Cleveland Museum of Art

Incense Burner

Date: 600–1000
Medium: pottery
Culture: Guatemala, Quiché, San Juan Cotzal, Maya
Department: Art of the Americas
Institution: Cleveland Museum of Art

According to the Popol Vuh, a sixteenth-century Quiché Maya manuscript, the world has been created and destroyed twice, and we now live in the third creation. In the second creation, human beings were made from wood and reeds. They lacked souls and minds, and they did not revere their creator. Because of these imperfections, most were killed by an uprising of utensils and domestic animals. Monkeys are the descendents of the survivors.

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