Artworks from the Maya Classic-period, particularly painted ceramic vessels, quickly make it apparent that Maya artists went to great lengths to accurately depict the way their contemporaries often use their hands to gesture towards each other when interacting. The detail and care with which certain hand and arm positions were recorded argues strongly for the existence of intentional, meaning-bearing gestures that were, quite possibly, highly conventionalized (illustrations b, c, d, e, and a).

Illustration courtesy of Justin Kerr's Mayavase Database.