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Pre-Columbian Americas Zapotec culture, Oaxaca, Mexico Urn in the Form of a Seated Figure Monte Albán II, 200 B.C.–A.D. 200 Clay H. 11 7/16 in. (29.1 cm) Raymond and Laura Wielgus Collection Elaborately decorated funerary urns are a hallmark of the Pre-Columbian Zapotec culture. This figure may represent an archaic form of Quetzalcoatl, the Aztec plumed serpent. If that is correct, then this is one of the earliest associations of a serpent deity with a bill-type mask that would later, among the Aztecs, indicate Quetzalcoatl in his guise as Ehecatl, the wind god. Ehecatl is represented in the Wielgus Collection in the form of a Mixtec gold labret. |