Green Stone Mayan Shaman's Idol...

Description

Green Stone Mayan Shaman's Idol

Highland Maya
C. 200 BC-200 AD
Dense Green Stone
4¼" Tall

The man sits leaning forward slightly, knees up bent with hands tightly gripping while arms are lightly carved in relief at the sides. The serene face features a Pre-Classic, early Maya image, common to the highland Maya, showing coffee bean shaped eyes, a wide flat nose, thick lips framed within a layered Olmec style cap with a strap running under the chin, the ears with large circular flares below. The idol is drilled through separating the head from the chest which would have served as a suspension hole making a rather heavy pendant. Such an idol would have served traveling shamans as they went village to village asking for food and, in exchange, offering entertainment; this example, having various other imagery depending on how it is viewed, would have helped. From the front, one sees a seated man with head on his knees, as the idol rests on its front, various views give the effect of a large animal's head with the man's cap serving as the beast's grinning open mouth; from the rear view, the figure becomes an entire effigy of a walking four legged animal, possibly the jaguar; and as the idol lays on its back and viewing directly at the top of the man's head, the stone becomes a howler monkey's skull with empty eye sockets, another view is a vulture's skull. A wonderful thing to share with people as one traversed the jungles. The stone has some ancient scrapes, well weathered, a modern gouge, and a modern drilled hole on the underside for mounting it to a stand. Overall, the piece has an incredible patina and details are all intact.

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