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- Title
Integrating the Old World into the New: an ‘Idol from the West Indies’.
- Authors
Ostapkowicz, Joanna; Brock, Fiona; Wiedenhoeft, Alex C.; Schulting, Rick; Saviola, Donatella
- Abstract
The Pigorini cemí is an icon of Caribbean colonial history, reflecting early trans-Atlantic cross-cultural exchanges. Although well documented, the piece has received surprisingly little systematic study. We present the first structural analysis and radiocarbon dating of the sculpture (modelled at AD 1492–1524), and a brief discussion of the materials from which it is comprised. These include indigenous shell and European glass beads, newly identified feather and hair fibres, and the enigmatic rhinoceros-horn mask carved as a human face. We also address the sculpture's hidden internal wooden base, which is shown to be a non-indigenous display mount made of European willow (Salix sp.).
- Subjects
TAINO antiquities; COLUMBIAN Exchange; TAINO (West Indian people); TAINO mythology; CARIBBEAN history, to 1810; TAINO art; CULTURAL relations; DATING of sculpture; INDIGENOUS peoples of the Americas -- First contact with Europeans
- Publication
Antiquity, 2017, Vol 91, Issue 359, p1314
- ISSN
0003-598X
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.15184/aqy.2017.151