Architectural Element (Maize God) from Quiriguá
Unidentified Maya maker
about 810
Sandstone
Overall: 11 13/16 × 8 1/8 × 9 11/16 in. (30 × 20.7 × 24.6 cm)
Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth: Gift of Mrs. Victor M. Cutter, Class of 1903W
38.12.5538
Geography
Place Made: Quiriguá, Guatemala, Central America
Period
500-1000
Object Name
Building Component
Research Area
Americas
On view
Label
The Maya city of Quiriguá was established in 426 CE to control a vital trade route for the neighboring city of Copán. Jade Sky, the last recorded ruler of Quiriguá, built a ritual structure that was decorated with sculpted heads of Maya deities like these. The site was deserted in the 9th century and rediscovered by Europeans in 1840.
While living in Guatemala and clearing land for banana plantations, Dartmouth alum and president of the United Fruit Company Victor Cutter supported an archaeological site at Quiriguá and built his own collection of objects from the site. Victor and his wife, Florence, gave 623 objects to the Dartmouth College Museum that significantly expanded the archaeological collection of pre-Colombian objects.
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
ARTH 7, Learning from Dartmouth: Lessons in Visual Culture, Marlene Heck, Winter 2013
History 10.02, Archival Research, Julia Rabig, Summer 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
Publication History
Matthew Looper, "The Stone Tenoned Heads from Quirigua Structure 1B-1", in Glyph Dwellers, a publication of the Maya Hieroglyphic Database Project at California State University, Chico, Report 79, September 2022, pp.1-28, ill. p. 13, fig. 10.
Provenance
From Quiriguá, Guatemala; collected by Victor Macomber Cutter (1881-1952), early 1900's; lent to present collection, 1938-1953; bequeathed to Florence deJongh Cutter (1885-1957),1953; given to present collection, 1953.
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