PREHISTORIC ART. 



4G3 



Fiff. 112. 



"!TP'n'il"'""»lilfmf,|, 



REPRESENTATION' OF A HUMAN 

 SKULL IN ROCK CRYSTAL. 



Mexico. 



Cat. No. 98949, U.S.N.M. N:it- 



inafjimm. Other objects in rock crystal treated in a similar manner 

 liave been found, of whicli Mr. Knnz is authority for the statement 

 that the workmanship equals anything done by the modern lapidary. 

 Similar skulls are to be seen in the Trocadero Museum at Paris and in 

 the Douglass collection at the Metropolitan Mus- 

 eum of Art, Central Park, New York. A unique 

 specimen remarkable for its size, from the Boban 

 collection and found in Mexico, is now owned by 

 Mr. George H. Sisson, of New York. It is 8^\ 

 inches in length, 5| inches in width, and 5H 

 inches in height, and represents a human skull 

 similar in appearance and workmanship to flg. 

 112. A description of one would stand for a de- 

 scription of the other. Another specimen (fig. 

 113) is a skull similar to flg. 

 112, but of fossilized wood, 

 from Chichen Itza, Yucatnn. 

 The eyes are drilled with a 

 hollow drill, the cores pro- urais.^e. 



trading as shown in the sketch. The teeth are rei)- 

 resented half round or semicircular, instead of be- 

 ing square, as in the other cases. Fig. 114 is a rude 

 block of obsidian 3 inches long, 2J inches in diame- 

 ter, from Tezcuco, Mexico, with the rudiments of a 

 human face outlined upon it. 

 The work has been done by 

 abrasion, a piece of obsidian or 

 some other hard stone with the 

 necessary angles and corners having probably 

 served as a hammer. It is introduced here more 

 as showing the method of procedure than as an 

 object of art in itself. Fig. 115 is a small statuette 

 of obsidian from Mexico, which has been fully com- 

 pleted. It represents a human figure seated; has 

 been Avorked out to show all the members, and has 

 then been polished as smooth as glass. Fig. 116 is 

 the small head of a coyote or some similar animal. 

 It is worked out in the same way as fig. 115, and is 

 finely i)olished. Fig. 117 is still another object 

 of obsidian from Mexico, representing a labret, a 

 small hat-shaped instrument used as a lip orna- 

 ment common to certain primitive peoples — the 

 Alaskans and the Botocudos. Fig. 118 represents a small ring or 

 band of translucent obsidian in the form of a cylinder with hori- 

 zontally projecting rims. There are other similar specimens in the 

 United States National Museum. Their nse is unknown, but they 



Fig. 113. 



REPRESENTATION OF A HU- 

 MAN SKULL IN HARD 

 STONE, FOSSILIZED 

 WOOD. 



Chichen Itza, Yucatan. 



C.Ht. No. 10531, U.S.N.M. 

 Natural size. 



Fig. 114. 



BLOCK OF OBSlDI.\N, SHOW- 

 ING FIRST STAGES OF SCULP- 

 TURING— A HUMAN FACE 

 MADE BY HAMMERING OR 

 PECKING. 



Tezcuco, Mexico. 



Cat. No. 98982, U.S.N.M. 

 H natuial size. 



