Tikal Burial 196 Tomb of the Jade Jaguar - Maya Archaeology

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number. The typical Classic Mayan necklace goes down the
back; so, there are numerous beads not depleted in a front
view. The earplugs are more like those on the headdress of
the deceased (p. 183) than those actually on the ears (p.
184). It is difficult to determine exactly what the personage
holds in his hands, but it appears to be a bundle of feathers.
One source of the problem of identification is that the
Maya potters seem usually not to have had green paint readily
available, because all the details that appear to be jade are
painted a dusty brown-grey.
The back element of the headdress is a water lily (Fig.
75), easily identifiable by its similarity to many less conventionalized
representations found elsewhere. The face on
the front of the headdress may be glyphic but is not readily
identifiable. Its closed eyes may be indicative of death,
as one of the glyphs in the codices which signifies death has
closed eyes. Otherwise the head is somewhat similar to that
on the back of the left figure on the bird-man vessel. The
featherlike objects are not issuing from the beast’s mouth
but from his earplug.
The type of throne is similar to many found in Late
Classic palaces at Tikal, such as Str.6D-38-1st-A; it is
similar to that of the “fat man pot” (Fig. 78) but different
from that of the “bird-man pot” (Fig. 78).
The second figure, the “vulture-man”, is in complete
profile, sitting cross-legged facing the throne figure. Both