Key: NMAI 195806 | Actual Location: National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., United States. | Collection: Martin (1845); Eugène Boban (1870); E. Goupil (1888); George Gustave Heye (1922) | Registration: Old number from MAI 19/5806. New number from NMAI 195806.000 | Provenance: Close to Mitla, Oaxaca. | Measurements: 72 x 35 cm. | Color: Light grey clay with traces of red pigment. | Chronology: MA IIIB (Boos 1966b: 304); Pitao 350 - 500 AD | Click to view Chronology | Reference: Boban 1886: 19 (drawing); Nature, 1889: 120, fig. 2; Dockstader 1964: fig. 53; Boos 1966b: 304, fig. 283, Boos 1969: 133, fig. 1. | Comments: This piece was taken to France in 1845 by French Consul Martin. Eugène Boban purchased it in 1870 and tried to sell it, unsuccessfully, to the Smithsonian Institution in 1887. He ended up selling it to E. Goupil around 1888. Later, George Heye bought it in an auction in France and took it to his museum in New York. This human figure is holding a jaguar vase in one hand. There is no object in the other hand, but the gesture indicates he once held something. A trophy head hangs from his collar piece that is made up of human maxillae. The piece looks like MFVV 55163 and fragment MFR 1233. It may represent a young ball-game player with his head shaved. | |
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