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THBMassive Veracruz Stone Yoke from Ballgame
Lot 5d
About Seller
Artemis Gallery
686 S Taylor Ave, Ste 106
Louisville, CO 80027
United States
Selling antiquities, ancient and ethnographic art online since 1993, Artemis Gallery specializes in Classical Antiquities (Egyptian, Greek, Roman, Near Eastern), Asian, Pre-Columbian, African / Tribal / Oceanographic art. Our extensive inventory includes pottery, stone, metal, wood, glass and textil...Read more
Live Auction in Progress ... Currently on Lot Estimate:
$5,000 - $7,500
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About Auction
Live
By Artemis Gallery
Oct 3, 2019
Set Reminder
2019-10-03 10:00:00
2019-10-03 10:00:00
America/New_York
Bidsquare
Bidsquare : Exceptional Day 2: Pre-Columbian & Tribal Art
https://www.bidsquare.com/auctions/artemis-gallery/exceptional-day-2-pre-columbian-tribal-art-4453
Day 2 of an important 2-day auction featuring exceptional, museum-worthy examples of Pre-Columbian from the ancient Americas, Native American, African / Tribal, Oceanic, Spanish Colonial and fossils. Artemis Gallery info@artemisgallery.com
Day 2 of an important 2-day auction featuring exceptional, museum-worthy examples of Pre-Columbian from the ancient Americas, Native American, African / Tribal, Oceanic, Spanish Colonial and fossils. Artemis Gallery info@artemisgallery.com
View Full Catalog (300)
- Lot Description
Pre-Columbian, Mexico, Veracruz culture, ca. 6th to 8th century CE. An undecorated, sanded grey basalt U-shaped yoke from the Mesoamerican ballgame. A defining activity of the Veracruz culture was the ballgame, sponsored by elites, who owned stone yokes like this one. The greenstone came from the Guatemalan highlands, and it would have been transported at enormous cost - imagine how difficult it was to move the boulders from which they were carved! Yokes like these ended their useful lives buried with nobles and we know of them today from elite graves. Size: 13.25" L x 14.4" W x 4.25" H (33.7 cm x 36.6 cm x 10.8 cm)
The Mesoamerican ballgame was a ritual event, not just for entertainment (although it would have been that too!), and Veracruz was where it seems to have been most popular. Veracruz has the highest density of ballcourts of any Mesoamerican civilization, with even the smallest towns having a dedicated ballcourt, a rectangular area lined with sloping stands. Stone yokes were not actually used to play the game, but instead for ritual processions where the elite sponsors of the game wore them to demonstrate their wealth - a little like seeing the owners of your local team out on the field after a championship win or on Opening Day. This yoke and others like it are stone representations of the leather and wicker belts worn by the ballgame players to protect themselves from the large, heavy rubber ball. None of those real belts have survived to the present day, so all we have to visualize them are early Spanish accounts and these stone representations.
Provenance: private J.H. collection, Beaverton, Oregon, USA
All items legal to buy/sell under U.S. Statute covering cultural patrimony Code 2600, CHAPTER 14, and are guaranteed to be as described or your money back.
A Certificate of Authenticity will accompany all winning bids.
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#149595Light wear on surface commensurate with age including some small scratches and chips and two larger chips from the lower back. Stone is weathered on interior.Condition
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