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© Michael C. Carlos Museum, Emory University. Photo by Michael McKelvey.
Severed Head Effigy
© Michael C. Carlos Museum, Emory University. Photo by Michael McKelvey.
© Michael C. Carlos Museum, Emory University. Photo by Michael McKelvey.
© Michael C. Carlos Museum, Emory University. Photo by Michael McKelvey.
ClassificationsArt of the Americas

Severed Head Effigy

Place CreatedCosta Rica, North America
CultureCartago-La Cabana
PeriodPeriod V
Date800-1000 CE
MediumOlivine basalt
Credit LineGift of Cora W. and Laurence C. Witten II
Dimensions4 15/16 x 3 7/8 in. (12.5 x 9.8 cm)
Object number1992.015.099
Exhibition HistoryMCCM Permanent Collection Galleries, December 1994 - 2001
MCCM Permanent Collection Reinstallation, September 13, 2002 - June 2012
MCCM Permanent Collection Reinstallation, February 9, 2013 - Present
Published ReferencesSotheby's New York, "Important Pre-Columbian Art" (November 27 and 28, 1984), lot 259.
Rebecca Stone-Miller, Seeing With New Eyes: Highlights of the Michael C. Carlos Museum Collection of Art of the Ancient Americas (Atlanta: Michael C. Carlos Museum, 2002), 140, figure 308.
Rebecca Stone, The Jaguar Within: Shamanic Trance in Ancient Central and South American Art (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2011), 89, figure 4.18.
ProvenanceEx private collection, Virginia. Ex coll. Laurence (1926-1995) and Cora (1931-2023) Witten, United States, purchased from Sotheby's New York, November 27-28, 1984, lot 259.
Status
On view
Collections
  • Art of the Americas