These two wonderful figurines, one of them in the form of a whistle no less, caught my eye and attention. In fact, we mustn’t be fooled – although they are described as ‘jester gods’, this is only a name given by archaeologists due to their strikingly jesterish appearance.
They date from the 7th to 10th centuries, from Jaina Island, a Mayan burial site for the elite in Mexico’s Campeche state, where many such superb figurines have been found.
So, let us just enjoy their coincidental resemblance to jesters as we know them, and imagine how the whistle would come in handy to summon a jester, or even a jester god, if one exists.
Virginia M. Fields, ‘The Iconographic Heritage of the Maya Jester God’, n.d.
Image credits: Jaina Island terracotta figurines of the Jester God, one in the form of a whistle, INAH Maya Exhibit, National Museum, Beijing, on loan from National Museum of Anthropology of Mexico City; photos by Gary Todd at WorldHistoryPics.com.