Maya seated figure with removable helmet, Mayan Culture,
Petén Guatemala, 600-900 AD.C.
Brownware ceramic with traces of red, blue and yellow pigments,
H. 4 7/8 in (H. 12,4 cm) with the helmet
This ceramic statuette of a man sitting in a posture worthy of that of an Indian yogi, however, seems to represent a wrestler at rest, as the removable helmet that can be worn over his head seems to indicate.
Representations known for almost fifty years on a polychrome pottery belonging to the Tepeu ceramic sphere characteristic of recent classical times show that these helmeted wrestlers were like a kind of "gladiators" boxing with stone balls and sharp objects.
These pugilists were clearly not a Mayan specificity in Mesoamerica, since there are also known representations of them among the Zapotecs in the current Mexican state of Oaxaca.
According to a technique more widely used at the same time among the Totonaques of the current Mexican state of Veracruz, the blackness of the character's hair was rendered by applying chapopote (or Mexican asphalt).
His loincloth and ankle bracelets with bells are similarly accented with black asphalt.
Courtesy: Drouot
