K0319: A Dwarf or a Child

A marble vase was photographed in 1973 by Justin Kerr during one of his early photo sessions with ceramics of Mesoamerica. Ceramics in Mesoamerica when carved out of stone are either of onyx, jade or obsidian, sometimes jade is pasted on to a base; but "marble" is rare.1

The roof pattern is a bit strange for a palace scene. It shows a "T" design that is remeniscent of the "T-eyed" god glyph and of their tiny window slots of the Maya temples that no one has yet been able to explain. These slots are usually facing the door to the room where they are found, so the slots are not to hold a "curtain rod" and are not large enough nor low enough in the wall to be considered as arrow slits for archers.

It is surprising to me that a marble vase would illustrate a person "dwarfed" by adults who are listening intently to him. It is reminiscent of the Child in the temple during Biblical times.

However, the child in the above picture is supposed to be an adult dwarf, whereas an adult, whether it be a dwarf or normal sized man, never has the face or body of a small child. Even an adult of normal proportions, who has mentally regressed to a child-like state has an obvious adult body.

The normal adult males who surround this Child do not have common mesoamerican attributes. Their dress may be ordinary, but their heads have various styles of long and short hair and several of the chins have beards. On the throne platform, two persons listen intently.

The person in front has a combination Mohawk/Mixtec bird headdress while the one behind him wears a pendant around his neck that illustrates the bifurcated tongue of the serpent.

In the scene below, we have exactly the same combination. A man wearing the bird headdress of single feathers. The man with the feathers on his head is further identified above as a "drunken" star person [the god of drink] also wears just a red and white striped garment2 and a "venus" glyph waistband. He is named 13 Dog in the Nuttall Codex.

The serpent [dragon] man, (named Three Serpent in the Nuttall Codex.) sits behind the feather-crested lord. He wears on his chest, a bifurcated pendant, and is not only identified in the codex as a star god, but is also identifed as Quetzalcoatl as the Comet God in the Codex Ríos as a comet with the body of a serpent and a fire fan in his hand. His personal glyph above his head shows two dots and what appears to be wave action. I believe that is a reference to the serpent/comet striking the waters of the Gulf and that of Lake Texcoco, near the Hill of Serpents (Coatepec) where Huitzilopochtli was born, either in 1186 or 1194 AD. The problem here is the defeat and destruction of the 400 stars is also part of the Popol Vuh story 3 but much earlier than the date suggested by Prof.Soustelle

In the Zouche-Nuttall illustrated below, the serpent [dragon] entity has a red (very hot) hand partially extended.

So the question that remains, is this vase a post-conquest promotional scene about the Christ child in the Temple presenting his new religion (to the Americas) to the two main gods of the Aztecs? Or was this the child god Atemoztli who leaves his footprints on the Aztec temple floors during the December 26th festival of children?4 His personal glyph on the vase has the appearance of a rabbit with a star at the bottom. It is not defined well enough for me to decipher it. The rabbit is what was thrown at Tecuiciztecatl before he became the moon.5

Many mysteries can be solved, but one must poke into many, many manuscripts and only that way can one discover the proper sequence of events.

The names 13 Dog and 3 Serpent are not the name glyphs of the two men on the vase, since the .Zouche-Nuttall was written in the language of the west coast Mixtecs, and not of the Central Mexican area where the vase was found. Different areas of the country, each governed by a different lord, or ruler, often change the names of the various gods into their own language and/or glyph so that the common people using the idiom they are accustomed to use, can better understand the purpose of the entity they revere as a god.
1Kerr, Justin, (1973) Incised marble vase, Probably quite late and from the central Mexican area Ames E. Brady, George Hasemann, John H. Fogarty (1995) Archaeology Magazine Harvest of Skulls & Bones: Ritual Cave Burial in [NE] Honduras, May/June In April 1994 Jorge Yanez, Desiderio Reyes, and two Americans, Greg Cabe and Tim Berg, were exploring a cave on the eastern bank of the Talgua River, four miles from Catacamas in the Olancho Valley of northeastern Honduras.. . . . .the Instituto Hondureño de Antropología e Historia. So far we have determined that the bones were probably placed there 3,000 years ago, along with offerings of jade, marble, and ceramics, by the inhabitants of a nearby village. . . . . .
2Horcasitas G. and Heyden, D. (1971) Book of the Gods and Rites and the Ancient Calendar, Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press
p. 176. Ixtliltzin also known as Ixtlilton, the Little Black-Faced One was one of the four hundred divinities of wine and drunkenness. [Another reference to the Popol Vuh]
3 Soustelle, Jacques (1971) The Four SunsNew York: Orion Press Book/Grossman Publisher, p. 173: Coatepepc = Mountain of the Serpents in Codex Azcatitlan that recorded the 1186 event of the birth of Uitzilopochitli, to Mother Coatlicue. He exterminated 400 Southern Bodies of birth [Southern stars of the Milky Way?] 4Horcasitas, G. p. 461, Feast of Atemoztli is on the 26 December or the 16th month. It is the Feast of the Coming down of the Waters (a child). A footprint is left in the dough. 5Read, Kaye Almere (1998) Time and Sacrifice in the Aztec Cosmos.