence of beauty and fertility, a young woman positions a lidded jar to pour a drink—perhaps the spicy chocolate favored by the Maya elite. Her elongated head reflects the custom of shaping the skull from birth to resemble an ear of corn, the sacred substance from which the Maya believed all humans were created. Likely buried with someone important, this figurine was meant to offer sustenance to the deceased for eternity.
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