Burial Urn

Label

This cross-legged, seated figure wearing an elaborate headdress represents Cocijo, the Zapotec deity of lightning and rain. The terracotta figure is built around a hollow cylinder that would have been used during a burial ceremony to burn incense. The urn could then remain at the tomb to protect and guide the deceased in the afterlife.

Consuls, who occupy government posts in foreign cities, are frequent collectors of art either through gifts from locals or their own collecting interests. Luigi Palma di Cesnola, the first director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, amassed over 35,000 objects during his time as the American consul in Cyprus, with over 500 of them coming to Dartmouth through a gift from Emily Howe Hitchcock. Similarly, this burial urn was part of a gift of nearly 100 Zapotec pieces that were originally collected by an American consul stationed in Oaxaca, Mexico.

From the 2025 exhibition, From Mastodon to Mosaic: Building an Academic Art Collection in America, curated by Ashley B. Offill, Curator of Collections

Course History

ANTH 57, Origins of Inequality, Alan Covey, Winter 2013

ANTH 57, Origins of Inequality, Alan Covey, Winter 2013

ANTH 22, Olmecs, Maya, and Toltecs: Ancient Civilizations of Mesoamerica, Deborah Nichols, Fall 2013

History 10.02, Archival Research, Julia Rabig, Summer 2025

Writing 5.20, Foundations of Dartmouth: Samson Occom, Edward Mitchell, and the History and Cultures of Native American, African American, and "Minority" Students at Dartmouth College, Doug Moody 1, Fall 2025

Exhibition History

From Mastadon to Mosaic: Building an Academic Art Collection in America, Ivan Albright Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, June 14, 2025 - Fall 2026

Objects and Power: Manifestations of Inequality, a student curated exhibition, Professor Alan Covey, ANTH 57, Winter 2013, Harrington Gallery Teaching Exhibition, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, April 10-August 25, 2013.

Provenance

Collected by an American Consul in Oaxaca, Mexico between 1892-1912; acquired by Carlton Crosby, Brooklyn, Massachusetts, about 1912-1914 [for Gordon Meader]; acquired by Gordon Meader (1896-1974), St. Davis, Pennsylvania, about 1912-1914; lent to Dr. Henry Libby, Libby Museum, Wolfeboro, New Hampshire until 1930; given to the present collection, 1966.

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Subjects