Maya Miniature Jade Deity Head Pendant

Pre-Columbian, Mesoamerica, Maya, ca. 500–1000 CE. A miniature deity head carved from mottled blue-green jade, its broad face reduced to a few decisive planes. Recessed oval eyes sit beneath a low browband, flanking a large angular nose; the wide lips are punctuated by deep circular drillings at each corner. Flaring rectangular ears are pierced for ornaments, and two smaller holes bored through the upper corners of the forehead allowed the plaque to be suspended, likely as a pectoral or a costume element sewn to regalia. Traces of earthen cinnabar-colored deposits cling to the incised lines and drill pits. Jade was the most precious of Maya materials, and such heads served as portable emblems of divine and ancestral presence. Mounted on a custom block display base. Size: 1.5" W x 1.25" H (3.8 cm W x 3.2 cm H).

For the Maya, jadeite (worked from the Motagua River valley of Guatemala, the only known Mesoamerican source) carried the color of maize shoots, standing water, and breath itself. Small carved heads in the material were strung as pectorals, sewn onto belts and headdresses, held in the mouths of the honored dead, and cached beneath stelae and temple floors. Because jade could not be cut with metal, each piece was abraded and drilled with string saws, sand, and hollow bone or reed drills fed with grit, a labor so slow that finished ornaments circulated as the highest currency of elite exchange. The tubular drillings at the mouth corners and the perforated ears on this example are the standard vocabulary of that technique, and the ear holes would once have held perishable spools or feather work.

Provenance: Collection of Jimmy Belilty, Miami. Acquired from Latin American Artist Carlos Poveda, Caracas and Paris, 1980 - 1990.

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Item #

73070

Condition
Scattered surface deposits. Intact, Excellent condition.

Buyer's Premium
30%