Maya Jaina Pottery Standing Figural Whistle

**Originally Listed At $1200**

Pre-Columbian, southeastern Mexico, Yucatan Peninsula, Campeche, Jaina Island, Maya, Late Classic Period, ca. 600 to 850 CE. A beautiful mold-formed pottery whistle in the form of a standing anthropomorphic figure. The figure stands atop fused hollow legs which double as the instrument's mouthpiece, holds bent arms against a bulbous belly above a simple loin cloth, and has a spherical orb protruding from the center of the chest. The head boasts a highly-stylized countenance replete with almond-shaped eyes, puffy brows which narrow to a wide nose, full lips with a tooled philtrum, and smooth cheeks, all beneath an elaborate headdress depicting the head of a raptorial bird. The whistle is painted with a pale-orange slip, and a pair of tone holes on the verso double as a suspension loop. The whistle produces no sound when played. Custom wooden display stand included. Size: 1.25" W x 6.125" H (3.2 cm x 15.6 cm); 7.6" H (19.3 cm) on included custom stand.

Jaina figures, from an island off the Yucatan Peninsula, are noted for their lifelike faces and their immense detail. The clothing that this figure wears almost certainly copies the real clothing of a person in the Late Classic Maya period. These figures suggest that they are representative of actual people, some of which were produced in Campeche and brought to Jaina Island to be buried with the dead. Fascinatingly, the people around Jaina are the only people in southeastern Mesoamerica who put human figures into graves - figures have only been found in domestic contexts most everywhere else in this region.

Provenance: private Southern California, USA collection, acquired in the 1970s to mid-1980s

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#144524
Condition Report: Both legs reattached just below waist line with small chips and light adhesive residue along break lines. Minor abrasions and nicks to legs, body, and head, with fading to original pigmentation, and light encrustations. Nice earthen deposits throughout. Whistle produces no sound when played.