Maya Ceramic Copador Bowl

A band of squared scrolls circles the rim like writing, with a long-limbed figure stretched out below.

This Copador bowl is Maya, from Honduras, and dates to 300 – 900 CE, in pottery. Copador is a polychrome ware generally associated with the Copan region, known for its warm orange and red palette and for rows of glyph-like signs that are often decorative rather than readable. The rounded body sits on a narrow base under a thick red rim. Below it, a frieze of boxed scrolls and dots alternates around the wall in red and orange on cream. The lower half shows a reclining figure with curling limbs. It is 7 inches wide and 3 high.

It looks like script and keeps its secrets anyway.