↗Peru, North Coast, Chongoyape(?), Chavín style (900-200 BCE) · c. 500–200 BCE
Plaque
Creator not recorded
John L. Severance Fund · The Cleveland Museum of Art
Image: public domain (CC0) · Museum record & image source ↗
Guatemala, Quirigua, Maya style (250-900) · 600–900
Eccentric Flint
Creator not recorded by the museum
- Date
- 600–900
- Medium
- chipped flint
- Dimensions
- Overall: 34.6 x 19.3 cm (13 5/8 x 7 5/8 in.)
- Country / context
- Guatemala
- Movement / tradition
- Central and South American arts
- Collection
- The Cleveland Museum of Art
- Pathway
- Central and South American arts ↗
FROM THE MUSEUM
Named for their unusual shapes, eccentric flints often have intricately silhouetted figures like this. At the forehead of the main profile face is a smoking torch, the insignia of a deity closely linked to rulers and known today as K’awil. Smaller faces appear on three protrusions. Some flints may have served as scepters; they also were buried as offerings beneath buildings and sculptures.
Collection text · The Cleveland Museum of Art · CC0A MOMENT TO LOOK
Start with what you can see: shapes, surface, colour and scale. How might the listed materials affect the way this object was made and experienced?
Looking prompt · an invitation to observe, not a historical interpretation.
