Lidded Vessel with Potrait of King Tomb I, Structure III, Calakmul, Campeche, Mexico AD 375-450 Ceramic, 38 x 22 cm CNCA-INAH, Museo Histórico Fuerte San Miguel, Baluarte de San Miguel, Campeche, Mexico The king on the vessel's lid wears the pectoral and jadeite bead necklace of the Principal Bird Deity, and his headband of rulership features an elderly face, which may represent a deified ancestor or tutelary deity of the lineage. Tomb 1 was a vaulted chamber under Room 6 of Structure III, Calakmul's primary Early Classic regal residential compound. A 9-meter-long "psychoduct," a tube facilitating the passage of the soul from the tomb, exited on the north side of the building. In the tomb, the cloth-wrapped body of a male at least thirty years old had been placed on a woven mat. The body wore objects typical of Maya rulers, including three jadeite-and-shell mosaic masks. One portrait mask was on his face. A jaguar mask with three incised pendant plaques (see below) was on his chest, and another mask and and pendant plaque were attached to his belt.

Three Belt Plaques Tomb I, Structure III, Calakmul, Campeche, Mexico AD 350-500 Jadeite 10.3 x 6 cm CNCA-INAH, Museo Histórico Fuerte San Miguel, Baluarte de San Miguel, Campeche, Mexico

More than eight thousand shell beads and thirty-two jadeite beads were found in the tomb. Five decorated ceramic vessels surrounded the body, including this painted lidded dish, which contained a food offering. Its decoration refers to the realms that the sould traverses on its journey. The dish's basal flange is marked with water icons and the adjacent exterior walls are painted black. A square-nosed saurian symbolizes the earth floating in the underworld's dark waters. The lid depicts two images of a celestial saurian resembling the Vision Serpent and represents the heavens. The decoration on the lid's knob represents the four quadrants of the universe and is surrounded by a circle painted to resemble a jaguar pelt. References: Pincemin Deliberos, Sophia. 1994. Entierro en el palacio: la tumba de Estructura III, Calakmul, Campeche. Coleccíon arqueología 5. Campeche; Universidad Autónoma de Campeche. Domínguez Carrasco, María de Rosario. 1994. Calakmul, Campeche: un analisis de la cerámica. Coleccíon arqueología 4. Campeche; Universidad Autónoma de Campeche. Folan, William J., Joyce Marcus, Sophia Pincemin Deliberos, María del Rosario Domínguez Carrasco, Laraine Fletcher, and Abel Morales. 1995. "Calakmul." Latin American Antiquity 6 (4): 320-325. Martin, Simon, and Nikolai Grube. 1995. "Maya Superstates." Archaeology 6 (48): 41-46. Carrasco Vargas, Ramón. 1998. "The Metropolis of Calakmul, Campeche." In Schmidt et al., Maya, 382.

Lidded Vessel Tomb I, Structure III, Calakmul, Campeche, Mexico AD 375-450 Ceramic with slip 14.5 x 37 cm CNCA-INAH, Museo Histórico Fuerte San Miguel, Baluarte de San Miguel, Campeche, Mexico

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