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The character's realistically rendered facial features are but the beginning of what is remarkable in this piece: the great composite jaguar headdress, complete with feather panache, bird elements and giant shell earflares; the heavy stone necklace with duck's head pectoral, and the voluminous element that surrounds his lower chest, which may have been a ball-playing protective implement.


Urn of a character with a jaguar headdress
Zapotec
Late Classic (500-800 A.D.)
Unknown
Dark clay with various pigments
47 x 39.7 cm.
National Museum of Anthropology, Mexico.

Photo © Jorge Pérez de Lara