Olmec Celtiform Ax

Illustration

by Metropolitan Museum of Art
published on 16 April 2018

Olmec Celtiform Ax — Jadeite celt, 10-4th century BCE, Mexico, Mesoamerica
Metropolitan Museum of Art

About 1000 BCE, celts-elongated, elliptical ground stone tools-would acquire meaning beyond their workaday function. When made of greenstones such as the hard, polishable jadeite, celts symbolized ears of maize. The profile image incised on the upper portion of this celt is that of the Olmec maize god, identifiable by the tall tripartite element emerging from the cleft in his headdress.

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© Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY. Republished for educational/scholarly use under the museum's Open Access for Scholarly Content initiative. Original image by Metropolitan Museum of Art. Uploaded by Ibolya Horváth, published on 16 April 2018. The copyright holder has published this content under the following license: Copyright. You cannot use, copy, distribute, or modify this item without explicit permission from the author. Please note that content linked from this page may have different licensing terms.

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APA Style

Art, M. M. o. (2018, April 16). Olmec Celtiform Ax. World History Encyclopedia. Retrieved from https://www.worldhistory.org/image/8622/olmec-celtiform-ax/

Chicago Style

Art, Metropolitan Museum of. "Olmec Celtiform Ax." World History Encyclopedia. Last modified April 16, 2018. https://www.worldhistory.org/image/8622/olmec-celtiform-ax/.

MLA Style

Art, Metropolitan Museum of. "Olmec Celtiform Ax." World History Encyclopedia. World History Encyclopedia, 16 Apr 2018. Web. 22 Feb 2025.

Olmec Celtiform Ax

Illustration

License & Copyright

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