This small fleshless head, carved out of a volcanic stone, is an eloquent example of our limitations in classifying the yoke-ax-palm sculpture complex into exclusive groups. The spatial composition of this piece is located halfway between the typical axes, which were expressly flat, and a typology characterized by representing heads with an upper extension as a crest and a halo-shaped element around the skull.
Although the piece in question still has a width close to the human proportion, it already shows a strong inclination towards lateral flattening, accentuated by the crest and the long nasal bone. The "halo" has almost completely disappeared, only a band that protrudes slightly around the skull has survived. As Tatiana Proskouriakoff mentions, the stone heads with halo and crest seem to be related more to axes from Oaxaca and Guerrero than to those from Central Veracruz, among which she has published some heads with large eye cavities and ridges very similar to the one in this museum. She suggests that these heads represented prototypical forms that later became the characteristic axes and palms of the Late Classic. Indeed, just as we can find a potential feature of the planimetric ax in the pronounced crest, it is also possible to trace the wide semicircular fan of the palms from an excessive expansion of the halo. Due to its "intermediate" spatial configuration, this object may represent one of the early types made around the 7th century.
A large notch at an obtuse angle appears on the back, which is a distinctive feature of axes. The area around this notch has noticeably deteriorated compared to the rest of the sculptural surface, which was carefully polished. This confirms the possibility that this area could have served as a mounting surface to hold the ax on some architectural structure. Like other fleshless axes, this item has some qualities that give it a distinct artistry. It bears extremely prominent malar bones. On the sides, the temple grooves were represented as a deep cavity carved with a drill. The eye sockets also appear to have been made with a drill of the same diameter, the edges of which were later cut and nuanced. It shows numerous traces of reddish pigment.
The fact that it is a skull could be related to the burial use to which these objects have been associated. However, we know that they also developed various images that are impossible to link to this symbolic construct. Therefore, it is more appropriate not to force this possible function with its iconography and to conceive the stark representation as another of the many resources that the sculptor used to construct meaning with artistic resources. In this case, the fleshlessness gave rise to an appreciable play on volumetric contrasts between concavities and convexities that give value to this object, not only for its ritual function, but for the ability to convey knowledge through a purely visual language.
This small fleshless head, carved out of a volcanic stone, is an eloquent example of our limitations in classifying the yoke-ax-palm sculpture complex into exclusive groups. The spatial composition of this piece is located halfway between the typical axes, which were expressly flat, and a typology characterized by representing heads with an upper extension as a crest and a halo-shaped element around the skull.
