Eccentric Flint (600–900): Art, History and Details

Eccentric Flint (600–900) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

Named for their unusual shapes, eccentric flints often have intricately silhouetted figures like this. At the forehead of the main profile face is a smoking torch, the insignia of a deity closely linked to rulers and known today as K’awil. Smaller faces appear on three protrusions. Some flints may have served as scepters; they also were buried as offerings beneath buildings and sculptures.

Object facts

• Title: Eccentric Flint
• Date: 600–900
• Culture: Guatemala, Quirigua, Maya style (250-900)
• Type: Stone
• Technique: chipped flint
• Dimensions: Overall: 34.6 x 19.3 cm (13 5/8 x 7 5/8 in.)
• Collection: AA - Mesoamerica
• Department: Art of the Americas
• Accession number: 1950.161

Collection credit

John L. Severance Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Cleveland Museum of Art Picture Book
• Whitaker, Irwin. Crafts and Craftsmen. Dubuque, Iowa: W.C. Brown, 1967.
• International Congress of Americanists, Rudolf Grossmann, and Gustav Wilhelm Otto Antze. Verhandlung des XXIV. Internationalen amerikanistenkongresses, Hamburg, 7. bis 13. september 1930. Nendeln/Liechtenstein: Kraus Reprint, 1968.

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.