 Before I start I'd like to say thank you very much to the organizers of the session, Mireya, Cristina and Patti. It's a great pleasure to be here and participating in a session that actually encompasses different disciplines of archaeology and art. Okay, so let's change the place. We are coming back to Mesoamerica, thank you. Once again into the Maya area and I'm going to focus on a special category of ceramics, polychrom ceramics that were excavated during the last decade of research carried out by our project, the Dinakumar Archaeological Project. This recent research carried out at Snakum, which is a Maya site located in northeastern Guatemala, has brought about the discovery of a large collection of ceramic artifacts. This substantial assemblage includes fragments of polychrome vessels that are decorated with elaborate iconographic scenes and painted hieroglyphic texts. Most of them date to the late classic period that we date more or less between 600 and 880, which represents the peak of pre-Columbian Maya civilization. Fragmentary vessels and shards with hieroglyphic texts provide us with significant historical information both in terms of local laws but also with regards to links via both trade and socio-political alliances that Dinakum elites maintained with neighboring Maya centers and polities. This paper presents the collection of Nakum hieroglyphic ceramics that have been excavated by the Nakumar site. I have already mentioned by the Nakumar Archaeological Project of the Jagiellonian University in Cracow. Whereas the vast majority of Maya ceramics are quotidian, unsleeped, and plain made to fulfill a wide range of functions, there is one category of ceramics that stands apart. This particular category involves serving vessels, especially those manufactured for the royal court. These stand out from all ceramics in an archaeological assemblage by their surface treatments alone, usually highly smooth and burnished as well as decorated with a wide array of dazzling colors applied with detailed patterns as well as elaborate iconographic scenes and glyphic texts. By focusing on this highly decorated ceramics we are able at times to apprise their motives, their iconography, and their glyphs, which together enables us to determine where these ceramics were originally produced. Before I actually start characterizing the polychrome vessels that we found with glyphs, I'd like to also show you this map that shows what we usually call the Sotomaya Lowlands with the location of Nakum. What is really important here and for the whole our discussion is that Nakum is actually situated between two major Maya superpowers. One of them was Tikal, located now in what is northern Guatemala, and another Maya superpower was the so-called snake kingdom that is Calakmul. I mean the Calakmul was probably the second major capital of the snake kingdom, but Naranjo which is actually located just east of Nakum here was part of larger snake kingdom, so basically Nakum will squeeze between these two Maya superpowers. We're gonna start from the ceramics that show links to, especially to Naranjo, and this is first of them, a rim of cylindrical bezel. We can see that on the cream base the exterior is decorated with red painted glyphs along along the rim. They refer to the content of the vase and the ownership. The contents as preserved is written yutal kakao, which means four fruity kakao, then followed by an important elite title that can be red chakchok, which means a great yoth. So here we have yutal kakao and the title chakchok. There are a series of paleographic features that suggest that this ceramic vessel originally stems from Naranjo. In fact the glyphs of this vessel can be compared to the analogous contents and titular sections of the vessels produced for Achuosal, the long reigning king of Naranjo who came to power in 546 and reigned until at least 615 AD. Close comparations can be drawn with at least four of the vessels of Achuosal showed here on this slide. So above on the top row we can see our necrum example and then four vessels whose provenance is unfortunately unknown but paleographically and statistically we know that they represent the same workshop. These four examples are well preserved and they mention actually the name of Achuosal as the owner of this vessel. So based on these comparations we can actually suppose that our fragmentary preserved shed can be also ascribed to his workshop and it was produced by a workshop that he sponsored. Another vessel that suggests connections to Naranjo is this fragment of a bowl which has a black painted rim with red painted glyphs and iconography on an orange background. The glyphs for the most part appear to be pseudo-glyphic and they don't provide a coherent information. However the manner in which glyphs are rendered precisely matches paleographically the way in which the same hieroglyphs were written during the reign once again of Achuosal thereby corroborating once again a specific link to Naranjo and the ceramic workshop of this site. The last example that betrays links with Naranjo under the reign of Achuosal is this ceramic bowl which is very similar to the fragment that has been just described. However in this case it is iconography that is more revealing. The long and slender linear elements together may form this stylized beak of a human bird. The main diagnostic element of a human bird in my iconography is the flower that adorns its elongated beak or bill. In this context we should mention about a vessel now in a private collection in Guatemala shown on your right hand side. On this bowl the iconography is dominated by a kneeling male figure that braces a large ceremonial bar. The text along the rim confirms that this was once owned by none other than Achuosal, the king of Naranjo. The connection to Naranjo is all the more significant since one of the major tutelary deities of this dynasty of this city was a human bird deity. As such although highly stylized this schematic beak sorry of the human bird penetrating the characteristic flower on the Nakum vessel which we think is this element here may refer to this patron deity of Naranjo and show very close links between these two sides during the late 6th and early 7th century. All the above described vessels reveal close connections between Nakum and Naranjo at this early date with Naranjo presumably serving in dominant position and Nakum in subservience. This provides an impression of strong and regionally dominant Naranjo during the reign of the king Achuosal. Another interesting artifact that follows is this plate of which only two fragments survived. However the size of these fragments indicate that the plate was once 41 centimeters in diameter. The preserved elements of iconography indicate that it once represented one or several persons in a dancing position. What merits special attention here are glyphs decorating the rim of the plate. A part of two regnal names we find a fragmentary preserved glyph that consists of a commsign. So we have two regnal names one of them is here another one is here and then a very interesting leaf that consists of a commsign preceding as a main sign representing a male profile. This sign seems to be a dynastic title very popular for Sholton area. Unfortunately the sign in question remains undeciphered. Nevertheless the preferential appearance of this title on the ceramics related to Sholton suggests that this was a type of dynastic title used by the elite and royality of this site. The possible example of the dish found at Nakum would thereby imply connections between these two sites possibly during the 7th century AD. Now we're going to focus on connections with Tikal. One of the hallmarks of the eastern central lowlands are the finely painted ceramic vessels bearing the so-called Holmoon Dancer scenes named after the type specimen encountered at the site of the same name in 1930s. The imagery of on these vessels is typically painted in dark red outlines with diluted orange wash applied sparingly to define figurative elements in the foreground. This stands out on the neat cream backgrounds that define the ceramics of this type. Primary emphasis of that Holmoon Dancer scenes is placed on the Maze God represented dancing in majesty bearing intricate regalia and often assisted by a dwarf. These scenes are interpreted as representing pivotal moment in the mythic narrative of the Maze God, his resurrection from the underworld. The dams of the Holmoon Dancer vessels were of great importance to the size of the eastern central lowlands with Naranjo-Schulten and Ryoazul distinguishing themselves as important production centers of this type of ceramics. The rim texts of these vessels usually include the standard dedicatory formula and prominently name their original owners. For Naranjo these were owned by the 7th century Khark Tiliuchan Chark who was the patron of production of many of such vessels. For example an example that you can see on your left hand side is vessel produced at Naranjo owned by this lord Khark Tiliuchan Chark and later gifted to one of lords from completely different site Buena Vista del Caio which is now located in Belize and actually this vase was found in a tomb of excavated at Buena Vista del Caio. Here we have a map that shows also connections of this load with many different sites based on the discovery of this special category of vessels and then comes a big surprise very small fragment that we have excavated at Nakum so this discovery is not particularly surprising but given the proximity to Naranjo that is located only 24 maybe 25 kilometers east of Nakum what is remarkable however is the name of the owner of that vase that has been preserved and that this name actually is the name of the king of Tikal. The reference is made through the well-known royal emblem glyph of the kings of Tikal within Kuhul Mutul Ahau or godly Mutul king or in other words godly Tikal king a title built on the toponym of these ancient metropolis. Since Tikal is not known as a production center of Homo Dancer ceramics we are left to conclude that this vessel must have been produced at an established workshop given the quality of the line work and ceramic generally and crafted as a bespoke vase made specifically to be given to a lord of Tikal as a sign of thanks and gratitude. It is quite possible that the discussed fragment comes from a vase made for a king of Tikal in one of the royal workshops of Naranjo. The question is however how this vase is in fact made its way to Nakum according to one hypothesis it might have been gifted by Tikal king to one of the Nakum lords to cement ties between Tikal and its lesser neighbor to the east. That Nakum maintained close relations with Tikal is also made evident by other ceramic finds made at this site. For instance the well-known Tikal dancer plays typical for Tikal region are in essence just the local adaptations equally representing the maze god dancing out of the underworld at his resurrection. One such Tikal dancer played was found in particularly well-finished royal tomb at Nakum, burial one that we can see here and it's quite possible that this vessel was manufactured at Tikal and then also gifted to one of the Nakum kings. It can be dated more or less to 700 AD. Similarly it is during this time that we see a profusion of another group of ceramics called the zakatal cream polychrome decorated with the so-called dress shirt design so named because of its apparent similarity to freshly laundered dress shirts. A large collection of such vessels was especially found in a very famous grave tomb of the king of Tikal, Hassao Changkawil that was buried below this huge pyramid temple one at Tikal. We can see some examples on your right hand side and many similar vessels that represent this type zakatal cream polychrome were also excavated at Nakum. Okay since we are running out of time I'm gonna just move to the conclusions. The collection of Nakum ceramics with painted text is not very numerous but it is restricted to the late classic period dated to 600 and 880. This is the period of most intensive interaction with peers and the time when non-local ceramics are appearing at the site. Rather than equating ceramics with people as has often been done in archaeology we don't see these vessels as implying for rain or even external presence at Nakum. Instead we see these particular vessels as singular moments in the time as precious objects that were gifted traded bequitted and inherited by a very small segment of society to foster bonds of friendship, enmity, marriage and alliances between the distinct royal households. Whether the original owners were even present at Nakum is unknown but these ceramics serve as highly illustrative and tangible proxies of human interactions conveying not only their prior ship but also the heavily charged symbolism that these display. Based on the collection that we have recovered we can we may try to make some preliminary attempts to reconstruct the changing volumes in the Nakum history. The style of the vessels presented in this paper and the text of an accompanying them indicate that the existence of complex cultural and perhaps even political contacts between Nakum and other powerful neighbors must have existed. Thus this collection complements our poor knowledge about the history of Nakum during the classic period which is mainly based on the lecture of a few carved monuments. Although our interpretations should be considered as very preliminary it is clear that in the first part of the late classic more or less between 600 and 700 AD Nakum was more oriented politically and culturally towards mighty Naranjo and possibly possibly serving as its vassal. Nevertheless during the 8th century it seems to be more allied with Tikal. This supposed change in political orientation could have been at least partly due to the victory of Tikal over Kalakumul in 695 and its allies including Naranjo. So our data from Nakum indicate that ceramics serve as yet another distinctive epigraphic record one that wholly complements the monumental record that is usually emphasized in the reconstruction and elaboration of ancient history. Thank you, I'm sorry.