Cleveland Museum of Art

Seated Figure

Date

c. 900–300 BCE

Medium

albitite

Culture

Mesoamerica, Mexico, Olmec

Department

Art of the Americas

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

Like their contemporaries, the Olmec made figurines but of greenstone rather than clay. This one, whose identity and use are mysterious, holds objects that may address nature's fertility: on the right, perhaps a cut conch shell that refers to water, and on the left, what may be a plant or a bundle of green feathers that symbolizes new vegetation.

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