Lot: 2

Auction 103

Stone head "hacha", Late Classical Period, ca. 600 to 900 AD

Mexico, Central Gulf Coast, Veracruz

Provenance Size Starting price / estimated price
Ketterer, Munich, 25 June 1988, Lot 47
Bruno Heimberg (1933-2023), Munich, Germany
H: 8.7 inch 6000 EUR
plus 27 % commission, VAT, transport and insurance

alabaster, pigment,

According to Ferdinand Anton, it depicts an elbow guard in the shape of an axe (‘hacha’), which probably represents the spring god ‘Xipe Totec’.

Anton writes: ‘The object is hollowed out on the inside so that it comfortably fits the elbow of a ballplayer to hit or defend against the hard rubber balls. Presumably the stone object was attached to the arm with bandages during the game. The function in the ball game is supported not only by the shape, but also by the depiction of the spring god, especially since the important games were associated with fertility rites in which the ball represented the sun.’

Anton refers to old sketches by Christoph Weiditz, which show that the ballplayers defended or hit the ball with their hips and elbows. During his trip to Spain at the beginning of the 16th century, Weiditz had the opportunity to draw Native American ballplayers that Cortes brought from Mexico to his mother country. Since that time, the archaeologically unconfirmed hypothesis has persisted that the rubber ball was only allowed to be touched with the hips and elbows.

Whether such heavy stone implements were actually used during ball games is disputed today. It is assumed that they were more likely made of leather or wood. There are various interpretations of the meaning of the stone ‘hachas’. They could have served as a kind of heraldic symbol for certain groups, families or individuals, or they may have been intended as grave goods.

Typical of the classic period of the Golf Coast are three types of stone sculptures that symbolise items of equipment worn by ballplayers: ‘hachas’ (axes), ‘jugos’ (‘yokes’) and ‘palmas’.

Stone "jugos" are the ritual counterparts of leather-and-wood yokes worn around a player's waist to protect him from the heavy rubber ball. "Hachas" and "palmas" were set on the yoke, in front of the player, possibly to help control the ball or as a component of the ceremonial dress.


This object is subject to the UNESCO Cultural Heritage Protection Act. Export documents are required for export (subjected to a fee)