Artwork Page for Eccentric Flint

Details / Information for Eccentric Flint

Eccentric Flint

600–900

Guatemala, Quirigua, Maya style

(250-900)
Medium
chipped flint
Measurements
Overall: 34.6 x 19.3 cm (13 5/8 x 7 5/8 in.)
Credit Line
John L. Severance Fund 1950.161
Public Domain
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Location
233 Mesoamerican and Intermediate Region
Print

Description

Named for their unusual shapes, eccentric flints often have intricately silhouetted figures like this. At the forehead of the main profile face is a smoking torch, the insignia of a deity closely linked to rulers and known today as K’awil. Smaller faces appear on three protrusions. Some flints may have served as scepters; they also were buried as offerings beneath buildings and sculptures.
Flint visibly chipped into an organic shape with serrated edges and dark grey, pale grey-brown, and orange-brown marbling. The shape rises in a rectangular shape before splitting off into cactus-like arms, one on our left coming to a point, and two on our right curving down like claws. From the top of this extends a shape vaguely resembling a lower case "r" to the back, on our left, of which is attached a "J" shape.

Eccentric Flint

600–900

Guatemala, Quirigua, Maya style (250-900)

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