Currently not on view
Finial in the form of a crouching dragon,
1200–900 BCE
More Context
Didactics
This finial or lid in the form of the so-called 'Olmec Dragon,' a mythological crocodilian entity, may have once covered a container used in shamanic rituals. Like many dragon images it lacks a lower jaw; the upper jaw is rendered in the shape of a down-turned L. Descending from the jaw is a single pair of cleft fangs and a large central tooth. The nose and head are angular in comparison to the smooth curve of the forelimbs. Underneath barlike eyebrows, which flare at the back, are two small projections defining the eyes. A line of scutes runs along the spine, suggesting the comb of an iguana. Small holes in the shoulder of the piece indicate that it was attached to a vessel, clothing, or, perhaps, to a baton. (drawn from The Olmec World, 1996)
Information
1200–900 BCE
North America, Mexico, Puebla, Central Mexico, Las Bocas
- Lee A. Parons, John B. Carlson, Peter David Joralemon, and Justin Kerr, The Face of Ancient America: The Wally and Brenda Zollman Collection of Precolumbian Art (Indianapolis: Indianapolis Museum of Art in cooperation with Indiana University Press, 1988), cat. no. 86 (illus.); p. 126
- Michael D. Coe et al., The Olmec World: Ritual and Rulership (Princeton, Princeton University Art Museum, 1996), cat. no. 136, p. 238 (illus.)
- "Acquisitions of the Art Museum 1998," Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University 58, no. 1/2 (1999): p. 86-123., p. 101 (illus.), p. 107
