Ballgame Thin Stone Head (Hacha)
Unknown Artist
600–900
Medium
stone, pigment
Dimensions
61.6 × 20 × 8.8 cm
Classification
Sculpture
Department
Art of the Americas
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund
Accession Number
2001.89
About this artwork
A tapering headdress, its base formed by a grotesque head with upturned snout, soars above a human face in this elegant thin stone head. Such heads, known as hachas, probably were used in ballgame ceremonies, though how is unclear. Equally obscure are the heads’ identities, perhaps heroic, idealized players, ballgame patrons, or characters from the game’s lore. The large area of red pigment on one side may have been sprinkled onto the head after it was buried in an offering or a tomb.