Guatemala(?), Escuintla, Teotihuacán style, Classic Period / 400–550 CE
Mirror Back with Great Goddess
The Cleveland Museum of Art catalogs Mirror Back with Great Goddess as sculpture (Guatemala(?), Escuintla, Teotihuacán style, Classic Period · 400–550 CE).
This ancient Teotihuacan mirror may have been used in divination rituals.
A CLOSER LOOK
The museum identifies this sculpture as slate, pigment; other side originally inlaid with polished pyrite mirror.
The museum's collection notes: An important female deity commands the watery scene on the back of this mirror. The face, bordered by ear ornaments and partially hidden by a nose ornament, appears beneath a huge headdress with the fringed eyes and curled proboscis of an abstract butterfly. The deity rests on a shell-studded water band and two adoring humans offer flowers or incense in a bag. Mirrors served as costume ornaments and perhaps were used in rituals to divine the unknown.
FOLLOW THE EVIDENCE
The Cleveland Museum of ArtMirror Back with Great GoddessOriginal explanation based on the sources above. Images carry their own reuse terms.