The Iconography and History of the Hacha in Classic Veracruz

Summary

The hacha has long served as a key element in the yoke/hacha/palma complex of portable sculpture known chiefly for Classic Veracruz (c. 100-1000 CE) and closely related to the Mesoamerican ball game. Scholars have rightly associated hacha iconography with a specific decapitation sacrifice and related that sacrifice to rites surrounding rubber ball game. While this iconographical analysis is sound, it does little to explain the appearance of the hacha as a new category of material object, as well as its distribution in some but not all areas of Classic Veracruz visual culture. This essay will begin to localize and historicize this object and the sacrificial rites with which the object is so closely related.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)   •
• Human Sacrifice in Ancient Mesoamerica: New Evidences and Theoretical Perspectives

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