A rare Veracruz Jaguar Hacha, Classic Period, ca. 600 - 900 CE

Carved from gray volcanic stone and covered in red cinnabar, this fine abstract hacha is carved into a jaguar head in profile with wide-open jaws with a large extended tongue that dominates the hacha, curving downwards from the roof of the mouth to the lower jaw, and is the only part of the stone that is highly polished.  A notch at the top of the head implies ears, and another at the tip of the snout indicates a nose.  For a very similar example see: Shook, Edwin M. and Elayne Marquis. Secrets in Stone: Yokes, Hachas and Palmas from Southern Mesoamerica. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1996, p 138, #J30. Background:  The Mesoamerican ballgame is among the most important and enduring cultural features of the Pre-Columbian world, and its accompanying accoutrements of yokes, hachas, and palmas comprise one of the most important categories of stone sculpture.From the Spanish word for “axes”, enigmatic stone hachas probably represented ritual effigies of actual ballgame equip