c. 800
Earthenware with colored slips
Overall: 6.5 x 41.5 cm (2 9/16 x 16 5/16 in.)
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. James C. Gruener 1990.182
Apex predators like jaguars are natural power metaphors.
Its pose and jewelry suggest this flamboyantly painted figure may represent a human clad in the skin of a jaguar. Because the jaguar is the largest, most powerful predator in Mesoamerica, it was a natural metaphor for earthly and supernatural power alike.
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