Vessel with Butterfly Headdress

1–550 CE
Diameter: 15.6 x 15.8 cm (6 1/8 x 6 1/4 in.); Overall: 15.5 cm (6 1/8 in.)
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Description

The headdress shown on this vessel combines a serpent's mouth with a butterfly's proboscis (feeding tube), which curls between the eyes. The butterfly often appears in the headdress of the Great Goddess, an extremely important Teotihuacán deity. Stucco (paper-thin, painted plaster) is fragile and usually does not survive well; the stucco of the basin in this case has been repaired.
Vessel with Butterfly Headdress

Vessel with Butterfly Headdress

1–550 CE

Central Mexico, Teotihuacán, Classic period

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