Unlocking the past with a ceramic key

First three volumes now available only on CD, separately or on one disc. Individual CDs $35.00, Three-volume set $75.00, Vols 4 and 5 $45.00.

From the 5th to 9th centuries AD the Maya civilisation of Central America developed one of the world's great traditions of ceramic art. Using a fine brush line and a vivid palette of colours, artists decorated vessels with naturalistic scenes of courtly life, ball games, dances and battles, as well as complex mythological episodes and more whimsical depictions of nature. For a culture where so much has been lost to the decay of the rainforest, these resilient tableaux offer vital insights into a long-vanished society.

The world over, pottery began as a utilitarian item, a functional container for cooking and storage. Quickly, however, whether for aesthetic or symbolic purposes, it acquired decoration and in a few cases this ultimately developed into a true narrative style.

The best known of these is certainly Greek red and black figure vase painting. In these, images arrange themselves around functional vessel shapes, but among the Maya the importance of the painting surface - the ceramic "page" - came to dominate the form, reducing vessels to plain, straight-sided cylinders. Such simplicity is deceptive, since their smooth surfaces and thin walls are something of a technical feat, laboriously built from clay coils (they did not have a potter's wheel). The origins of both the cylinder and the page idea lie outside the Maya region, deriving from central Mexico. Here, the great city of Teotihuacan produced slightly concave cylinders equipped with lids and tripod feet. These were coated in a fine layer of stucco and painted with a variety of mythic entities and emblematic devices. It was during the height of Teotihuacan's cultural and political influence, around AD 400, that the style transferred to the Maya region.

Here it quickly acquired the distinctive hieroglyphic writing of the Maya,used to describe the shape and purpose of the vessels themselves or serving as captions describing their imagery. Over the next century the lid was discarded and decoration switched from stucco to slip technique. A parallel style of carved and incised vessels departs little from the illustrative themes explored on their more common slip-painted counterparts.

During the lifetimes of their owners, decorative vessels were undoubtedly objects of great prestige and many ultimately found their way into elite tombs, where they often held drinks and foodstuffs for the afterlife. The Maya Vase Book was devised by Justin and Barbara Kerr to bring together works scattered in collections across the globe and make them available for study by scholars, students and all interested parties. Currently standing at five volumes, it is one of a select number of works that can be described as "indispensable" to the field. All the vessels are reproduced in "roll-out" form (a photographic technique in which Justin Kerr was an early pioneer). As the name suggests, this allows the curved surface of the cylinders to be opened out, a process that relies on the synchronisation of a camera shutter with a motorised turntable. As the vase is turned, a single exposure is made, producing a strip of film recording its whole surface.

To the collection of photographs in each volume are added between two and five accompanying articles by major scholars. Several of these have proved to be landmarks. David Stuart's volume one decipherment of the formulaic texts that surround the upper rim reveals that they describe the dedication of the vessel itself, followed by a description of the drink it was made to contain. This was very often a particular flavour or recipe of chocolate, known to the Maya as kakaw, the origin of our own cocoa. It was something very different from the sweetened confection we are familiar with; it was a frothy drink sometimes spiced with chilli. The kakaw bean itself was used as a form of currency across ancient Mesoamerica (the cultural sphere that extended from Mexico to Honduras) and some vase scenes show it being delivered as tribute. On these occasions it was arranged in sacks, often identified as particular quantities by texts written on them - more than one is enumerated ox pih or "three eight-thousands".

Significant archaeological finds are among other highlights. Volume three has Joseph Ball and Jennifer Taschek's description of the "Jauncy Vase" they discovered at Buenavista del Cayo, Belize. This wonderful example of a local style showing two mythic dancers was found in the grave of a high-ranking noble. From its text we know that it was commissioned by the king of the nearby capital of Naranjo, K'ak' Tiliw Chan Chaak or "Rain God who Fire-burns the Sky". This seems to relate to the ample colonial records describing the presentation of fine vessels by overlords to their subordinates, often as part of elaborate feasting ceremonies.

Volume four has Nikolai Grube and Werner Nahm's investigation into one of the major themes of the vessels, the mystical world of the wayob. These "spirit companions" were the alter egos of prominent lords who took the form of fantastical beasts. The same volume features Karl Taube's exploration of birth and sacrifice imagery on the vases, with implications that extend to Maya monumental art carved in stone.

The efforts of the Kerrs - published at their own expense - have made a valuable contribution to the scholarship of the New World, providing a resource that will be used far into the future. This corpus of work has applications that go well beyond Mesoamerican studies and should be of interest to anyone concerned with the wider history of ceramic art and narrative representation.

Simon Martin is a Maya epigrapher.