Tikal Burial 196 Tomb of the Jade Jaguar - Maya Archaeology

157
Polychrome Cylinder with Throne Scenes Plan #20 117A-1 Figs.
73, 74 Photo 78
Next to the jade mosaic container, the most magnificent
work of art within the tomb was a small pottery vessel found
badly smashed in the middle of the aisle in the vicinity of
the fluted vessels. Although not situated near the previously-mentioned
polychrome vessel, both show throne scenes and
both will be discussed together. The third vessel depicting a
throne scene was found on the bench and will be described on
page 167.
The well-formed walls, of buff paste, taper slightly
towards the rim. Of all the vessels this has the thinnest
walls--from .3 to .4 cm. thick,--and is the best nada. The
bottom is marked by a slight depression. The orange-slipped
interior was decorated near the rim with a series of circles
in brownish-black and then lightly polished.
The highly-polished exterior walls as well as the base
have a cream slip with black speckles. A rim band painted
blue (now mostly flaked off) was delineated by a narrow strip
of brown; the throne scenes were circumscribed by this line
and another similar one near the base.
The basic colors of the figures were red with most of
the rest being background. The deepest red was 10R-4/10 with
wash areas a pale version or this. Blue paint occurs on the
rim and on two glyphs in upper band and one in each subsidiary