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A SEVENTH-CENTURY INSCRIBED MINIATURE FLASK FROM COPAN FOUND AT TAZUMAL, EL SALVADOR

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2016

Jeb J. Card  and
Marc Zender
Jeb J. Card*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Miami University, 120 Upham Hall, 100 Bishop Circle, Oxford, Ohio 45056
Marc Zender
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Tulane University, 101 Dinwiddie Hall, 6823 St. Charles Avenue, New Orleans, Louisiana70118
*
E-mail correspondence to: cardjj@miamioh.edu
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Abstract

Late Classic interaction between Copan and western El Salvador has been archaeologically recognized in prestige items, monumental influences, and the common use of Copador ceramics. An inscribed flask excavated in 1952 in the main pyramid at Tazumal, El Salvador provides historical evidence for these ties. The flask is dedicated as the property of K'ahk' Uti' Witz' K'awiil (Copan Ruler 12), a long-lived seventh-century ruler who presided over the expansion of Copan's influence far outside of the Copan valley. The flask is the only hieroglyphic text from El Salvador naming a recognizable individual or that can be dated to an absolute calendrical span, one of only a few miniature Classic Maya vessels tagged with an individual's name, and the only one naming an ajaw (lord). The vessel's text, iconography, and context brings the political relationship between Copan and western El Salvador into sharper focus.

Type
Research Article
Information
Ancient Mesoamerica , Volume 27 , Issue 2 , Fall 2016 , pp. 279 - 292
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2016 

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