Ethnoarchaeological research has made valuable contributions towards our understanding of the functional variation of specific artifacts and features. The use of spiked vessel forms among moder Maya groups, as well as the depictions and features. The use of spiked vessel forms among modern Maya groups as well as the depictions of spiked vessels in the surviving Maya codies, suggest that spiked vessels have served a relatively wider range of functions (although invatiably in a ritual context) than most Meosamericanists have suspected. A critical review of the spiked vessel phenomenon, using the codices, the archaeological literature, and recent ethnographic data is presented as a guide for future archaeological interpetation.