Cleveland Museum of Art

Axe

Date

c. 250–900 CE

Medium

chipped flint

Culture

Mexico or Central America, Maya

Department

Art of the Americas

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

Axes with stone blades and wooden hafts were used to clear land for planting. This more fragile example, made entirely of chipped flint, is a ceremonial version probably used in rituals before it was deposited in a tomb or an offering. Late Classic Maya vase paintings make the ceremonial associations of axes clear. In these painted scenes, axe-wielding deities dance among skeletons and supernatural animals, or raise the axe to strike a sacrificial victim.

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