Round Bowl with Painted Birds
TIkal, Petén, Guatemala; Structure 5G-8, Burial 72
Ceramic; slipped black, brown, and red on orange
Height 12.5cm
Late Classic (650-700 C.E.)
Museo Sylvanus G. Morley, Tikal 27A-46/18
The subtlety and ingenuity of Maya ceramic painting may be appreciated in the mythological birds painted on this vessel.  They display formal complexity throught a tonal variation achieved with a single orange slip, which ranges from a near black through brown and red to the diluted orange of the background.  
This exceptional bowl was the sole vessel in the grave of a woman who was buried in the only vaulted tomb found away from the center of Tikal.  The two birds have skeletal heads, jewelry, and headdresses that may have smoking mirrors at the front.  Each has a single visible wing which, at the upper edge, is transformed into the upper jaw of a serpent; and each has a beaded and feathered tail ornament, with a single large claw below.  These serpent-birds are denizens of the highest heaven.  
The rim inscription was apparently painted later by a different hand, with little regard for the spacing envisioned by the original artist.  The thirteen glyphs are unusual for Tikal in that they conform to the order of ceramic texts from northen Petén.
W.R. Coe, 1967, p.103