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| Keywords: Zapotec - Figural Urn - Walters 20092021 - Three Quarter Right.jpg This urn likely was part of a larger grouping of similarly small figural sculptures surrounding a large one that created a ceramic narrative tableau like that of the famous royal Zapotec Tomb 104 at Monte Albán Oaxaca The urn portrays an impersonator of the Zapotec rain god Cociyo here wearing a full face mask rather than the more common buccal lower face or mouth mask The figure's deeply striated hair was originally painted with what may have been an orange-hued pigment In other renderings of these rain god impersonators the hair is painted yellow signifying maize silk The same hairstyle although unpainted is also found on the large urn portraying the maize god see TL 2009 20 293 This small figure wears a curious pectoral suspended by a thick twined rope around their necks It may depict a folded piece of paper cloth or similarly malleable material tied with a braided band In Zapotec tombs documented by archaeologists small rain god urns have been found in sets of four placed around a large urn portraying the maize god/progenitor-ancestor Such an arrangement replicates the five-fold Mesoamerican universe the four cardinal directions plus the center with the maize god/progenitor-ancestor as the axis mundi at the world's center with its four sides defined by rain gods The maize god at the center symbolizes the sacred mountain of origin from which all life emerged onto earth The overarching narrative of these urn tableaux recounts the origin of the Zapotec people from maize and the seminal roles of the maize god Pitao Cozobi and the rain god Cociyo in Creation AD 450-650 Late Classic Monte Albán IIIb earthenware post-fire paint red cm 39 27 4 23 9 accession number 2009 20 21 80176 Ron Messick Fine Arts Santa Fe New Mexico date and mode of acquisition unknown John G Bourne 1990s by purchase Walters Art Museum Gift of John Bourne 2009 place of origin Oaxaca Mexico Walters Art Museum license Zapotec pottery in the Walters Art Museum Zapotec ceramic effigy urns Media contributed by the Walters Art Museum needs category review Braids | ||||
