Ballgame Thin Stone Head (Hacha) (600–900): Art, History and Details

Ballgame Thin Stone Head (Hacha) (600–900) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

This enigmatic head is associated with an ancient ballgame played both for sport and ceremonial purposes on Mexico’s Gulf Coast, in present-day Veracruz. It may represent an elite ballplayer or ballgame patron—the forehead is incised with interlaced designs similar to the so-called mat motif, a Maya symbol for rulership. Such heads are known as hachas (Spanish for “axe”) because they often taper to a thin edge at the front, giving them the appearance of axe heads.

Object facts

• Title: Ballgame Thin Stone Head (Hacha)
• Date: 600–900
• Culture: Mesoamerica, Classic Veracruz style
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: stone
• Dimensions: Overall: 20 x 6.8 x 14.3 cm (7 7/8 x 2 11/16 x 5 5/8 in.)
• Collection: AA - Mesoamerica
• Department: Art of the Americas
• Accession number: 1945.33

A detail from the museum

The interlaced designs on this head’s forehead are similar to a Maya symbol for rulership.

Collection credit

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.