Hummingbird Bloodletter

Like PC.B.025, this bloodletter portrays a hummingbird with the lancet tip representing the long, sharp beak. Rather than being carved in the round, however, the bird is shallowly incised on the surface, with deep carving reserved for the eye orbits. Along with the base, the handle region, which corresponds to the bird’s belly, is flattened, allowing the bloodletter to be positioned vertically with the point up or horizontally. Despite the fineness of the jade and elegant form of the perforator, the incised design is rather sketchy and crude. Much of the feathering is delineated by short, regularly spaced parallel lines on the head, back, belly, wing, and tail of the bird. Each wing has three feathers, and the tail has four feathers. The bird’s beak is delineated by a pair of incised lines that extend from near the eye region to the tip of the lancet. Two curved lines near the eyes indicate nostrils.

With its cylindrical handle and central lancet, this perforator is of the Olmec “ice pick” type. Examples of ice pick perforators have been excavated from Formative-period contexts at La Venta (Drucker 1952:pl. 53) and Seibal (Willey 1978:97, figs. 104–105) as well as from the massive Classic-period jadeite cache at Cerro de las Mesas (Drucker 1955:pl. 50a–b). Along with two Olmec heirloom pieces, the Cerro de las Mesas cache also contained simple cylindrical perforators (Drucker 1955:pls. 49a–c, 50c–d). As in the case of similar jadeite examples known from Chalcatzingo (Thomson 1987:fig. 17.12), these awls were probably set in cylindrical handles of wood or some other material to make ice pick perforators. Moreover, it is likely that the jadeite ice pick form, like PC.B.024, is simply a copy of the more common composite tool. 

There is a probable handle from such a perforator at Chalcatzingo: a cylindrical ceramic object with a hole in its tapering end, evidently to receive the stone lancet (Grove 1987c:fig. 16.21d). A handle of similar form fashioned from serpentine is from La Venta (Drucker, Heizer, and Squier 1959:fig. 53e). Along with the central pit on the narrower end, the serpentine handle is flattened on one side, recalling PC.B.024. In addition to the actual objects, representations of ice pick perforators are relatively common in Olmec iconography; for example, Laguna de los Cerros Monument 6 represents two such perforators worn as pendants. In addition, a downward-pointed ice pick bloodletter is carved atop the foliated Olmec maize god on San Lorenzo Monument 30 (Figure 18.10f). The ice pick perforator form closely resembles the Olmec feathered maize ear fetishes, with the point representing the protruding ear of corn. In fact, the maize fetish has been previously identified as a bloodletter (Grove 1987b). In outline, the feathered maize fetishes in Figure 18.3d at the base of the late Olmec scene closely resemble ice pick perforators. Although the item held by the woman has been identified as a perforator (Benson and Fuente 1996:269), it more probably represents a maize fetish. A jadeite sculpture from the vicinity of Ocozocoautla, Chiapas, portrays a figure holding a large maize fetish with a central pointed ear of corn projecting out of feathers marked by cross-hatching (Figure 20.1). The form of this object is very similar to the ice pick perforator. In Mesoamerican thought, blood is widely identified with maize, as if it constituted the sacrificial sustenance of the gods and ancestors (Taube 1985:178–180). By their form, Olmec ice pick perforators may allude to the symbolism of maize and blood.

Indigenous Art of the Americas, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1956–1962

Olmec Art of Ancient Mexico, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., June–October 1996

75 Years/75 Objects, Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, D.C., September 2015–May 2016