Tikal Burial 196 Tomb of the Jade Jaguar - Maya Archaeology

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is speared by the beak. This is a unique position for this
glyph, but encircling dots occur on bird beaks in the Mayan
Tro-Cortesianus Codex (Madrid). Frigate birds, ocellated turkeys,
and pelicans are shown there with the dot motif. The
only place in Classic art where a similar motif may be expressed
is on a relief panel in the Dumbarton Oaks Collection
(Coe and Benson, 1966, Fig. 1). The panel is too weathered
and the photograph too small to tell for sure, but the bird
may be the same. Here the bird is a headdress element and not
a face mask as on the Bu. 196 pot.
The various elements which go together to make up the
headdress are difficult to separate and identify. The mass of
spherical objects appears also in the basket of offerings in
the right hand throne scene. Fortunately, both headdresses
are almost identical--differing only in the arrangement of
the conical headdress cloth. The uppermost element of the
headdress is the long-nosed god protruding from a water lily.
(A long-nosed god also appears on the headdress of the right
hand throne figure and a water lily appears in the headdress
of the left throne figure), (Fig. 75).
The projecting headdress piece is found on the other
two figure-painted pots from Bu. 196, on many other Late Classic
pottery figures, i.e., from Temple I, Bu. 116 (Coe, 1966,
p. 42), and on the Bonampak murals. This ornamental apparel
appears to be cloth, perhaps wrapped around some strengthening
member.