A Pair of Maya Skull Pendants Mesoamerica, Early Classic Period, c. 300-600 AD Carved from white shells wi...

Description

A Pair of Maya Skull Pendants
Mesoamerica, Early Classic Period, c. 300–600 AD

Carved from white shells with details enhanced with red pigment, these dramatic pendants take the form of human skulls, their large eyes and bared teeth rendered with striking clarity. They were once strung as tinklers—small suspended ornaments that clicked and rang together when worn in motion—decorating the belts of Maya kings and high-ranking lords. Stone monuments and painted murals show rulers wearing wide wooden or basketry belts adorned with textiles, jade maskettes, and shell tinklers suspended along the lower edge. Both are in excellent condition, old chip on proper right back side of one. With acrylic stands.

Exquisitely carved and powerfully symbolic, these pendants embody the Maya fascination with death and transformation. Skull imagery signaled the inevitability of mortality, the gods of the hidden underworld, and the enduring power of ancestors, making such ornaments especially charged in ritual display. Found in many elite burials, they are among the most evocative shell ornaments of the Classic period—small in scale yet monumental in their meaning.

Provenance:
Acquired by the current collection in 1992
Merrin Gallery, New York, NY
Herbert L. Lucas, Los Angeles, CA, acquired prior to 1986
Fine Arts of Ancient Lands, New York, NY

Heights: 3 inches each

Estimate: $4,000 - $6,000.

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