Tikal Burial 196 Tomb of the Jade Jaguar - Maya Archaeology

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of polish below this may have cream slip or may be just the
natural color of the clay. The exterior base is unslipped and
polished. On the exterior there are red bands at the rim (.8)
and base (1.2 cm.) wide. Two narrow black bands (ca. .2) occur
below the rim band and above the base band. The orange
used as a background for the throne scene was painted in wide
vertical strokes. The scene itself is merely outlined in
black on this background with some color added for details.
The vessel is a maximum of 22 cm. high with walls .6
cm. thick and a rim diameter of 13.7 cm. The Munsell colors
are: red, 10R-4/10; orange at its deepest is ca. 2.5YR-6/12,
6/14.
There is a textile impression on the base and on the
side near the base; a loose gauze weave like 12U-37/27 and
12U-38 (Bu. 195) (V. Greene, on cat. card), which was noted
in the field by the author as a thin black film completely surrounding
the vessel. This black layer was held next to the
vessel by the fallen plaster. This is the only vessel so noticeably
wrapped. It is possible that others were too, but
this the excavator doubts. The inside of the cylinder was
filled with a flaky, light yellow crust up to within 5 cm. of
the top. Below this was a solid encrusted material honeycombed
with the casts of bean and/or corn kernels. There was
nothing under the vessel except for a few grains of dust.
There were traces of cinnabar all around it except on the
west side.