THE COUPLE IN THE CAVE: Origin Iconography on a Ceramic Vessel from Los Naranjos, Honduras

Abstract

This article analyzes the iconography on a ceramic vessel collected from the site of Los Naranjos, Honduras, over 70 years ago by Danish archaeologist Jens Yde. The relatively more naturalistic representation of the scene on the vessel allows us to interpret the motifs called “dancing figures” as relating to a well-documented corpus of Mesoamerican origin mythology. We then turn our attention to the site of Los Naranjos and document the fact that the area of Lake Yojoa closely mirrors the idealized Mesoamerican landscape associated with the place of the earth's creation. Combining this insight with the depiction on the Yde vessel, we suggest that the Cave of Tauleve may have been considered the place of human creation or human emergence.

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