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Agricultural deity with digging stick Sandstone, 88.9 x 14.6 x 37.5 cm, Huastec culture, 900–1521 The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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A hunched deity associated
with maize agriculture, thunder, and rain grasps a large staff with
both hands and rests his chin upon its top. Usually interpreted as a
planting stick, the staff places the sculpture within a recognised
Huasteca tradition from north-eastern Mexico, marked by symmetrical
and stylised form. The wide head with a flattened crown suggests the
Precolumbian Huastec practice of cranial modification, in which the
back of the head was shaped at birth while the skull remained
malleable. |
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