- Title
- Figural Pendant
- Culture
- Caribbean Watershed
- Date Made
- 300–700 CE
- Medium
- Jadeite
- Dimensions
- Height: 4 5/8 in. (11.75 cm)
- Accession Number
- M.71.73.308
- Collecting Area
- Art of the Ancient Americas
- Curatorial Notes
Although celtlike in shape, this object lacks the characteristic septum on the back and tapers to a thin edge at both ends. It seems to have been carved from the outset as a figurative pendant, rather than originating from a celt blank (although that remains a possibility). It depicts a human with arms and hands held tight in front of the chest. The legs are split with incisions that were sawn from both front and back. The large rectangular nose is unusual, as are the delicate loop ears, which double as holes for threading a string to suspend the pendant. The very delicate loop on the proper right side is broken. An additional transverse perforation that runs the entire width of the figure at the upper arm level would have required incredible skill and patience to achieve without breaking the entire piece.
Julia Burtenshaw
2024
- Selected Bibliography
- Berg, Phil. Man Came This Way: Objects from the Phil Berg Collection. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1971.
