Celt with Maize Cosmogram900–400 BCE

Not on view

Title: Celt with Maize Cosmogram
Culture: Olmec
Place Made: Mexico
Date Made: 900–400 BCE
Period: Middle Formative
Medium: Serpentine
Dimensions: Height: 7 9/16 in. (19.2 cm)
Credit Line: Gift of Constance McCormick Fearing
Accession Number: M.2023.61.509
Classification: Sculpture
Collecting Area: Art of the Ancient Americas
Curatorial Notes: From the earliest Mesoamerican societies, jade served as an enduring symbol of maize, the region’s staple crop. The natural variety in jade’s spectrum of colors, ranging from dewey blues to yellowed greens, emulates the agricultural cycle, from new growth to maturity and dormancy. Ceremonial caches of kernel-shaped jade axes, or celts, such as the one seen here, have been found at Olmec and Formative Maya sites, where they were deposited as dedicatory offerings in public plazas. The arrangement of such caches in quadripartite patterns replicates the shape of both the Mesoamerican cosmos and the milpa, or maize field, conferring eternal abundance upon the spaces where they lie.

Alyce de Carteret

2024
Selected Bibliography: Magaloni, Diana, Davide Domenici, and Alyce de Carteret. We Live in Painting: the Nature of Color in Mesoamerican Art. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2024.

Not on view

Title: Celt with Maize Cosmogram
Culture: Olmec
Place Made: Mexico
Date Made: 900–400 BCE
Period: Middle Formative
Medium: Serpentine
Dimensions: Height: 7 9/16 in. (19.2 cm)
Credit Line: Gift of Constance McCormick Fearing
Accession Number: M.2023.61.509
Classification: Sculpture
Collecting Area: Art of the Ancient Americas
Curatorial Notes: From the earliest Mesoamerican societies, jade served as an enduring symbol of maize, the region’s staple crop. The natural variety in jade’s spectrum of colors, ranging from dewey blues to yellowed greens, emulates the agricultural cycle, from new growth to maturity and dormancy. Ceremonial caches of kernel-shaped jade axes, or celts, such as the one seen here, have been found at Olmec and Formative Maya sites, where they were deposited as dedicatory offerings in public plazas. The arrangement of such caches in quadripartite patterns replicates the shape of both the Mesoamerican cosmos and the milpa, or maize field, conferring eternal abundance upon the spaces where they lie.

Alyce de Carteret

2024
Selected Bibliography: Magaloni, Diana, Davide Domenici, and Alyce de Carteret. We Live in Painting: the Nature of Color in Mesoamerican Art. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2024.