Word: tikal
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...exhibition in New York, which was coordinated by Maya Scholar Charles Gallenkamp, features objects of ineffable fragility and beauty. These include six polychrome ceramic bowls excavated over the past five years at Tikal, the largest of all the known ancient Maya cities. Found in tombs at a site dubbed Mundo Perdido in the Peten jungle of Guatemala, these funerary vessels depict the underworld gods and beasts that haunted the Mayas. One bowl rests on a turtle swimming in a painted, stylized underground sea. Rising from the lid is the symbol of resurrection, a long-beaked water bird...
Also from Tikal are incense burners that reflect the Mayas' grotesque imaginings of hell. The 14-in.-high Old Fire God is a satanic orange figure that holds out a human skull. Another censer represents a Maya lord whose throne is decorated by the long-nosed figure of the Cauac Monster, who rules the Maya underworld...