Pre-Columbian, Jaina / Campeche Mexico, Maya, Late Classic Period, ca. 600 to 850 CE. A mold-made, fascinating standing human figure, its body hollow to make a rattle that is still functional! The rattle is in the form of a standing priest with both hands raised to his shoulders. He or she wears a huge pectoral/necklace, a layered costume with geometric decoration, a headdress, and large earrings. White pigment covers much of the surface, and would have once had brighter colors painted over it. Jaina figures, from an island off the Yucatan peninsula, are noted for their lifelike faces and their immense detail. The clothing that this figure wears almost certainly copies the real clothing of a person in the Late Classic Maya period. These figures were produced in Campeche and brought to Jaina Island to be buried with the dead. Size: 2.9" W x 3.6" H (7.4 cm x 9.1 cm)
Fascinatingly, the people around Jaina are the only people in southeastern Mesoamerica who put human figures into graves - everywhere else in the region, figures have only been found in domestic contexts. The use of human figures immediately calls to mind the earlier West Mexican cultures that had extensive figures made solely to be placed in their shaft tombs. The Spaniard Diego de Landa, who recorded details of Mayan life shortly after the Spanish Conquest, wrote that the artists who created pieces like this one lived lives of religious isolation and ritual, fasting and abstaining.
Provenance: private New York, New York, USA collection
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#143351
Condition
Small loss at the front of the skirt, but the rattle is still functional, with a good sound. Nice remaining white pigment.