$382.50
In stock
Pre-Columbian, Caribbean, Taino culture, ca. 1000 to 1500 CE. A hand-carved stone ball or spherolith, perhaps used in the Mesoamerican ball game, hewn from dark brown-gray stone. Stone spheres like this one are found in burials of the Ciboney and Taino people. Ball courts have been found in parts of Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, where a Mesoamerican ballgame was played with a rubber ball. It is possible that this stone ball was a votive object or trophy for the ball game. Given its orb-like appearance, scholars have also suggested that it may have been created to symbolize the sun or another celestial body. Size: 3.17″ Diameter (8.1 cm)
Condition: Age-commensurate pitting across most surfaces, with light abrasions, otherwise intact and very good. Nice preservation to spherical form. Previous inventory label on verso.
Provenance: private Hawaii, USA collection, acquired from 2000 to 2010; ex-Bob Dowling collection, San Francisco, California, USA
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