Cleveland Museum of Art

Urn Figure

Date

c. 200–500 CE (thermoluminescence date, 60 BCE–390 CE

Medium

earthenware

Culture

Mexico, Oaxaca, Zapotec

Department

Art of the Americas

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

The figure projecting from the front of a cylindrical container wears a mouth mask perhaps shaped as a serpent’s fanged upper jaw. It probably served in a tomb as a companion to a larger, more complex figural urn. Though termed "urns," these ceramics do not contain the cremated ashes of the dead but usually are found empty.

The authoritative record is held by Cleveland Museum of Art. LinkedCulture surfaces this object and its connections; it does not alter institutional metadata.