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Collection of the Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami
Urn
Collection of the Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami
© Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami. All rights reserved.

Urn

Artist/Maker (Mesoamerica)
Dateca. 600-900
Mediumpottery
DimensionsOverall: 13 x 18 5/8 x 15 in. (33 x 47.3 x 38.1 cm)
ClassificationsContainers
Credit LineGift of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Stoetzer
Terms
    Object number94.0054.01
    DescriptionLike many incense burners and urns from the Maya area, spikes protrude from this piece just as they do on the trunk of an immature ceiba (Ceiba pentandra) tree, the world tree in Maya cosmology. This piece also portrays the Mesoamerican understanding of life and death – on one side of the vessel is a death mask, on the other is a human or god face. A knotted rope connects the two. The imagery suggests the vessel was made or used in rituals that connected the Underworld of death with the upper world of the living.
    On View
    Not on view
    Collection of the Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami
    Teotihuacán
    ca. 350-550
    Collection of the Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami
    Iban Dayak people
    20th century
    Collection of the Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami
    Maya (archaeological culture)
    ca. 700-900
    Collection of the Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami
    Artist Unknown
    ca. 200-250
    Collection of the Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami
    Maya (archaeological culture)
    ca. 600-900
    Collection of the Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami
    Maya (archaeological culture)
    ca. 300-600
    Collection of the Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami
    Central Highlands/Atlantic Watershed
    ca. 1000-1550
    Collection of the Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami
    Maya (archaeological culture)
    ca. 600-900
    Collection of the Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami
    Olmec
    ca. 600-300 BCE
    Collection of the Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami
    Maya (archaeological culture)
    ca. 700-1000
    Collection of the Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami
    Zapotec
    ca. 600-800
    Collection of the Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami
    Irene Rice Pereira
    1936