maya openwork shell ornament, Late Classic, ca. A.D. 550-950

the conch shell carved with a fluid openwork scene reminiscent of the mythological resurrection of the young maize god from the carapace of a turtle, the cartouche centering the profile bust of the young lord with finely striated coiffure swept up and back, the mouth relaxed and head uplifted, profile heads emerging at each side, on the left an aged deity, either Itsamná or Pawahtún with prominent nose and wearing an avian as headdress with uplifted feathered wing, on the right a young lord with high extended bound coiffure and a single hand grasping the plumes descending below the chin, with three jade and a hematite inlays within the figures; with two small perforations for suspension.

Chicago private collection

 

PreColumbian Art, The Merrin Gallery, New York, exhibition catalogue by Linda Schildkraut, 2000

Shells were carved into important jewelry, musical instruments and were used as the ink pots by scribes. Shells have a surface receptive to intricate incising and cutting, and shells have the added mystic of being the protective covering of the watery Underworld's creatures.

The large openwork sections on this ornament demonstrate a fearless carving technique of the artisan. The scene is a version of the rebirth of the Young Maize god who is resurrected from the split shell of a turtle, see the codex 'Resurrection Plate", Robicsek and Hales (1981: 91, vessel 117). Here the openwork cartouche-shape  frames the emergent figure, and the aged figure on the left references Itsamná or God N who typically emerges from a shell.
For an openwork shell ornament at The Art Museum, Princeton University, see Schele and Miller (1986:cat. no. 24); see also Goldstein and Diez  (1997: nos. 165-167).