Rattle figure of an elite woman with headdress and backrack

ca. 600 - 900

Elaborate costumes, such as headdresses and backracks, were worn for dancing festivities. Hollow, mold-made sculptures like this were filled with clay balls, used as rattles, and colorfully painted.

Ceramic with pigment

10 x 7 x 3 in. (25.4 x 17.8 x 7.6 cm)

Gift of John H. Hauberg

99.80

Provenance: Collection of John H. Hauberg (1916-2002), Seattle, Washington, by 1999; to Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington, 1999

Now on view at the Seattle Art Museum

Resources

Exhibition HistorySeattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Feasting with the Gods: Art and Ceremony in Ancient Mesoamerica and the Central Andes, Dec. 11, 2003 - July 19, 2004.

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Cosmic Beings in Mesoamerican and Andean Art, Nov. 10, 2018 - ongoing.

Seattle Art Museum respectfully acknowledges that we are on Indigenous land, the traditional territories of the Coast Salish people. We honor our ongoing connection to these communities past, present, and future.

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