Tunic with Sacrificer
Unknown Artist
600–1000
Medium
camelid-fiber, cotton; tapestry weave
Dimensions
202.6 × 112 cm
Classification
Textile
Department
Textiles
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
John L. Severance Fund
Accession Number
2007.179
About this artwork
An extremely abstract supernatural sacrifice repeats in different colors and orientations across the body of this tunic, which was shortened on one side in antiquity. Look for the toothy black-and-white mouth in the sacrificer's upward-gazing head; other facial features include a button nose and a vertically divided eye. The figure holds the L-shaped haft of an axe behind its back and, at the front of its body, a short staff with a severed, upside-down human head on the top.