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Abstract human female effigy celt
Mezcala
Late Formative to Early Classic period
300 B.C.–A.D. 300
Object Place: Guerrero, Mexico
Medium/Technique
Metamorphic green and black stone (diorite?)
Dimensions
18 x 9.4 x 5.8 cm (7 1/16 x 3 11/16 x 2 5/16 in.)
Credit Line
Helen and Alice Colburn Fund
Accession Number1974.508
CollectionsAmericas
ClassificationsRitual objects
DescriptionObjects like this are based on the shape of a “celt,” of axe, the standard agricultural chopping tool of Mesoamerica. Their function and symbolic meaning may relate to agricultural rites of fertility and regeneration.
ProvenancePublished as in a United States collection in 1956 [Teochita, Inc. (Frances Pratt), New York]; to MFA, November 1974, purchase.