Maya Standing Chief with Moustache and Goatee...

Description

Maya Standing Chief with Moustache and Goatee

Maya, Eastern Lowlands
C. 600-800 AD
Ceramic with Blue Paint
8½" Tall

The figure stands bare chested, with a thick waistband, a suspended cover at the front, his arms crossed, wearing a beaded necklace with a large suspended pendant. The head shows a prominently bound, elongated forehead created during infancy by binding a board to the child's head while the skull was still malleable. His face shows almond shaped eyes, a prominent 'Roman' nose, scarification designs to the right side, and, in a rare depiction, he has a moustache and a short goatee at the chin. The head is covered with a tall headdress designed with a wide band of vertical rolls, flanges to the sides, and mounted with a large blue disc, a large flowing tuft of plumes or ropes, and a large crescent panel rendering the entire headdress into a parrot head effigy. Very few Maya rulers are known to have had a moustache or goatee or both, several of them known from steles excavated in lowland Maya cities. One earflare is modern, the bird beak with modern repair, the headdress reconstructed, the vertical flanges modern, and reconstructed at the waist, legs, and loin cover.

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