A Maya incised shell, Jaina, Mexico, circa 550 - 950 AD, snail shell with incised decoration with cinnabar, depicting a seated male figure wearing a headdress and neck ornament, on a plinth with a frog and a bird with a snake in it~s beak, with hieroglyphs above and below, the back with an incised and filled head wearing an elaborate headdress, 14cm high., Provenance, Palmer collection, New York and Munich., Below is a ..... written by Prof. Dr Nikolai Grube, Bonn, The hieroglyphic text is very readable and is probably read in individual columns from top to bottom. The first hieroglyph at the top left is the expression u-ja-chi (u jaach) |it is the ornamented shell|. What follows are the name and title of the owner (likely to read Mo ~Batan Taax). The second and third hieroglyphs in the right column give us the information that the owner was an Ajaw |ruler| in the second twenty-year period of his life. The last hieroglyph in the left column means y-al, |he is the son of|. The name of the father is the first of the three hieroglyphs at the bottom of the shell. The father~s name is Sak Jol |white head|. The following hieroglyph reads K~UHUL CHAN AJAW-wa, |divine ruler of Chan|. Chan was the old name of the island Jaina. The last hieroglyph is the title ba-ka-ba, (baah kab) |the first of the world|. The name of the father, Sak Jol, is very common in inscriptions from the place Jaina.