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Today's Maya date is: 13.0.8.0.19 - 2900 days into the new cycle!
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‘Rabbiting on...’
As usual, there’s more to a fun-loving animal character like this than meets the eye: read on... Incidentally, you may like to draw your own version of this scribe (hints: take out the background, add colour, and, to make him look cuter, try making the eye a bit bigger, and move it forward). (Written/compiled by Ian Mursell/Mexicolore)
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| The Princeton Vase (Click on image to enlarge) |
The original rabbit-scribe was painted at the foot of a famous Maya ceramic vase - known as The Princeton Vase - described by Professor Michael Coe (on our Panel of Experts) as follows: ‘This may well be the finest examples of Maya pictorial ceramics yet known; it ranks as one of the greatest masterpieces of aboriginal American art.’ It comes from the Northern Peten region of Guatemala from the Late Classic Period (600-900 CE), and is in the collection of the Princeton Art Museum (USA).
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| Detail from the Princeton Vase (Click on image to enlarge) |
The main scene on the vase shows the Maya deity known as ‘God L’ sitting on an expensive (jaguar-skin covered) throne, tying a bracelet of jade beads around the wrist of a young woman, as a gift (God L was known to be a bit of a ‘womaniser’!) At the foot of his throne, the rabbit scribe is recording the scene in an open codex (also made of jaguar skin). A scribe held a very important - almost divine - position in Maya society, and was usually shown (in pottery and codices) as a royal monkey.
So why a rabbit? Well, remember the rabbit in the moon (follow link below)? In Maya mythology the Moon Goddess gave birth to the rabbit, and there may be a connection between this rabbit and the young woman, who perhaps is an image of the Moon Goddess.
Information adapted from The Way of God L: The Princeton Vase Revisited by Barbara and Justin Kerr - follow link below
• Main picture, attributed to Michael Coe, scanned from Códices del México Antiguo by Carmen Aguilera (SEP/INAH, 1979)
• Colour photos courtesy of Justin Kerr
The Creation of the Moon
Explore this and other Maya vases online
See a ‘roll-out’ photo of the vase painting