Cleveland Museum of Art

Ballgame Thin Stone Head (Hacha)

Date

600–900

Medium

stone, pigment

Culture

Mexico, Gulf Coast, Classic Veracruz style (600-1100)

Department

Art of the Americas

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

A tapering headdress, its base formed by a grotesque head with upturned snout, soars above a human face in this elegant thin stone head. Such heads, known as hachas, probably were used in ballgame ceremonies, though how is unclear. Equally obscure are the heads’ identities, perhaps heroic, idealized players, ballgame patrons, or characters from the game’s lore. The large area of red pigment on one side may have been sprinkled onto the head after it was buried in an offering or a tomb.

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