Intertextuality in Classic Maya Ceramic Art and Writing

Ceramic texts and imagery have been critically important tools in the study of Maya iconography and epigraphy. However, how these narratives coordinate with those in other media as coherent, media-specific compositions has been little explored. This chapter presents a single case study to address issues of intertextuality. In particular, it focuses on the iconography and textual composition of the Regal Rabbit Vase (K1398) with the imagery found on Naranjo Stela 22. That the royal house of Naranjo commissioned both objects makes this a useful comparison, because it provides historical links between the vessel and the stela. Taking advantage of this fortuitous pairing of contemporaneous objects, we look to the visual rhetoric through which K’ahk Tiliw Chan Chahk’s (688–726? A.D.) military and youth rites were presented in each medium. Then, these rites are placed in conversation with the extensive iconographic and textual record at Palenque to contextualize the pan-Maya significance of youth rites involving the deity B’olon Okte’ K’uh and their mythological underpinnings. Through this example, we explore why ceramics were a preferred medium for the presentation of certain genres of imagery (e.g. mythological narratives) that are rarely presented in the monuments and how this choice is itself meaningful.