Mesoweb Features

Pyrite mirrors, such as the one worn by this portrait of a sitting woman have been interpreted by some researchers as a means to gaze into the Otherworld, perhaps in the course of shamanistic rites.

Seated female figurine with a mirror
Olmec
Middle Pre-Classic (1000-600 B.C.)
La Venta, State of Tabasco
Grey to greenish stone, pyrite and cinnabar
8 x 4 cm.
National Museum of Anthropology, Mexico.