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Ornaments

Maya

On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 999

These ornaments show aquatic deities with fins in the cheeks and above the nose. They were made from the red shell of the spiny tropical bivalve Spondylus. Highly appreciated for their color and shape, such shells were imported into the Maya region from warm waters off the Pacific coast.


Ornamentos
Estructura 5C-49, Tikal, Guatemala
Siglo VII al VIII
Concha Spondylus


Estos adornos muestran deidades acuáticas con aletas en las mejillas y sobre la nariz. Están hechos de concha de Spondylus, una bivalva espinosa tropical. Este material era muy apreciado por su color y su forma, y llegaba a la región maya desde las costas del Pacífico.

Ornaments, Spondylus shell (spondylus princeps), Maya

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© Authorized reproduction Ministerio de Cultura y Deportes de Guatemala; Museo de Arqueología y Etnología, photo by Jorge Perez de Lara