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Collections

Vulture Emerging from Conch Shell400–550 CE

Not on view
No image
Title
Vulture Emerging from Conch Shell
Culture
Maya
Place Made
Guatemala, Honduras, or Mexico
Date Made
400–550 CE
Medium
Earthenware with resist-painted slip
Dimensions
Height: 2 7/8 in. (7.3 cm)
Credit Line
Gift of Constance McCormick Fearing
Accession Number
M.2023.61.408
Classification
Sculpture
Collecting Area
Art of the Ancient Americas
Curatorial Notes

This small ceramic sculpture depicts a surprising scene: a vulture emerging from a conch shell. Elsewhere in Maya art, an old creator deity emerging from a conch shell is a common motif (see, for example, M.2010.115.683). Here, the aged man has been replaced with the wrinkled visage of a vulture. Vultures loom large in the Mesoamerican worldview, not least for their ability to consume death and create life. For the Classic Maya, the vulture had symbolic links with rulership. The substitution of this bird for the old creator deity also suggests a conceptual fluidity between vultures and divine creation.

Alyce de Carteret

2025