Maya Terracotta Snake Head

Culture: Maya/Yucatan/Mexico

Period: 6th-9th century A.D.

Material: Terracotta

Dimensions: 7.5 cm x 9.3 cm

Price: 800 Euro

Ref: 11049

Provenance: Austrian private collection Prof. Josef Mairitsch (1938-1994) with the inventory number M 194. Acquired between 1960 and the early 1980s. Thence in the family estate. With a collection note.

Condition: Unrestored

Description: Expressive terracotta head of a snake with round eyes, a wide mouth crowned by two horn-like projections, and a bony protrusion between the eyes. The flat head is decorated with incised details on the top, sides, and underside. There is an additional hole at the bottom, through which the head was attached to a statuette as a headdress. For comparison of snake heads used as headdresses by Maya women or deities, see Alfred M. Tozzer and Glover M. Allen „Animal Figures in the Maya Codices”, Cambridge 1910, pl. 8, in particular fig. 7.