Maya Standing Chief with Moustache and Goatee. c. 600 - 800 AD ...

Description

Maya Standing Chief with Moustache and Goatee
c. 600 - 800 AD

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.

Height: 8½ inches

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