gems, jade, jadeite, fei cui, Mesoamerica, Mexico, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Mayans, Olmecs, Aztecs, archaeology, history, archaeogemology

In the Dumbarton Oaks collections there is a seated diopside figure (Fig. 1), measuring 16.3 cm in height, 9.3 cm in width and 5.7 cm in depth. The piece is said to be one of a large cache of stone objects discovered at Arroyo Pesquero in southern Veracruz. Apparently, the majority of the objects from this find were masks or celts, many of them incised. The Dumbarton Oaks figure is seated in a pose common in Olmec carving, cross-legged with the right leg placed before the left. The hands rest upon the knees in relaxed fists. The arms are not separated from the body, as is the case with many seated Olmec figures, but are carved solidly together with the chest and thigh. The figure faces directly forward and, like most Olmec representations, lacks a distinct neck. It is undoubtedly male. Unlike most fully sculpted Olmec figures, however, this example is richly attired. He wears an elaborate headdress consisting of a helmet with a plaque-like extension rising from the top. At the rear is a cleft (Fig. 2), set at a right angle to the face, which appears to belong to the headdress rather than the head itself. This cleft is deeply grooved along both transverse and vertical axes, forming four raised bars (Fig. 3). The extension of the headdress, with approximately parallel sides (Fig. 2) and a depth of slightly more than one centimetre, rises toward the back of the head and is nearly as wide as the helmet itself (Fig. 1).