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Chac Mool

800–1250 CE
Not on view
Returned to lender
This work of art was on loan to the museum and has since been returned to its lender.
Sculptures of this type, featuring a reclining male figure holding a bowl on his torso, were given the invented name Chac Mool by nineteenth-century explorers during an archaeological expedition to Chichen Itza. The figure is adorned with a headdress, earflares, bracelets, and anklets, all likely depicted as if they were made of jade. The bowl served as a receptacle for sacrificial liquids and burnt offerings and may have been symbolic of the circular cenotes.



Las esculturas de este tipo que retratan a una figura masculina reclinada sosteniendo un cuenco en su torso fueron denominadas "Chac mool" por los exploradores Alice y Augustus Le Plongeon durante su expedición arqueológica a Chichen Itzá en siglo XIX. La figura tiene un tocado, orejeras, brazaletes y tobilleras, todas representadas como si fueran de jade. El cuenco servía como receptáculo para líquidos colectados durante los sacrificios y para ofrendas que involucraban fuego, y podría haber sido relacionado simbólicamente con la forma circular de los cenotes.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Chac Mool
  • Date: 800–1250 CE
  • Geography: Mexico, Yucatan
  • Culture: Maya
  • Medium: Stone
  • Dimensions: H. 36 1/2 × W. 41 × D. 22 1/4 in., Wt. 1200 lb. (92.7 × 104.1 × 56.5 cm, 544316.429g)
  • Classification: Stone-Sculpture
  • Credit Line: Museo Regional de Antropología de Yucatán, Palacio Cantón, Secretaría de Cultura-INAH, Mérida (10-290458)
  • Curatorial Department: The Michael C. Rockefeller Wing