Mississippian Terracotta Head Effigy Vessel, 1300 CE - 1500 CE
Terracotta
4.25
PF.0877
Ritual heads such as this were most probably used in the ancestor cults of the American Woodland Indians, which preserved and honored the remains of important deceased. Certainly the holes...
Ritual heads such as this were most probably used in the ancestor cults of the American Woodland Indians, which preserved and honored the remains of important deceased. Certainly the holes for earrings suggest that this is not a trophy head--a prize of war--but rather an object of veneration. Even though this is only a ceramic object, we are drawn to it as if it once had a real human presence, as if at any moment it might begin to speak of the life it once led.
Literature
V2