Jadeite Celt

This celt and PC.B.029 are both attributed to Rancho Potrerillos, in the vicinity of El Mangal, Veracruz. Such fine jadeite celts must have been items of great wealth in Middle Formative Olmec society. Although of different sizes, the El Mangal celts are similar in workmanship and in the color and quality of the stone, and they may well have derived from the same cache or burial.

Both celts are well fashioned and highly polished, with fine, sharp-edged bits, highlighting the color and translucency of the jade. This larger celt (PC.B.028) is an especially massive example, with a weight of approximately 1.8 kg. A great deal of effort was clearly spent in the final stages of grinding and polishing, and there are only small portions of bruised stone from pecking. On the smaller piece (PC.B.029), a considerable amount of pecking is still visible in the poll area. Another jadeite celt of similar form and quality, housed at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, displays pecking over much of the surface area (Thomson 1971:no. 4). Since only the bit-edge region of that celt is devoid of pecking, it would appear that the grinding and sharpening of the cutting edge was one of the last stages in the shaping process. The lustrous polish of PC.B.028 and PC.B.029 recalls a jadeite celt discovered in a Classic Maya tomb at Pomona, Belize, evidently an Olmec heirloom (see Kidder and Ekholm 1951:fig. 5c, c’).

Although PC.B.029 retains much of the pecking from the manufacturing process, it is very regular in form and its outline conforms to Olmec representations of lanceolate maize ears, such as on the five-piece headband worn by the capping maize god of the Arroyo Pesquero statuette (PC.B.592; see also Figures 18.1 and 28.2a). Although the poll region looks like dark opaque stone, several fractures reveal it to be translucent blue jadeite.

Indigenous Art of the Americas, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1948–1949 and 1952–1962

Glanz und Untergang des alten Mexiko: Die Azteken und ihre Vorläufer, Roemer- und Pelizaeus-Museum Hildesheim, Hildesheim, Germany, June–November 1986, Haus der Kunst, Munich, Germany, December 1986–March 1987, Oberösterreichisches Landesmuseum, Linz, Austria, April–August 1987, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk, Denmark, August–November 1987, Musées royaux d'Art et d'Histoire, Brussels, Belgium, December 1987–March 1988, National Archaeological Museum, Athens, Greece, May–July 1988, Société du Palais de la civilisation, Montreal, Canada, July–October 1988

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