The Classic period, to which this piece belongs, dates from the mid third to the ninth centuries AD, based on intensive agriculture, specialist production and trade (in obsidian, pelts and jade) between neighbouring city-states and across the American continents. The Maya erected the tallest buildings that would be seen in the Americas until the 19th century AD. This timeframe saw a flowering of artistic and scientific endeavour, including the development of a glyph-based literary system that has allowed academics to precisely date historical events, as the Mayans also developed the only reliable calendrical system in the New World.

The stories of creation, beliefs and social information we have for the Maya allows us to reconstruct many of their rituals and practices, combined with archaeological information about economy and the people themselves – for instance, they were much given to the habit of deforming the skulls of their children using strapping and wood boards, in order to produce an elongated shape. They were also enthusiastic about blood-letting, which they used as a gesture of obedience to new rulers, sometimes letting so much blood from their tongues and genitalia (using ropes strung with stingray spines) that entire cities became anaemic. The walls of Maya structures are always decorated in bright colours (often the famous “Maya Blue”), with relief glyphs and stucco designs that included anthropomorphic designs such as this.