Anthropology

The sculpture may depict an elite ruler or a fusion of a goddess and a female leader



On New Year's Day, farmers in Mexico uncovered a sculpture dated to between roughly 1450 and 1521 A.D. (INAH)

By Isis Davis-Marks
SMITHSONIANMAG.COM
JANUARY 14, 2021 7:30AM

On New Year’s Day, farmers in the Huasteca region of Mexico’s Gulf Coast were ploughing soil in a citrus grove when they discovered something strange. After hitting an object they initially assumed was a rock, the group shoveled deeper, ultimately unearthing a six-foot-tall limestone statue of a Mesoamerican woman, according to a statement from the country’s National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH).

As the Associated Press reports, the statue likely dates to between roughly 1450 and 1521 A.D. After examining the artifact, INAH experts determined that it was the first of its kind to be found in the region.

Locals excavated the figurine between the pre-Hispanic Haustec ruins of El Tajín and the Aztec city of Tuxpan, in an area not previously identified as an archaeological site. Given the absence of similar historical objects in the grove, the team suggests the sculpture, which appears to shows Aztec influences, may have been moved there from its original location.

In the statement, as translated by the AP, archaeologist María Eugenia Maldonado Vite says the work could depict “a ruler, based on her posture and attire, [rather] than a goddess.”

Maldonado adds that she could also be “a late fusion of the Teem goddesses with the representations of women of high social status or politician in the Huasteca.”

Per the statement, the supine subject wears an ornate headdress, a necklace with a circular adornment known as an oyohualli, a long shirt and a skirt that grazes her ankles. (As Live Science’s Laura Geggel points out, the headdress is reminiscent of one worn by Star Wars character Ahsoka Tano.)



The statue may depict an elite ruler or a fusion of a goddess and ruler. (INAH)

More:
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/archaeologists-unearth-rare-female-statue-citrus-grove-180976746/