Maya
Jaina Island, MexicoDancing Ruler, 300 – 1200 CE
On view
Earthenware with Maya blue
Dimensions9 3/8 × 4 3/4 × 4 in.
Museum purchase, 2008.41
This sculpture comes from Jaina, an island on the Yucatán Peninsula’s Gulf Coast that served as a necropolis for Maya elite. As part of the funerary practice, ceramic figurines, frequently in the form of rattles and whistles, were included in burials. These figurines served to ensure the social position of the deceased in the afterlife. This dancing ruler contains small stones that, when shaken, rattle softly.
