Object Notes

The carved stone images Olmec kings wore on their foreheads and chests projected supernatural power. It is unknown if this small jadeite mask would have been worn, but it may have been suspended from a necklace or brooch by the smaller drilled holes at the earlobes of the figure.

The carved stone images Olmec kings wore on their foreheads and chests projected supernatural power. This pendant carved in the shape of a hummingbird would have originally been suspended from a necklace by the two smaller drilled holes at the neck of the figure.

This pectoral or chest ornament is an extremely rare object from the Olmec tradition and one of the largest known examples. The concave surface is intricately carved with eight flanges spaced around the outer edges of all four sides and may represent foliage.

Navajo weaving, performed by women with upright looms, is the most distinguished of modern southwestern textile traditions.

The Ancestral Pueblo (Anasazi) culture, forerunner to modern Pueblo peoples, developed some 2,000 years ago in northern New Mexico and the Four Corners area, where Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico meet. This vessel features a red background and interlocking hatched and solid figures.

The Hohokam people, who lived in present-day south central Arizona, had developed a significant pottery tradition by about 500 CE. Hohokam ceramics are easily recognized by their buff‑colored clay and dark red painting.

Mimbres potters developed one of the Southwest’s most appealing painting styles, distinguished by geometric compositions and narrative imagery that provides an eloquent record of Mimbres life. The painting on many Mimbres vessels suggests concepts of sacred space or cosmic geography.

The Yup'ik Eskimo of western Alaska, believe that everything has a spirit (or soul)—people, animals, and things—and all participate in an endless cycle of birth, death, and rebirth. The boundaries between the spirit world and the real world, and between the human world and the