Cleveland Museum of Art

Incense Burner (lid)

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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